Invisible links?

Does this break Google rules

[dodger]

I need to target 8 keyphrases (three words each)
I've found that having a link to each phrase at the foot of my homepage has worked very well - the links are not visible on the homepage.
The links are to existing static pages in the root directory of my site - these pages are titled with the keyphrases and hold unique content. I don't want these pages indexed nessessarily but the phrases on my homepage help get my site to appear where it should.
The links are invisible so I think I may be at risk.
To make them visible would be too difficult and may ruin the look of the site.
I have removed them until I can get some solid advice.
Any ideas?

[Buckley]

If visitors can't see it and the bots can....DON'T DO IT!

Trust me, you will get banned....sooner or later.

It's not worth it to wake up one day and find all your Google traffic is gone.

[brotherhood of LAN]

Invisible -> AFAIK Google doesnt like anything like that- be out in the open and up front is what they like. The more popular you are the more exposed you are ;)

I'm not sure what these keyphrases are but perhaps you will find they are not too competitive? After all, they are 3-word combo's.

You might want to slice and dice your inbound linkage to accommodate these phrases. It might seem confusing to people if you use different anchor text while pointing to the same page though....

Perhaps you already rank high for some of the phrases purely on links pointing into your site from other domains. You might be able to relax on them and focus on the ones your still not ranking for....without angering those google gods with invisible text! Think of it as a distribution of income of sorts ;)

//added
too slow..even at WW quiet time :)

[dodger]

I knew it, just had to check. Noticed a site on top of a key phrase search I am after has NON of the words in the highlighted part of the site in the search phrase. It's a very popular site though - perhaps that's enough to get it through to the top regardless of the words on the site.

[austtr]

dodger.... to ask if hidden links are OK makes me think you have not yet read the Google submission guidelines. A lot of folks in these forums send spam reports to Google for just that very reason.

[google.com ]

Refer to the heading: Quality Guidelines - Specific recommendations

[coconutz]

Noticed a site on top of a key phrase search I am after has NON of the words in the highlighted part of the site in the search phrase.

Look at the cached page for the site in the search results. It will highlight the search terms or tell you These terms only appear in links pointing to this page: keyword phrase.

It's possible that this page ranks well for that keyword phrase because of the anchor text of the links pointing to the page.

[dodger]

I'm not the tech person and wasn't sure if the links I was referring to came into that category - I have read the guidlines - thanks for your concern.
I am very keen not to do the wrong thing otherwise I wouldn't have posted here.
I may put small gifs say 40 by 20 pixels on the homepage that link through to these pages that have the keyphrases as their titles - that should make the whole thing ok? Any opinions?

[GoogleGuy]

I would not advise doing hidden links of any sort. Why can't you just make the links visible?

[dodger]

Yes I've decided that's the only option and that's what I'm doing right now as a matter of fact :)

The only reason I was trying to find a way around it was because I thought it may adversly effect the look of the homepage but I think I've found a way to do it without that happening.

It will be text links at the foot of the homepage (a bit smaller than the other text on the page) to static pages from the content of the site - all with unique content.

I'ts hard to cover all bases when there are a number of keyphrases that are all very relevent to your site. Practise makes perfect and I'm getting there.

Thanks for your help.

[argots]

I have three text links above my "graphic with roll-overs" top menu. These links are not hidden in any way, but they are a very light grey (still, visible to the naked eye). They turn red when you mouse over.

I have made them light grey (on white background) because they don't exactly fit with the look of the site.

However, they have a couple of important uses:
- text at top of page (thought to be important for SE)
- (less cynically) visually impaired users will find it easier to navigate to the most important pages.

Is this right/wrong? (or neither, but dumb)

[ciml]

Good Web design requires getting the navigation structure right for humans with everything-enabled browsers, humans with some aspect(s) unavailable (such as Javascript, cookies, sound or vision) and search engine robots; while getting the look and feel you want for the client/boss to be impressed. It isn't always easy, but it should be possible.

Whenever I start thinking of contrived situations to please Google (like links that aren't easy to see or that don't make sense to people), I know it's time to go back to the drawing board and look for the simple navigation idea that works in multiple contexts.

[brotherhood of LAN]

>like links that aren't easy to see or that don't make sense to people

do you use the same anchor text to point to the same page all the time ciml?

[ciml]

No, I'm not suggesting that we should always use same anchor text to point to the same pages, just that it should indicate what the link is about. For example; "Google", "Google Search Engine" and "my favourite search engine" would all be sensible links to www.google.com

[argots]

Point taken ciml, but...

The overall site design was essentially complete before I found this forum. I have learned an incredible amount over the past couple of months and I am trying to maximize the site's potential while not breaking the design (or the SE rules).

Next go-around it will be different with SEO (and HO: Human Optimization) considered from the start.

[ciml]

argots, my "Good Web design " speech is really for project managers, rather than the folk who get lumbered with bad projects.

I am confident that next time, things will go better. I guess we can all see why some SEOs prefer to work on parallel sites.

[talismon]

How can one tell if a site has invisible links on it?

[brotherhood of LAN]

>How can one tell if a site has invisible links on it?

The source code will give you half a clue

As for cloaking...