Deliberate CSS Hidden Links

[soxos]

Everyone knows hiding links is not a good idea, even if Google's algo doesn't fine them a competitor will no doubt grass you up!

My question is - does this include links which are in a CSS <div> dropdown menu? Basically on hover it shows the child links of a main parent link. In javascript I have no doubt this would not be an issue - but as it has div:hidden etc in the code / css, would this raise a flag?

Even though it is intentional, and part of the design to keep it neat?

I have my worries, but a new client has come over wanting his site optimised with least changes possible, and this CSS style dropdown menu is not something ive worked with before.

So can anyone confirm if they know, are hidden divs an automatic penalty if caught, or a manual review - obviously a manual reviewer would have no doubts it is not spam, but a bot won't......

[jatar_k]

as is with this menu hidden divs are employed for many purposes, I don't believe this would trip an automatic penalty. If I were Google I would consider this a low level signal of spam and if it lined up with enough other signals then it would trip an auto/manual review/penalty.

It would be foolish for them to have an auto penalty for something that is valid and often employed for legitimate reasons.

as always, this is an opinion ;)

[tedster]

CSS dropdown menus have been very widely used by everyone from major brands to minor sites. As jatar_k mentioned, Google cannot automatically penalize merely for this particular code footprint.

But there can be abuses, and Google knows that they need to be vigilant. Also, many major sites have recently been redesigned to move away from this once-trendy approach. Usage metrics often show that CSS menu systems are difficult for the end user.

My take has been negative from this trend's start - a well designed Information Architecture does not require this kind of menu system. For people who use the site all the time (and that's often the company staff) it seems a godsend. But new visitors cannot compare their navigational choices easily, and that is a measurable effect in many cases. In short, a CSS menu approach is more like an application interface than a website interface.

There is also a tendency with a CSS dropdown menu system to place too many links on each page, because most of them are not visible at any one time.Just one factor - by having all that anchor text on each page, you may blur each page's relevance signal.

Google does recommend keeping total links to 100 per page. It's a recommendation, and not a "rule", but they make it for good reason.