The Search Engine Rankings Hazard Of Using Hidden Keywords
An SEO No-No: Using “Invisible” Keywords Invites Rankings Disaster
I really did think this issue was one that wouldn’t come up too often any longer, as using “hidden” or invisible keyword text has been penalized for so long by Google and the other search engines that I assumed that new website owners and online marketers wouldn’t even have the thought enter their minds. This was a black-hat technique used from the beginning of the blossoming internet, and around 2003 the search engines got savvy to it and the spammers that were (for the most part) using it on their sites.
So, with so many years between then and now, I really thought (wrongly) that newbies wouldn’t even have the idea enter their mind, because they wouldn’t be reading anywhere that it honestly “worked” at boosting rankings long-term into the top ten. Well guess what? There is still talk amongst newbies about whether or not they ought to utilize hidden keyword text on their web pages.
So, let me go into this subject today and try to educate those of you who have toyed with the idea, or who have no clue as to what all this is about. I don’t want anyone to attempt this quickly penalized technique on their site! In this article I’ll show you what you should NOT do in an attempt to try and boost your search engine rankings. The unethical tactic I’m getting ready to share with you is really nothing new, as I’ve already explained.
If you want potential customers to find your internet marketing website, then ethical SEO techniques must be utilized, right? Of course! Unethical practices normally end up with one end result, and that is … getting banned by the search engines. Once you’re banned, your website is off the radar, it is nowhere to be found and it is an long, slow struggle to try and undo the damage that was done.
Chances are, since you are reading this article, is that you’re new to search engine optimization and because of this, you just might be at a point that many website owners get to. That point is this: you know the importance of writing keyword rich content to help rank well in the search engines and all of a sudden a light goes on and you might think, “Well shoot! What if I add some hidden keywords? Then maybe I’ll … rank higher, get ranked faster, sooner …”
Just What is Hiding Keywords in “Invisible Text”?
What does “invisible text” mean? It means that you have HTML coded your targeted keywords in text that is the same color as the background of your website. So, if I wanted to stuff this blog post with invisible keyword phrases, I’d code the offending text to be white, just like the color of the background that my content sits on.
“But … why not?” you may ask. What harm could there be in adding a few (or a lot) more keywords on your web page to appease the search engine spiders and hopefully boost your rankings?
True story: I had a client a few years ago who called me all excited one day “informing” me that she had learned a great method of increasing the number of times she could work her targeted keyword phrases into her content. When I asked, “how?”, I was enthusiastically told that her graphic artist friend told her to just make some of them the color of her background and then she’d not have to worry about trying to write so much content!
Let’s just say I told her that her suggestion was receiving an emphatic NO from me and that I wouldn’t continue SEOing her website if she didn’t believe me that it was a huge unethical mistake. The next day she called to apologize and said she’d done a little internet research and, “Gee, you are right, Claudia. Using hidden keywords is bad … really bad.”
Keyword stuffing via “invisible” means can cause a LOT of harm. It’s considered spamming and is still being used on websites today. Don’t do this! While almost all forms of hidden text will produce good ranking results in the short term, all major search engines have filters which are capable of detecting hidden text. Don’t think you or your SEO consultant will out-fool them!
Let me explain exactly what I’m describing to you so that you’ll never allow this mistake to be made on your internet marketing website. On a side note, I must mention that there are many unethical SEO consultants and search engine optimization services that practice this spamming technique. Run (don’t walk) away from anyone suggesting you implement this tactic on your website!
Hidden Text Cannot Be Seen by Regular Human Visitors, but Can Be Seen by the Spiders
The theory behind hidden text is that search engines will index the text, even though the text is invisible to human readers, thus making the page more keyword dense. There are two forms of hidden text – through the use of regular HTML, and through CSS.
As I briefly mentioned above, keywords can be hidden by using HTML coding. The font color for the keywords and/or keyword stuffed text is coded to be the same as the background color. Voila! The coded text now becomes invisible … it seemingly disappears into the background. However, this form of invisible text is quite easily detected by the search engine spiders.
