> As I've noticed other users with similar questions in this group, such
> as "What if my navigation menu uses display:none to hide text until a
> button is rolled over?" I figured this would be a good topic to cover
> in "Popular Picks." The reason we perceive hidden text as a problem is
> that it serves content to search engines which users don't see, and
> presenting different content to search engines and users makes it more
> difficult to properly rank pages. If we detect that this text is
> intended to deceive search engines, there could be a negative effect
> on how your site is indexed and ranked in Google, including removal
> from our index.

> Because such strong action may be taken on sites violating this
> guideline, it's understandable that many webmasters have expressed
> concerns about the possibility of Google incorrectly detecting
> legitimate content as hidden text. When trying to figure out if a page
> may have hidden text that Google would consider malicious, start by
> thinking about why the guideline was written in the first place:
> Google wants to see what the user sees. If the text that Google sees
> is the same that a normal user is supposed to see, then you should be
> good to go. If Google is seeing text that is intentionally hidden from
> the user in an effort to manipulate search engine rankings, you have
> some work to do.

> Let's try this approach with a page you may have seen before:http://www.google.com/

> In the top-left corner, you'll see a line of text:
> "Web Images Video News Maps Gmail more."

> Google sees this text, and so do you, the user. So far, so good.

> Next, let's make sure nobody wrote "search engine search find crawl
> index rank" in white text on the white background, with the intention
> of ranking for those terms. Google would see that, but a normal user
> wouldn't. Take off your "normal user" hat for a second and do a
> "Select All" on the page (by hitting CTRL-A on a PC, or COMMAND-A on a
> Mac, for instance). This will make any white on white text appear. As
> you can see, no hidden text.

> But let's try one more thing: Render the page again without CSS
> enabled. The Web Developer extension for Firefox lets you do this
> pretty easily. Without CSS, you'll see several  words we didn't see
> before:
> "Blog Search Blogger Books Calendar Documents Finance Groups Labs
> Orkut Patents Photos Products Reader Scholar."

> You may have also noticed that these words appear in Google's text-
> only cache of itself, which is a good indication of how Google "sees"
> a site. But before you blog about your discovery of hidden links on a
> PR 10 site =), take a look at the page again with CSS enabled. This
> time, click on the "more" link, and voilà, the no-longer-hidden text
> appears. This text is part of the page's functionality, and it is
> meant for the user to read and use, not just for search engines to
> index. This text adds value for the user, which Google rewards, so
> Google would not hurt this site's ranking or remove it from the index
> for that reason. Many sites use similar methods for navigational menus
> and other functional elements, so please rest assured that the
> existence of display:none on your site is not on its own a one-way
> ticket out of Google's index.

> When thinking about your own site, ask yourself if all of the text is
> there for the user. If the answer is "yes," great job! If the answer
> is "no," do your best to change it to a "yes," and call on your
> webmaster community (this group!) for advice if you need it. CSS menus
> and white space without hidden text should not be a cause of concern
> when it comes to Google indexing and ranking; the only thing you
> should be concerned about is how they affect your visitors.

> In the "Popular Picks" thread we asked for non-site specific
> questions, but now that this has been separated into its own thread,
> here's your chance to ask about a site you are still unsure about.
> Please also let me know if you would like further clarification on
> particular aspects this topic.

> - Wysz