Is using a Show More Link to hide text Okay?

[JesterMagic]

My information pages are detailed and can get pretty long. The software I use has a show more link option so the users if they want to read the comments don't need to scroll to far down the page.

I know this is a bit of a loaded question and opinions will vary but does hiding some of the information text like this affect the page in the search results. Will Google not index the hidden text for searches since it is hidden in a span that has it's display set to none, at least until the show more link is hit? (that is how the show more link works with the software I use, not ajax)

I know in the past this was bad practice (due to people keyword stuffing, etc..) but I see it being used a lot more now (the show more link/button). Is Google smart enough these days to see that this is a valid use of hiding text while still including it in their index?

Thanks

[JesterMagic]

Does no one have an opinion on this?

I realize hidden text happens more often now days due to responsive themes hiding blocks of text to save space etc... but Google can read the css file and see that with larger screens the text will be displayed so the hidden text would be included in the index.

Is Google smart enough to know that text hidden by a show more javascript button is not intended to fool Google in anyway but is for the user experience. I have spent a lot of time on the text though so I want to make sure it still gets index and I don't get penalized by Google.

[not2easy]

You can find out for certain whether Google is able to "see" the hidden text or not by using "Fetch as Google" in the Search Console (GWT) if you select "Fetch and Render" and specify an URL that is "hidden". It depends on Google being allowed to crawl the .js files so you want to check that they are allowed to crawl the .js files on your domain and not blocked by robots.txt.

[rainborick]

Google can differentiate between content that is hidden by default that can be made visible with a click on a "More Info..." link, a tab, button, or similar mechanism and hidden content that a user will never see. So you won't get penalized for using the technique properly, but Google has also acknowledged that content that is hidden by default is given less weight for ranking. So if the content is important for attracting visitors, you should make sure it is visible by default.

[piatkow]

but Google has also acknowledged that content that is hidden by default is given less weight for ranking.

Reasonable, if somebody is searching for "red widgets" and you haven't mentioned them in the initial, visible, paragraphs then the assumption is that your reference to them lower down is purely incidental.

[FranticFish]

What Rainborick said. Here's the source: Engine posted this Tweet from Gary Ilyes which, whilst about AJAX, revealed in the comments that "Content hidden behind tabs and such has lower weight because people can't see it by default."

[twitter.com...]

[JesterMagic]

Thanks for the replies.

I forgot about the Fetch as Google and I was glad to see that Google could see my content. Now I just have to figure out if it is worth doing and having the hidden text rank a bit less.

[dipper]

I think either Matt Cutts or Gary Ilyes said they don't give (legally) hidden text quite the same value.

[ergophobe]

Google uses the technique constantly on their own help pages.

Most recently I saw it for setting a custom URL in G+ and they had expanding sections for desktop and mobile.

Of course, Google did get penalized by Google a while back....

[dipper]

To the OP - here is some extra info that might help:

[twitter.com...] .. note the questions from Ethan Glover, and the replies from Gary.

[Storiale]

I have seen a few videos from Google that "show more" type text with javascript is just fine. I believe Google looks for commonly used language for these buttons. We use it and our captions are logged and seen by Google. of course AJAX is tricky and we have sites that use AJAX because some products get sold out quickly, so we can not wait to update that page every hour or even every 5 minutes. That would lead to people ordering products that were technically "sold-out."

When looking at the html source code and/or Google Fetch - that should tell you everything you need to know. Does it show up in the html source code? If yes, you're fine.

There may be some finer points here, but as a general answer to a general question - using commonly used language for those buttons AND as long as the text shows up in HTML source code and Google Fetch, you should be just fine.

[JesterMagic]

Yup the text does show up when I fetch with Google so all is good.

[aakk9999]

It is worth notting that text hidden (and opened onclick) will not be highlighted in page snippet in SERPs if searched for.

[JS_Harris]

Hold up, just because Google can see it doesn't mean it's all good. If you display part of the content and hide the rest behind a read more link you've got to make sure that clicking on the read more link doesn't launch an entirely new URI with the full content.

If you set it up so that, for example, a hidden div expands and becomes visible after a click and the URI doesn't change then you're fine. If you set it up so that a click on the read more link opens a new page with the full content then you've essentially just created another archive and the duplicate content that would entail. Making sure Google can see it is good but you need to make sure they see it on the same URI.

Also: I'm seeing more and more endless scrolling sites which change the URI when you reach a new story. These are designed for mobile and seem to be ranking just fine. The benefit of this new design is that there is no clicking involved to reach a new page and the resulting number of pageviews is much higher per visitor. You might want to look into that option and break away from traditional pages completely instead.

This isn't the old type of endless scroll where one URI would go on forever. The URI on the new(ish) version actually changes the URI with each new article reached. Some even use a cool looking sliding scale to show how much of an article remains before you jump to the next.

[Nutterum]

There is a very good article about the different ways of showing content . You can find the read here. Following their recommendations is very much recommended. Link : [smashingmagazine.com...]