Using Ajax Show Hide... Good or Bad?

[shanedj]

Hi there

Have a slightly urgent one, I have a page created and it uses some prototype to show and hide text.

The first paragraph is shown by defeault, at the bottom of that text there is a show more portion of text. When a user clicks it the page then displays the other div that contains the rest of the text that is currently hidden.

Is this good or bad from Google respect.

[simonuk]

If the text is hidden because you want to keep the content controlled then it's fine as long as the text isn't keyword spamming. The only problem will be when you are trying to cheat the SE's by keyword stuffing hidden text.

A lot of sites (inluding some of mine) use pop-ins and show/hide divs to control content and have never had a problem.

[shanedj]

yeah my intent is clear and is not there to cheat anyone... cannot help but be a tad paranoid about hiding stuff

[tedster]

I'd say you can let go of your worries. As simonuk said, it is a common practice -- and it is growing. Just be sure that the user click action is very obvious so the site would pass a manual inspection.