Is white text still a problem?

[gregorym]

Hi,

I am redesigning a site and we came up with a great design but with white text including our main keywords in the header of each page (this isn't the H1 but still it's big). The background is of course of another color so it is super readable and real big.
Would Google still see this as an attempt to hide keywords? Can their algorithm understand that it's not hidden at all?

The redesign is pretty drastic compared to the old version, I'd love to move forward for users but if there is a Google issue, then there won't be much new users and this defeats the purpose..chicken and the egg...

[not2easy]

Google reads your css (and .js files) so they would not care what contrasting colors you use. Nothing wrong with white text in itself.

[gregorym]

Thanks for your answer.
I guess that I will make sure that the contrast is super obvious in the CSS. I've seen too many things going bad while the intent was to improve user experience but Google didn't think that way at all.

[RedBar]

White text is a problem when it's on a white background usually at the bottom of a page however it can be hidden at the top of the page as well and is usually used for spamming keywords and phrases.

I still see it being done but nowhere near as bad as it used to be.

[tbear]

I'd suggest taking care if you are laying text over an image. You might change the font color to contrast with the image and end up with it the same as your background.....
Which, of course was a trick used by many, back in the day, i.e. using a white background color, with a black background image, where black text contrasts with the background color, but is invisible when looked at in a browser.... ;)

[tangor]

I have used white text on contrasting backgrounds for years with no ill effects, then again, these are only titles, or headers in a table (example). I'm sure it is the AMOUNT of white text on any given page that might get folks in trouble.

[lucy24]

make sure that the contrast is super obvious in the CSS

At one time the w3 css validator would yap if you said either "color" or "background-color" without the other of the pair, because there was the risk that they'd come out the same or similar. Even though they no longer complain, it's useful to write your CSS as if someone did notice. By the usual yawn-provoking coincidence, it is only a few days since someone posted about a site's text becoming invisible thanks to the user's personal browser settings. One thing gets overridden but not the other.

Now, if you say {color: transparent;} --which you couldn't in CSS2 but can in CSS3-- or conversely {background-color: currentColor;} you can reasonably expect any search engine to get suspicious :)