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will it raise flag and penalty?
If any body knows this please help me with this confusion before I get into trouble, i cant sleep at night
Regards
[edited by: internetbrothers at 3:37 pm (utc) on Dec. 15, 2002]
Why would you want to do that anyway?
Nick
Of course I'd never condone such a thing.... But if you rename the image file to keyword1.gif and change the dimensions to button sized, say min. 8x8 pixels, border set to 0, it can be done. Put it somewhere neat and out of the way and avoid using more than a couple of them. Be sure to use an alt attribute alt=keyword1 keyword2
You might want to do this if you have a page where you are trying to avoid any visual modification, ie. text links or real image links would look bad. Good example might be a splash page with full window Flash animation, placing a couple of transparent image links to spiderable content there is effective and not going to cause harm.
Google engineers have better things to do with their time than weed out that kind of thing (unless used to excess), and even the best algo cant spot a transparent gif, unless you call it transparent.gif. Image links with dimensions less than probably 8x8 are best avoided though.
z6
<a href="somepage.html" class="noshow" />
.noshow {
display: none;
]
Nick
I think on the page spam detection is over rated anyhow. Google does allow alot of junk and tricks to get through. I suspect they pay more attention to link and domain farming scams than the odd invisible link.
My philosophy is stay under the radar. If your going to use any tricks do it in moderation and keep it simple.
z6
I'm often found in this position, a scenario where the client has a well developed site and wants you to do the work without visual modifying the content. This is why get into these conversations so often.
Its not that we're trying to trick the engines, just that content behind dynamic links or flash etc. is often not picked up.
z6
Surely you might as well make it a button and be done with it....
z6
Its not that we're trying to trick the engines, just that content behind dynamic links or flash etc. is often not picked up.
So GG, are you saying that *any* hidden links are a no-no?
I see alot of sites (usually the amatuer/beginner seo types) that have on-topic content and links that are hidden. I just look and say to myself, what the hell are they thinking? They'd probably rank decent with just the visible stuff.
Do you want us to spam report the guy that has 200 words of naturally optimized text for "discount widgets" and then sticks another couple repetitions in hidden text for good measure?
Google engineers have better things to do
Your client's competitors will probably love reporting hidden links. It is a better thing to do.
And even if your client doesn't have a competitor, how about the busy bodies? You know they're out there.
If it will help keep a competitor from scamming their way to the top, you can bet your bottom dollar that I'll be reporting their butts to the spam police.
Imagine a janitor who is told to sit in a corner all day. What is he being paid to do? Nothing. Same thing they're doing to you.
At some point you have to lay it on the line, explain how what they're asking for is a big no-no. Don't let them push you around. I take a half hour to compose emails with full descriptions of what I'm doing, and why they need it. Sometimes you have to scare their pants off. Hope this helps.
You have to take into account that our automatic parsing/checking is getting better all the time. I wouldn't recommend hidden links that when you could just make a link that's visible to the user. It will help you sleep better at night too.
GoogleGuy,
Is Googlebot able to distinguish hidden links intended to detect and deter spambots (and other site leeches) from spammy links?
Not all hidden links are used for the sole purpose of "keyword stuffing".
I agree with everyone else that says what is the point. It cracks me up when I see people put little dots at the end - or stuff like that. Why not use real text and maybe - oh I don't know - get some targeted traffic.
One site I helped make was about - lets say - white widgets. Now in this industry - people into white widgets don't like black widgets and vice versa. However, on a hunch - I put a link that said something like "did you come here looking for black widgets only to find these ugly white widgets by mistake? Never fear - click here to find what you are looking for?"
The company also had a site about black widgets and sales came in from that link.
If you can't think of a way to link them - then they probably don't belong on the same page to begin with.
