Is h1 tag that's hidden using display:none giv

Question

When content is hidden by CSS (display:none), is that read by Search engines or are sites penalised for that ? In my case, due to some CMS and other reasons, I need to serve alternative content to users and hide the H1 tag on the page using display:none. I wanted to know if the Search Engine will still treat the H1 tag with the same prominence as when its not hidden.

Answer 1

It's against Google's policy. It's called keyword stuffing and will get you delisted from Google, which means your site wont even show up on Google anymore. A good rule of thumb is to only show googlebot what users of your site can perceive display.

If you show the information to people at some point, then you can argue you're not keyword stuffing I guess, but Google will delist you first and then you'll have to file an appeal.

Answer 2

Search engine builders have had about 15 years to learn every trick that people use to get better search engine ratings, so you can be sure that the robots notice something simple like hidden text.

If the header tag is not visible on the page, it's pointless to have it there at all. At best the search engines will ignore the tag. At worst they will ignore your site.

Answer 3

As already mentioned, it is not a good idea to hide information for many purposes.

If actually, what you really want is to serve visitors an alternate media than plain text, there are a lot of ways to do that, just see Nine Techniques for CSS Image Replacement for further details, or sIFR.

Answer 4

You're better off not doing this.

Search Engines like Google are smart and they check for this type of thing and when you're caught, you'll get flagged and your SEO is useless.

Work within the system, don't try to cheat it. Google offers a ton of tools for developers looking to do legitimate SEO.