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Hidden Text?

How to find

         

customdy

9:43 pm on Jun 16, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Hi, a relative new site, just showed up in the last 3 weeks, is in the top three pages for all key search words in Google.
The site consists of only one web page, has 0 PR in Google, however I did find a nonrelated backlink that has a high PR(5).
I am trying to find out why it is ranking so high, mabye some hidden text? What is the best way to find hidden text on someone else site?

Thanks

pageoneresults

9:53 pm on Jun 16, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Hello customdy.

Ctrl + A while viewing the page in your browser. That will highlight any obvious hidden text.

View the CSS file if present.

View the external javascript file if present.

Also view the page in question using Google's cache feature. Is it the same as the page from the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages)?

Why it is ranking so high?

1. Well optimized.
2. Non-competitive industry.
3. Operating in the gray zone.

So many factors involved. Please, no specifics about the search results that you are finding, thanks!

customdy

3:06 pm on Jun 17, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Thanks for the reply.. I did find some hidden keywords, just a few. Google did not show anything in cache or any backlinks.
How do I tell if it has a css file?
This is very competitive industry... lots of sponsored links in Google... There site is pretty much a copy and paste from the manufactors site, they are a retailer, not too much information so I wouldn't say it is well optimized. Any other suggestions?

pageoneresults

3:15 pm on Jun 17, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



I did find some hidden keywords, just a few.

There is a good chance that if you found hidden text that there are other things going on. I couldn't confirm that unless I was looking at the results in question.

How do I tell if it has a css file?

View the source code and look for the external CSS file reference in the <head></head> section.

Any other suggestions?

May I ask why? What is the goal of your research?

customdy

3:52 pm on Jun 17, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



May I ask why? What is the goal of your research?

My goal would be to notify google through the proper channel IF I found something that was not legimate. We have worked hard to promote our site using only legimate methods, for someone new to come out and rank higher than us by using unfair techniques is not right.

There was no css file.

The keywords were repeated 10-15 times in the meta tag description and keywords but that probably does not have much effect.

I found a hidden link to:
[w3.org...]
Which is just the HTML specificaion but it does have a PR of 9 but it is only a forward link.

Thanks for your help,
Customdy