Hiding text or links from visitors

How to do it

Google's spam policies list each of these as hidden text and link abuse. They also say content in accordions, tabs, tooltips and sliders is fine, and so is text only screen readers hear. The test is intent. Text hidden from people to feed search engines breaks the policy. Text folded away for the reader's sake does not. Fold text as Let find-in-page open hidden text says.

Examples

JavaScript example

const hidden = await page.$$eval('main *', elements => elements.filter(element => {
  const style = getComputedStyle(element);
  const box = element.getBoundingClientRect();
  return element.childNodes.length && element.textContent.trim() && !element.closest('.sr-only, details:not([open]), [hidden]')
    && (style.fontSize === '0px' || style.opacity === '0' || style.color === style.backgroundColor || box.right < 0 || box.bottom < 0);
}).map(element => element.textContent.trim().slice(0, 40)));
assert.deepEqual(hidden, []);

Python example

hidden = page.eval_on_selector_all("main *", """elements => elements.filter(element => {
  const style = getComputedStyle(element), box = element.getBoundingClientRect();
  return element.textContent.trim() && !element.closest('.sr-only, details:not([open]), [hidden]')
    && (style.fontSize === '0px' || style.opacity === '0' || style.color === style.backgroundColor || box.right < 0 || box.bottom < 0);
}).map(element => element.textContent.trim().slice(0, 40))""")
assert hidden == []

How to check

A browser test visits each page type. No text in the main content has a font size of 0, an opacity of 0, its background's colour or a place off the page. Screen-reader-only text and closed <details>, tabs and hidden="until-found" elements are exempt.

Sources

• Google Search Central – Spam policies, hidden text and link abuse

Related rules

• AXS-26 Let find-in-page open hidden text in Accessibility
• SEO-75 Planting instructions for AI models in SEO