Hidden text - Google wants to remove our site

[extremegolfer]

We received an email that the people over at Goog want to remove our site because our webmaster had placed hidden text beneath our flash site. We removed the hidden text within 2 hours of that email. The email was sent yesterday. Currently, we are still listed. Does anyone have any experience of what happens when you remove the hidden text that quickly? Do they still remove the site or is there another process where the robots check for hidden text and not remove the site if the hidden text is gone?

[europeforvisitors]

I have suggested this on their blog site many times; have a "penalty notififier" so people can check their URLs and see if there are any problems.

Maybe they don't want to make it too easy. One reason for having penalties is to make offenders think twice before using questionable tactics again. If an offender has to jump through hoops and wait a month or two for reinclusion, isn't the lesson more likely to sink in?

[Powdork]

My orginal question was, since we removed the hidden text already within 2 hours of receiving that email on Thursday morning, are we still going to be removed? The post above mine gave a link to a thread where the web designer could not find any hidden text, but they were there. As of right now, our site is still listed.

It doesn't matter if you are removed or not since you have just removed the only content Google can see on your site. What you need is a standard html page/site that redirects users with flash to an appropriate section of your flash site.

Of course, your also going to have to worry about the "removing hidden text too fast penalty" ;)

[PCInk]

If you read the email on mattcutts page it reads this:

Specifically, we detected the following practices on your webpages:
On http://example.com, we noticed the following hidden text: "..."

Why don't Google just list the page ignoring the text that is hidden? Just remove it from the cache. If there is no text left, drop the page or stick it in the supplemental index. Why warn a webmaster or site owner of a problem that Google can ignore anyway? Won't this lead to other emails from Google warning of problems with peoples' sites, thus warning spammers what can and can't be detected by the spiders?

[extremegolfer]

Recently cached and still ranked in the same position:-)

[europeforvisitors]

Why don't Google just list the page ignoring the text that is hidden? Just remove it from the cache. If there is no text left, drop the page or stick it in the supplemental index. Why warn a webmaster or site owner of a problem that Google can ignore anyway?

Maybe they're trying to make a positive contribution to the Web, by encouraging good behavior and discouraging shady SEO practices.

[texasville]

I think Google has an idealistic view of the perfect web. They want to have the full indexed results for any search. If you get a letter from google such as this person has, then they obviously found some value to the site and didn't really want to lose it from the index altogether.
Hence, the warning letter. I think google is testing to see if they can clean up the web in a less confrontational way. I do believe it is only an experiment and may or may not become permanent.

[Powdork]

Instead of hiding the text, just make it visible below the fold. Don't just use strings of keywords but the actual text that is within the flash file.

[jlander]

Powdork,

That is a good lead in to my question. I have a small flash logo on my site. Something like this with a lot of animation:

Company Name
Specializing in Product and other descriptive words.

Under the logo, visible only if you have flash turned off, the same text is visible. I always thought this was an accepted practice. Is this now something I should be worried about and remove?

[Powdork]

Not sure but I doubt it since these things by their nature would require a human look. A human would realize that is ok. If in doubt though you could always put an image under it.

[CainIV]

They do and will remove the site.

Keep in mind the effect might no be immediate, i.e. you may see it inthe index today and gone tomorrow, similar to what happens when you use noindex nofollow (site can stay in index for days then its finally removed)

I would go over the site with a fine tooth comb, and also lets others who are experienced take a look see. When it's completely clean, send an inclusion request via that link/

[jlander]

Cain,

Were you answering my question or one above? The main reason I added the text under my logo was for SE benefit. How many people have flash turned off anyway? Since the text is the same in the flash and under it (no trickery, cloaking, keyword stuffing), I always thought this is acceptable. If anyone wants to take a look, Sticky me.

The image idea would be a safe way to go, but as I said above, the reason I am doing it is for G and I'd rather remove it totally to save bandwidth if it puts my site at risk. I'm sure this affects other webmasters as well and is a great discussion.

Jim

[jetteroheller]

This may be a rather obvious question, but are you sure that the e-mail was from Google

I was also in doubt, but it was really from Google.

I changed the layout, this was the thread here about the scrollable DIV, what was with 34 pixel height so tiny, that it had been considered as hidden text.

I checked every hour at Google site:my-site.com
and about 60 hours later, 0 pages found.

After the new layout was ready, I reapplied like stated in the email.

So after an extrem expensive self test, some weeks 85% less AdSense revenues, I can state that the text below the fold from a scrollable 300x34 pixel DIV is seen by Google as a hidden text.

[theBear]

extremegolfer,

How about an update.

[Kufu]

We have had several clients whose webmaster did the same exact thing and got them banned from Google.

The email from Google is not a warning. It is to inform you that you have been removed from the index for 30 days.

At this point you should just do the reinclusion request, and just wait.

Good luck.