Collapsible /expandible content = Google Penalty?

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Collapsible /expandible content = Google Penalty?

walkman

9:05 pm on Dec 23, 2009 (gmt 0)

So I have a long section on each page that may not interest 100% of users but it's useful nonetheless for many. By default I want to make it collapsed, and with a click it displays.

Am I breaking any Google rules about hiding text or is paranoia running deep :-)

<style type="text/css"></style>

celgins

9:47 pm on Dec 23, 2009 (gmt 0)

Hate to say it, but this might be a touch of paranoia! :)

With various Javascript, CSS and AJAX programming techniques, hiding text is commonplace. Most news orgs do it with user comments, and it is widely accepted in many web apps.

I wouldn't worry about it.

walkman

12:22 am on Dec 24, 2009 (gmt 0)

Thanks,
It's a big chunk of text so I was thinking about it. I am pretty sure it could lead to manual reviews.

Leosghost

12:28 am on Dec 24, 2009 (gmt 0)

Ebay do it on their TOS and prices pages ..so if you are Ebay ( and have been posting as walkman since 2003 )you are definitely in the clear ..:)

tedster

3:41 am on Dec 24, 2009 (gmt 0)

I've been using this approach on one site for five years. 90% of the total text on the page is hidden in the initial page display. and there has never been a penalty. If a visitor comes from a SERP with a keyword that is not visible in the default display of the page, then I use a script to switch the visibility to "block" for some div that does contain that keyword.

CainIV

7:14 am on Dec 24, 2009 (gmt 0)

My sense is that as long as there are no attempts to actively hide it, and users can access it on the page somewhere, it is almost always safe.

walkman

7:20 am on Dec 24, 2009 (gmt 0)

My sense is that as long as there are no attempts to actively hide it, and users can access it on the page somewhere, it is almost always safe.

True, but the idea is not to be on Google's borderline list or trigger manual reviews

AnkitMaheshwari

11:32 am on Dec 24, 2009 (gmt 0)

For one of my client site we are displaying the content in div that are something like tab buttons in any tools/options dialog box of windows. So just click on the option to view content. At any moment only one tab content can be viewed while all other remain hidden.

This site is around 5 years old and must have 10K pages in this layout which are ranking in top 5 of Google almost for all these pages for respective targeted term.