Do search engines treat masked text differently than solid color fonts?
-
In my attempt to decrease page load times, I ditched my custom fonts for google fonts. I figured out how to apply CSS mask-image to make this blazing fast loading google font have a chalk texture, which was an awesome improvement over the 3-5 second load times for those locally hosted web fonts.
I've read that Google penalize a site for poor contrast ratios between the background and text, but do search engines go by CSS or do they somehow compare the actual rendered site as an image? Using CSS mask-image to give my text that chalk appearance does produce minor transparent patches in text.
So have I saved 3 seconds on page load just to have search engines knock points off for funky text issues? All input welcome. The temporary site is here. https://website-1b14f.firebaseapp.com/
Kevin
-
Great job optimizing your page load times by switching to Google Fonts and applying a chalk texture using CSS mask-image! Regarding contrast ratios, search engines like Google analyze the rendered site as an image, not just the CSS. So, even with CSS mask-image, the actual rendered text contrast is what matters. To ensure good contrast, visit DaFont, select a font, check its size, and use a clear and readable font in a suitable size (at least 14px) on your site to maintain a good user experience and avoid any potential SEO issues
-
Yes, search engines generally treat masked text differently than solid color fonts. Masked text, which refers to text that is hidden or obscured in some way on a webpage (such as using the same color as the background), is often seen as an attempt to manipulate search engine rankings and can result in penalties if detected.
Search engines like Google aim to provide users with relevant and valuable content. Masked text can be used in black hat SEO techniques to stuff keywords or hide spammy content from users while trying to manipulate search engine rankings. As a result, search engines are vigilant about detecting and penalizing such practices.
In contrast, solid color fonts, which are visible and legible to users, are considered legitimate and are not penalized by search engines. It's important to use solid color fonts for your content to ensure that it is properly indexed and ranked based on its actual value and relevance to users.
-
Hi thanks for helpful information use this font your text more attractive and beautiful use in comments , post, text etc this font is more help and share your thoughts in beautiful texts this times new roman font generator is very helpful.
-
Hi Christy,
Site launched! The e-commerce part is still under development but the basic site has been up a couple months. Masked text doing great! No issues whatsoever on the SEO side. Ranking super high still and load speeds are good. Service workers will be activated in the coming weeks as we build out our food delivery platform. So, I'll mark my question as answered. https://www.88k.com.tw
-
Site not launched yet but no warnings on any SEO tools. You can run this site through any tests you want and see. https://website-1b14f.firebaseapp.com/
Schema all good and AMP valid. Content coming up next... FYI this is not a public site and content will change as we test new designs and functionality.
-
Hi Kevin,
Have you launched yet? We'd love an update on this!
Christy
-
Thank for your thoughts. You're right that I can't find a single article on this anywhere, but I've never been conservative when I comes to SEO. I'm always looking to see what's possible. I concluded that since unsupported browsers will simply display the original text without the mask-image (Firefox/Opera), I'm going to assume google search bots won't care about the image mask either.
On the SEO side, this method shaves 3 to 5 seconds off load times, so that can't be bad. The effects are amazing, even on Chinese fonts. I'll report back after launch and post here.
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
-
Google Search Console - URL Parameters Tab ISSUE
Hi, Recently i removed some disallowed parameters from my robots.txt and added the setting No Url in my search console URL parameters tab (as can be seen in the image http://prntscr.com/e997o5) Today i saw the orderby parameter indexed even if the setting is to not crawl those urls. Anyone any idea why is this happening? Thank god that all those urls with parameters are canonicalised to their original url's.
Technical SEO | | dos06590 -
Cache pages in search results
My URL is: pure mobile . ca when searching on google for "puremobile note 2 defender" the search results are coming up with the incorrect title pages of my search results - for some reason all the search results are coming up with "unlocked cell phone" at the end of the title. but on the android and on my desktop - they show the correct title of my pages. we used to deal with unlocked cell phone ( over a year ago) - and all meta tags and title tags have been fully updated. how can i let google know to update these results.
Technical SEO | | puremobile0 -
Indexed pages and current pages - Big difference?
Our website shows ~22k pages in the sitemap but ~56k are showing indexed on Google through the "site:" command. Firstly, how much attention should we paying to the discrepancy? If we should be worried what's the best way to find the cause of the difference? The domain canonical is set so can't really figure out if we've got a problem or not?
Technical SEO | | Nathan.Smith0 -
Website disappeared from Google organic keyword searches.
We have an auto repair company as a client www.autorepairauroratilden.com who for the better part of a year their website had ruled the 1st page organic Google search results. Their website, Blogs, Facebook, and Twitter all came up on page one for their keyword searches. On May 13th, it all came to a screeching halt. The website is nowhere to be found for any of their keywords (example: brake repair Aurora.) There are a couple of blogs on page 2 but it’s nothing like it was prior to May 13th. On May 12th we published 5 branded websites for this client – Chrysler, Ford, Honda, Jeep, and Toyota, all on separate URL’s. All the page titles, keywords, and descriptions were specifically branded to the individual websites as were all the keywords. Since the beginning of June we’ve taken down the 5 branded websites and we’ve gone through our keywords on the auto repair website. The website was last crawled on June 11th. We still do not have any page 1 placement or for that matter any page placement. I checked 10 pages out. We have a 2nd auto repair client that has been running their website as well as their 5 branded websites a couple of months longer than this client and we’ve had no problems with any of their websites and keyword search results. How do we fix this?
Technical SEO | | markindenver0 -
New Site Search Critique
Hi I am a huge fan of the SEOMOZ site and this great community which has helped me learn the current SEO skills I have now which are still very basic compared to the pros on the forum. I have tried to follow best practice regarding onsite and technical seo when developing my new site www.cheapfindergames.com and I would really appreciate it if experts on the forum could spare a minute to critique the site from a search perspective please This will give any elements of what onsite and technical SEO I done well and what aspects still need work. I am currently trying to build quality links and social mentions into the site which will take time, and the site has been designed around usability and conversions. Many Thanks Ian
Technical SEO | | ocelot0 -
Link title with anchor text
Will there be any additional SEO value if we add link title in addition to anchor text.? Can you compare link title with image title? Thanks.
Technical SEO | | gmk15670 -
Date in the video search results
How to control date display in the Google video SERP? Even if pages don't have dates in it, Google displays dates for some results. Try with this: Search query: Thanks video Check the third result. Thanks.
Technical SEO | | gmk15670 -
Tool for extracting search queries
Hello, Does anyone know of or have a tool that takes referrer URLs coming from Google which extracts the search query from the URL string? Thank you
Technical SEO | | soeren.hofmayer0