OMG! does Google really consider text-decoration:none as a hidden link?
-
So I was reading this article today
https://www.mattcutts.com/blog/hidden-links/
Can setting a link to the same color as regular text and applying text-decoration:none really be considered a 'hidden link'?
-
For the last 2 years my site tanked and I have tried everything under the sun to fix it and nothing ever changed it. I was going crazy. I just realized that I had this set on much of all my links on my site and I am wondering if this is what happened to me.
Did you say that you were effected by the same thing? Did you recover?
-
It certainly can.
The argument here (whether you agree with it or not) is that you would be trying to make the link blend in with the rest of the text. You are, in essence, blending the link in and concealing the fact that it might be a link. Google wants all the links to be visible and obvious.
I've had one example where links were deemed to be hidden because the CSS file of the website made the links appear in the same way as the normal text, same colour, decoration etc. I was pretty miffed by it, as it involved CSS changes which I'm never happy about, but it happened.
Hope this helps.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Linking from Subfolders
Hi, on my new theme there are a bunch of links from subfolders to pages that aren't in a sub folder, these pages also don't have links on the home page. Is there an seo issue when linking from subfolders to pages that aren't. I don't know if I'm wording this properly but what I mean is, mysite/project/project1 linking to mysite/post.
On-Page Optimization | | FPK0 -
Internal Link Title and Anchor Text Question
So, I am kind of a newbie with all of this stuff, so please bear with me! If you have a chance to look into the domain it's www.noip.com I have checked the internal followed and 301 links. It seems like it is pulling in all of our navigation a funky way. all of those link have no data for the title and the anchor text is Home, Contact Us, Forgot Password?, ETC. Is this correct? I have tried to look into the way other websites are doing it and it seems wrong. I tried to talk to my developer, but he is not so sure. Do we simply need to make more copy on our site that has internal links within the copy with anchor text that is for keywords that I would like to be ranking for? Like Managed DNS? and then that page goes to the managed DNS page? Or what? Sorry if i am not being totally clear. Any help and advice is 110% welcomed!!! Natalie
On-Page Optimization | | vwnatalie0 -
Too Many On-Page Links
Hi, I did a SEOmoz campaign and got results today, One of the results is Too "Many On-Page Links" when i am drilling down, i see that that's include inside links. for example, i sale food, i have my main department window - inside i have 30 products - each product is linked to a detailed page about the product. so automatically i have 30 links - not including all the others in this page, and i easily get over 100 and even sometimes 200 is this a big issue? does it damages my SEO? If yes, is there a way to write the HTML in a way that internal links like that wont be counted? Thank you SEOWiseUs
On-Page Optimization | | iivgi0 -
Are My footer links bad?
I started working here recently, they said the footer links were to help with navigation of their most popular products. I am curious after reading http://www.seomoz.org/blog/internal-linking-strategies-for-2012-and-beyond if having these footer links could hurt the ranking of those key words after the penguin update. I am looking more into the analytics, and have not seen a negative impact yet.
On-Page Optimization | | DoRM0 -
Footer-links (navigation)
I want to put navigation links in my footer. I watched the (distilled) whiteboard friday video saying it can be a penalty. How are links in the footer different from links in the navigation. Why don't you get "hit" for putting the word "Real Estate Listings" in the navigation menu? It appears on every one of the 30k pages. I don't get why the links in the footer would have a negative effect if the links in the navigation don't. My example is a real estate website. When people are browsing properties (30k), it is convenient that at the end of the page there is a navigation of areas. I could put the navigation on the sidebar but that would be in essence, the same thing. A wordpress site would dynamically include that sidebar on every page.
On-Page Optimization | | JML11790 -
Alt Text On Buy Buttons
Hello, On a E-commerce site with multiple buy buttons on the page (11 by Default). Should I be blocking the alt. img on these? when I use the seomoz toolbar and view my page I see this Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • along with other alt imges on page, Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | TP_Marketing0 -
Same email address for two google places?
Should I use the same email address for two offices in two different locations for google places registration or am I better off using two different email addresses?
On-Page Optimization | | VivaArturo0 -
Do you bother to nofollow links out to Facebook etc?
These days many sites link (often site-wide) to their social profiles on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube.... etc Theoretical SEO on-page optimisation might condone adding nofollow to these links, but I have a feeling it might not do much in terms of conserving page authority and indeed might be a bit of an "over-optimisation" signal. Thoughts?
On-Page Optimization | | Peterdallisomo0