Do search engines use text-indent: -9999em or negative margins as SEO-cheats?

Question

I want to use a technique like text-indent:-9999em or a negative field to replace my text with more beautiful images, but I wonder if search engines will consider this as a form of cheating?

I think that in order to know this, he must read my CSS file, so I can use robots.txt to prevent him from reading my CSS file. If this works, can I also use display:none directly? Or can I manipulate some styles of web elements using jQuery code?

Answer 1

The methods you have outlined (negative margins / indentation), etc., are common practices.

Until you enter spam links / text using these methods, then you'll be fine - all about intentions. Google stated (via the Matt Cutts mouthpiece in the webmaster video) that you should try to avoid this approach, if possible, and use traditional alternative text for embedded images, etc.

There are many different text and image replacement methods, each of which has different UI / UX / SEO effects that you need to consider. I recommend this resource as a starting point (bonus - there is a link to the message "Google influence"): http://mezzoblue.com/tests/revised-image-replacement/

Answer 2

This should not be a problem: as others said in the answers, such a technique was so widely used by web developers to replace images that it would hardly be seen as a hoax for search engines.

However, it is worth noting that the use of massive text indentation (for example, -9999em ), as you know, causes performance problems, as this requires the browser to draw a huge box around each element that uses this technique. For some cleaner ways to achieve the same effect, see my answer to this question .

Answer 3

For CSS-friendly Content hiding without SEO influence, it is recommended to do this as shown below:

 .divToHide{ position:absolute; top:-9999; left:-9999; } 

I use it in my website , you can see css-tricks for more information

Answer 4

ok, you can hide the text (indented CSS text, no display, no need to block css), and this is normal for Google if it is not misleading / spam. but if you have much more hidden text on the page, then visible text, then this is not a good quality signal. your site (if it is in any way important / has the right to any Google traffic), then it is likely that the reviewer will be tagged and visited by a person’s quality reviewer (which is not very important if your site is in order).

Answer 5

There is no clear right or wrong answer to this from Google, Yahoo! or Bing, but, in truth, Mike, it has been a common practice of developers for a long time, as a way to add logos or custom headers where fonts cannot be processed using CSS (think text style in crispy color in Photoshop or using fonts , t is licensed to use @font-face ).

While this is not heavily used on your site (stick to logos and headings, not body copies), and hidden text does not contain any extra keywords, you will probably be fine. Take a look at google.co.uk and you will see that they hide h1 there with visibility: hidden;

It is important to consider accessibility. Accessible sites are more SEO oriented because the content is accessible to everyone. Will your site still be used if someone has enabled CSS but the images have been disabled? This is not uncommon, and with the increasing use of mobile phones, people can do this to lower the cost of data.