Hi all, I don't actually believe that CSS styling will make any difference to search engine ranking. These robots spend enough time trawling through the HTML content. It would be time wasted to cross reference the content against: visibility, display, colours used, z-index and positioning.
I recently thought I had a holding page barred for unintentional content stuffing / hiding. http://www.senuik.com/ On asking Google it turns out it wasn't, just ranked low (lack of links I presume) appearing at 20 and 27. The 'hiding' methods used were colour and positioning. The intent was for styled text to display when Flash wasn't available (accessibility). My point is if this page wasn't barred then I think it incredibly unlikely that other hiding techniques would be. Does anyone actually know of a page barred, blacklisted or banned by Google? I somehow doubt they ever do. Something to do with possible litigation if they are incorrect in their analysis? These are just my thoughts on the matter and are in no way conclusive. mike 2k:)2 ____________________________________________________________________________________ Mike Foskett Web Standards, Accessibility & Testing Consultant Multimedia Publishing and Production British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta) Milburn Hill Road, Science Park, Coventry CV4 7JJ Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: 02476 416994 Ext 3342 [Tuesday - Thursday] Fax: 02476 411410 www.becta.org.uk ____________________________________________________________________________________ -----Original Message----- From: Tom Livingston [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 30 March 2005 19:56 To: wsg@webstandardsgroup.org Subject: Re: [WSG] Hidden Content >So you're using one practice to compensate for another bad practice... > > >If your site is entirely in Flash - well, too bad. It shouldn't be. Well. Flash actually is searchable. There's even a search SDK for search engines. It's also accessible, with tab order/indexing, etc. If your site is entirely Flash, it _is_ a good idea to have an (X)HTML-based alternative for those who don't have, or won't install, the plug-in (the number of which is declining daily). If this is the case, a link to it (like in the footer) will allow even better spidering by search engines. 2¢ deposited... -- --------- Tom Livingston Senior Multimedia Artist Media Logic mlinc.com ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ****************************************************** ********************************************************************** This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This footnote also confirms that this email message has been swept by MIMEsweeper for the presence of computer viruses. www.mimesweeper.com ********************************************************************** ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
