Does Google index text that is hidden by CSS?

[skuba]

Hi,
This thread is not related to when people fill up their pages with keywords for SEO and then hide them with CSS. Please read.

In this case, a store has very long product names, and it also becomes redundant.
For example a page is specifically for WIDGETS
Instead of displaying the product names as:
blue widget
green widget
etc..

they hide the word widget with CSS, to make it less redundant.

But the word widget is very important for SEO

So, does google index that word 'widget'that has been hidden with CSS?

Thanks so much

[skuba]

Anybody? I think this is a pretty good theme for discussion.

Thanks

[longen]

I would expect it to be indexed by SE's as the word would appear as normal in the HTML - hiding it with CSS is purely presentational.

[coopster]

Anybody? I think this is a pretty good theme for discussion.

There is a search feature at the top of the forum pages and you will find that you are correct regarding discussion on this topic ...

css hidden text [google.com]

[seogallexy]

Search engine algorithms are designed to read the back end of any web page such as HTML, java script, css, therefore they will index the hidden text very easily. css will only hide the text for human visitors not for search spiders.

[canadafred]

The search engine usually finds hidden content and devalues the webpage accordingly.

If you don't want the Internet visitor to see something then it is best not to mention it to the search engine.

In order to satisfy the Internet visitor's need for a decent, easy and comprehensive read; you may have to learn how to describe "widgets" in various other fashions. I understand this may require the most of your resourcefulness and innovativeness but the extra effort should prove well worth it in the bigger picture.