Google SEO and hidden elements

Will google ignore words that are inside the elements that are set to "display: none" in css?

Example:

<div id="under_meny" style="display:none;">About Us | Contact Us</div>

It looks maybe a bit strange that I want to hide a menu like that, but there is a submenu. And will the user to activate it. But I do not want it to go beyond SEO.


Solution 1:

hide your menu with javascript on pageload. this way google will still analyse your text. it ignores display:none elements, as well as elements which textcolor is the same as background color, thus making it invisible to the human eye

sources: i read it in a book a long time ago. there are sites on the internet though on the topic

  • http://www.webdesign-in.de/mts/google-bestraft-display-none-visibility-hidden/
  • http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/002971.html
  • http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-mistakes-nearly-hidden-text/
  • http://www.julian-bez.de/blog/2005/10/20/display-none-considered-spam/
  • http://searchengineland.com/is-hiding-content-with-display-none-legitimate-seo-13643

Solution 2:

This is a genius solution to hide the content via Javascript without having the content flashing while the page loads. Searchbots and users that don't have Javascript enabled will see the text displayed.

Solution 3:

You are perfectly safe using display none, this person ran a test and shared the results. Just don't use the attribute for grey hat SEO and you should be fine.

http://seotesttool.com/blog/does-the-google-bot-index-css-hidden-divs/