Hidden text through CSS is more complicated. The color of the text is defined in an external file, which is not crawlable by search engines. Without getting into a technical explanation of how this is achieved, let me assure you this attempt at hiding keywords is also going on.
Though the CSS programmers and website owners may have a smug look on their faces right now, guess what? Good ‘ol Googlebot is, as always, a pretty shrewd little ‘bot and already there is much buzz in the SEO industry that CSS files are not able to hide stuffed keyword content any longer.
The Bottom Line to Achieving Higher Rankings … Slow, Sure, Steady AND Ethical
While almost all forms of hidden text will produce good results in the SHORT term, all major engines have implemented filters which are capable of detecting invisible text. Websites found to be using hidden text and keywords will almost certainly be permanently removed from the index of all search engines. For this reason I strongly encourage you to refrain from resorting to this awful and highly risky SEO tactic. No – let me say this another, and better way. Just DON’T DO IT!
Hidden text is one of the oldest and dumbest search engine optimization tricks in the book. If you can’t figure out how to write compelling, interesting marketing copy that also smoothly and naturally incorporates your targeted keywords into it, then you need to stop, sit down, and reassess your (or your hired copywriter’s) writing skills. Period!
Google’s Personalized Search – Big Changes To How Sites Can Rank
There’s a Buzz in SEO Circles About What Google’s New Changes Might Mean
On December 4th, Google made a big announcement about a switch to “personalized search” that didn’t really grab too much attention. But I am aware of this new search results development, and thought it worthy of mentioning.
Googe’s official name for personalized search is “Web History”. There are two options: Signed-Out Web History and Signed-In Web History.
Keeping my explanation short, “personalized search” means Google can now determine what your web surfing habits are and if you seem to favor certain sites over other sites, such as whether you consistently like to go to Overstock.com rather than Like.com, and starts to give Overstock a rankings boost. Or Target’s website instead of Wal-Mart’s. Somehow, someway (their secret) Google has the ability to memorize your web surfing habits. And mine, and anyone else’s. Thus, you will start seeing more of your “favorite most often visited websites” listed, perhaps for searches where those sites weren’t showing up before for you.
Before you get all worried about invasion of privacy issues, which has been a point of concern for many, Google offers us the ability to accept or refuse having personalized search results shown to us. Maybe you’ll feel better knowing that a person’s searching history is only kept for 180 days. Plus, you can delete that history at any time, but even if you don’t, it can’t actually be viewed by anyone other than Google. So Google claims privacy should not be a concern for us.
Also, in case you didn’t know, ALL the major search engines have recorded what you search on for many, many years. That’s just one of the many ways they determine ranking positions. Now Google is simply using the recorded data to further refine the results you can see.
Remember – you don’t have to choose to sign in to personalized search … but maybe a lot of your potential customers will.
How Could Personalized Search Affect Your Website Traffic, You Ask?
First, let’s talk basics. Personalized search will most likely affect ranking positions. Where ranking positions have sometimes been prone to vary depending upon which Google data center you live near (there are exceptions but I’m trying to keep this simple), now those sites one person favors might very well not rank the same for another person if both people search for exactly the same keyword phrase.
However, everything about this new ranking change isn’t set-in-cement. Such as … the website of a local bakery probably won’t be affected quite the same since a local bakery is just that … local and unique to the services offered. Or a local car mechanic, dry cleaners, etc.
So if you’ve been real proud of those top ranking positions you’ve held for quite awhile, you just might find you’re NOT holding a top ranking based upon the searching tendencies of the particular searcher in question. Follow me here? To further explain – your grandmother may not get the same results as you do because most likely the two of you search for quite different topics. 
Is Google’s personalized search reason for those of us battling to gain top rankings, or to continue to keep our top rankings, to get all crazy and worried? Um, not really. Not in my estimation, nor in the estimation of many respected SEO gurus.
What Google’s new search option means is that we need to continue to utilize good solid optimization basics on each and every page of our site, being:
- Make sure your web pages are accessible (well thought out navigational structure and hierarchy).
- Utilize the keywords that searchers employ within your Title and meta tags, and content.
