Hidden Content
Senior SEO-specialist
What is hidden content? What is the importance of hidden content for search engine optimization? We tell you in this article.
Hidden content is content that was placed in the same color as the background. One reason this was popular among marketers at the time is to get as much content on a page as possible.
An example is an e-commerce site where the goal is to sell products. When there is too much content on such a type of site, it distracts from the actual purpose of a site (proceeding to purchase). (1)
In 2005, it was common to have the keyword appear as often as possible in content. Hidden content was one method used for this purpose. When the text is visible to the visitor it deters. That is the reason marketers chose to make the text the same color as the background.
Today we know that Google values quality much more than quantity.(2)
My advice
We strongly discourage the use of hidden content. Hiding content is a vastly outdated method. Google sees right through this!
Google’s algorithm has gotten a lot smarter over the years. Hidden content does not add value to SEO anno 2021. Don’t risk a penalty and avoid hidden content!
- Spam Policies for Google Web Search | Google Search Central | Documentation | Google for Developers. (s.d.). Google For Developers. https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies
- Fix the cloaked keywords and links hack. (2015, Jan. 1). web.dev. https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/security/hacked/fixing_the_cloaked_keywords_hack
