Hiding Content Temporarily Is OKAY, Google Says

Feb 21, 2008 - 8:14 am 4 — by

A Google Groups thread asks about hiding content using AJAX and CSS. Google Webmaster Central rep, Wysz, said:

If your text is temporarily "hidden" as part of your site's UI but is still intended for the user to see at some point, you probably don't need to worry about Google mistakenly viewing it as deceptive.

Yes, so my title was a bit deceiving but this question is a common webmaster question.

Many sites deploy styling techniques that only shows content on a specific click. Heck, even Google deploys this on their help content. For example, take a look at this page. Notice that when you click on the links in the middle of the page, you then notice more content appear. Technically, Google is temporarily hiding text from the user until that user clicks on the link.

This is a form of acceptable hidden text, since a user can get to the content while on the same page.

Forum discussion at Google Groups.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Google Search Volatility

More Details

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search News

The Industry Mourns The Loss Of Nick Wilsdon - Loved By Industry

Oct 12, 2026 - 2:00 pm
Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: October 12, 2026

Oct 12, 2026 - 10:00 am
Google

Third-Party Google Rank Tracking Struggling Now

Oct 12, 2026 - 7:51 am
Google Ads

Google Ads Tests Using Google AI For Goals & Assets

Oct 12, 2026 - 7:41 am
Bing Search

Bing & Copilot Experimenting With Microsoft-Decision-1

Oct 12, 2026 - 7:31 am
Google

Google AI Overviews For Typos & No Search Results

Oct 12, 2026 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: First Reports of Google Reader Spam Injection?