Text colour and Background colour

[kapow]

We have heard that SEs can penalize websites with text that is the same colour as the background.

What if a webpage is blue at the top and the background is set to white - And you want to make headings (at the top) in white?

If the top blue background colour is set using table colours I would think that a major SE would reolise that the text is different to the background colour. Does anyone know if this is the case?

[agerhart]

I think that the there are many exceptions to this rule...and the SE's realize this and only catch the hardcore spam cases.

[mivox]

I've used white/light colored text in colored table cells many times (on pages with white backgrounds). Haven't seen any ill effects from it....

[bufferzone]

If you want to be on the safe side, control your font color in CSS

[kapow]

From whats been said, it seems ok to use white on a blue table (where the page background is white). I'll give it a go.

I am using CSS (external file) to control font colours. How does that make a difference, surely the SEs can read CSS as well as HTML?

[mivox]

I've never heard of a spider that retrieves external CSS files. External javascript files seem safe too. You could also place all your CSS, JS, etc. in a separate directory, and block that directory in your robots.txt file... that would at least be insurance against the polite spiders.

[kapow]

Spiders don't check .css files?

Isn't that an open door for keyword spammers?
ie: Same colour text/background.

[ggrot]

Kapow, all it takes is one email from a real person(read: competitor), and it doesn't matter what the spiders look at.

I think I remember something a few months back about inktomi caught spidering an external javascript file, but it might have been a fluke.