Duplicate Content when Using "visibility classes" in responsive design layouts? - a SEO-Problem?

[inlinear]

I have text in the right column of my responsive layout which will show up below the the principal content on small devices.

To do this I use visibility classes for DIVs. So I have a DIV with with a unique style text that is visible only on large screen sizes. I copied the same text into another div which shows only up only on small devices while the other div will be hidden in this moment. Technically I have the same text twice on my page. So this might be duplicate content detected as SPAM?

I'm concerned because hidden text on page via expand-collapsable textblocks will be read by bots and in my case they will detect it twice?Does anybody have experiences on this issue?bestHolger

[Terakeet]

Hi Holger,

Duplicate content is typically qualified as identical, or similar, content across multiple pages (within a single domain or across other domains)--not duplication within a single page. The idea is that you're potentially spamming the search index with multiple results lacking contextual distinction.

Your particular case, however, puts your page's quality score at risk by extending the length of your page's content without added context or value (the repetition is more like keyword stuffing, if anything.) Rather than managing two identical DIV blocks, you should manipulate the positioning, sizing, styling, etc. of a single DIV block within each respective media query selector in your CSS.

Here's a helpful tutorial with examples: http://bit.ly/ncY2HY

[inlinear]

Thanks, thats what I was thinking, too and the link you gave me was the best I found before on this subject as well ;).
Right now I'm experimenting with the foundation framework where the visibility class solved my problem quickly but from a SEO-point of view I got a new problem. So I must study more on this...

THX

[mihaiaperghis]

I also recommend using responsive design via popular frameworks, like Bootstrap or Foundation. You shouldn't have problems using those from an SEO perspective.

[inlinear]

... of course it wasn't too difficult to solve this problem. In Foundation I could assign the right classes... so there is no need to work with visibility classes in this case.. and produce dublicated div's.