- Over-delivery quality, informative content that visitors to your site will find useful and valuable.
- Try to earn editorial links from good sources related to your niche.
So, when all is said and done with any shift or change in ranking algorithms, the core issues I just listed above are ones that haven’t gone by the wayside, nor probably ever will. I’ve preached those four key points to all my SEO clients over the years and will continue to do so. And though yes, sometimes gaining top rankings isn’t a easy slam-dunk, by sticking to those simple points most all of us will ultimately see our sites holding great ranking positions.
Keyword Phrases – Maintaining Long Term Ranking Positions
In a previous post over one year ago about how I maintain top ranking positions for keywords on my own websites, I talked about a keyword phrase I’d targeted – “Google search cheats” – and its SERP ranking. That post was back in May 2008.
The ranking was doing well at that time – #4 out of 389,000 result pages.
Well today out of curiosity, I checked the ranking position. And I found it has inched down a bit to #6, but now it is commanding the position out of 10,500,000 SERPs. Ummm … OK, perhaps Google’s results are a bit wild today as compared to the more realistic results back in May ‘08, but nevertheless, I really don’t care how many oodles of results there are in the grand total – I just care where I stand in the midst of true competition.
Here’s a screenshot taken yesterday (November 2, 2009):
I’m not all shook up about moving two slots down for a keyword phrase that really isn’t one of major concern traffic-wise. After all, competition for that targeted term has changed a bit over time, as evidently there are other sites using it in an article, too. These sites are possibly older than mine, and/or have way more posts with quality content compared to the number of posts my blog currently has, and/or have more links, and/or carry more “authority” than mine, etc. Issues such as these do affect final ranking “scores” when computed by Google.
But the point is … that post of mine is STILL in the top ten! Not bad. And certainly no complaints on my part.
What’s the moral of this post? Rankings go up, and rankings go down in the world of search engines. But I will bet you that if I wrote another post or two on the same subject, I just might inch back up. But with all the other pressing projects that are currently on my plate to tackle, those posts will have to be put aside for another day.
Google’s Best Practices SEO Guidelines Document
Wondering What Google Suggests About Properly SEOing Your Site?
You know that I write about many aspects of how to SEO your website or blog, and so many of my posts are geared to the beginner-to-intermediate level person who wants to learn more about SEO and/or handle the optimization of their site themselves. That’s fine and I love to help educate and give you proven ethical tips and techniques to achieve higher rankings.
Today I’m keeping it short and sweet. I thought I’d provide a copy of Google’s SEO guideline recommendations. I hope you are aware that Google brings all of us the bulk of our organic traffic – so we really must pay attention to what Google approves of, and doesn’t approve of, as far as optimization practices are concerned.
We don’t want to do anything that will send up a red flag to Google which will make them ignore our site. As example, are you aware that using an “autogenerated SEO” program is a big no-no as far as Google is concerned? As a matter of fact, they state:
Don’t use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages, check rankings, etc. Such programs consume computing resources and violate our Terms of Service. Google does not recommend the use of products such as WebPosition Gold™ that send automatic or programmatic queries to Google. (Source page: Webmaster guidelines.)
In addition, though not stated in the above quote, it is a known fact that Google ALSO frowns upon automated programs that fill your content pages with targeted keywords and that optimize pages using their so-called “built-in expertise”. Really. Don’t put your money into one of these programs hoping to inject keywords in the “right places” and to “properly” optimize your site! Do it the right way – by your own brainpower, research and personal know-how!
On a side note, WebPosition Gold is still maintaining a website that sells a number of products – and for many hundreds of dollars too, I might add. Don’t use programs like this. Again … PLEASE save your hard earned $$ and perform SEO yourself … or hire me. My professional SEO and web development services are very reasonable, I provide top-notch service and I’m a nice person to deal with, too! 
Anyway, here is a darn good guide that Google put together outlining some best practices that webmasters can follow that could improve their sites’ crawlability and indexing. Google SEO Starter Guide. Save yourself a copy. There’s good information in here and even an SEO beginner will be able to understand it and will certainly get educated from it.
