Are hide/show css/javascript layers spiderable?

+more

[crazed canuck]

I am working on a site that has very little real estate left for longer articles. I was thinking of using a css/javascript layering technique where I would put up part of the article and hava a '+more' button where the entire story would shift the page down when people pressed it.

Here is a non-working example of what I mean. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Curabitur non urna. Sed felis. Quisque cursus eros in risus. Praesent egestas fermentum tortor. Nunc placerat metus in nisl. Aenean consequat est interdum felis. Aenean placerat ligula vel purus. Fusce lectus eros, interdum sed, imperdiet nec, luctus a, arcu. +read more

In the HTML there all the text would be available for the search engines to spider but most of the text in it's natural state would not be showing (as I assume a spider can't press the more button!).

So my questions are:

1. Would the entire article(s) get spidered?
2. Would there be a possibility that a search engine may consider this 'spamming' as I would be using hidden layers?

thanks!

[4eyes]

You can use an external style sheet to control the 'hidden' status of the layer. If you use robots.txt to protect the style sheet, in theory, you should be OK. Everything will be spidered as it appears to be present in the HTML.

However, if Google or any other SE decides to spider the css file despite the robots.txt, then you could be in trouble.

As you are probably aware, the problem is that hidden layers can be used as an SEO technique, and as a result there is always a risk that you might be hit by a slightly too agressive spam filter - if not now, then in the future.

I still see plenty of hidden layer sites doing OK at the moment, but.....

[crazed canuck]

Thanks for the reply. The site would not be considered spam if the web page was looked at by a human but I was worried that some automatic flag for hidden divs might come into play.

[DerekJPreston]

Greetings,

Protecting CSS files behind robots.txt may be perceived by some robots as an intentional form of deception. The reasoning is why protect a style sheet unless you've got something to hide.

I can't say what Google's policy is on such things but I know what Mirago's view is and how it'll affect you.

Regards,

Derek J. Preston
Head of Technology
Mirago plc