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Hidden links

Could they get penalized?

         

specter

3:17 pm on Mar 17, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I would add in my pages some links with the following attribute:

<a href="http://www.otherdomain.com/page1.htm" style="visibility: hidden">

What do you think about guys?
Is there the risk of any kind of penalty by SEs?

Thanks

Cartman

8:34 pm on Mar 17, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Safer way to do it would be to put the tags in a seperate CSS file so it's not so blatently obvious. Why do you want to hide the links in the first place?

Crush

9:41 pm on Mar 17, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



The only reason for hiding links is because you have too many of them you bad man ;)

Well a manual search will get you. So your choice.

specter

6:59 am on Mar 18, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



The only reason for hiding links is because you have too many of them you bad man ;)

Not exactly.I need a minimum of text links to be better recognized by SEs (as suggested from my SEO software).
So as these links would be unuseful for me (and my visitors)and they haven't nothing to do with the rest of the text, I would hide them...

topr8

8:04 am on Mar 18, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



unfortunately, you completely misunderstand what hiding them with css will do.

topr8

8:05 am on Mar 18, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



hiding them in the way you describe will only hide them from users not from search engine spiders

specter

8:21 am on Mar 18, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Exactly.Is that I want.

I'm interested to create links for SEs ,not for users!

In the same time I wouldn't be penalized for that.

topr8

9:02 am on Mar 18, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



ok that will work then...

only thing is.

....

I'm interested to create links for SEs ,not for users!

In the same time I wouldn't be penalized for that.

the two phrases are not compatible, in other words, you will be penalised if you site is high profile because someone will report you.

specter

10:05 am on Mar 18, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



the two phrases are not compatible, in other words, you will be penalised if you site is high profile because someone will report you.

I have some difficult to follow you...

I would to create links to be more easily detected from the spiders but I need to hide them because they haven't a sense for the user...

Do the spiders penalize the following string?

<a href="http://www.otherdomain.com/page1.htm" style="visibility: hidden">

It's the only answer I wish.

sem4u

10:11 am on Mar 18, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Spiders won't penalize your site for this but would it pass a manual review if you get reported?

specter

10:14 am on Mar 18, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



would it pass a manual review if you get reported?

What do you mean exactly?

topr8

10:20 am on Mar 18, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



put simply.

every search engine thinks what you want to do is NOT OK.

the only question is if you will get caught for doing it and how long that will take.

i think if your site is in a competative area then your competitors will report you, so you might be banned (or you might not)

sem4u

10:21 am on Mar 18, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



If your site starts ranking highly and uses techniques that are against search engine guidelines, like hiding links, then there is a good chance that you will be reported for spamming.

Now these reports may be ignored by the search engines or your site could get banned. I'm not going to preach what is right or wrong, but if you use spammy techniques there is a chance that your site could get banned.

specter

10:32 am on Mar 18, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



No one answered to my main question:

Is the said attribute considered spam by the spiders?

Or,the risk would be to get "materially" reported by human beings for spamming?

victor

10:43 am on Mar 18, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Hidden links are spam. No question.

There may be some debate about how good current bots are at recognising some ways links have been hidden.

But there is no debate that they are serious about finding and penalizing hidden links.

Or that they are getting better at it.

Your technique may work today, or it may not. It is unlikely to work in the near future.

Longhaired Genius

10:43 am on Mar 18, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Spiders don't "consider" anything; they are machines. Is what you are planning to do considered wrong by the human builders and operators of the spiders? Yes.

specter

10:50 am on Mar 18, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Thanks to all guys!

I appreciate very much your participation and I've collected many interesting opinions.

I will find another "honest" way to improve my rankings...

Thanks again.