Hidden Text? Part of the game or a major faux pas?

[dignan99]

Hey all...

I've been doing some competitive analysis lately on different niches in different cities, and upon looking at source code have noticed MANY sites(typically 2-3 of the top listed sites in each niche) who have hidden text, blocked by a box/logo, colored the same as the background, or both.

Is this a typical practice?

My understanding is Google seriously frowns on this, so is it worth reporting competitors who are doing such things?

I don't see any grey areas in this matter and think it's a serious violation, but here these sites are at the top.

[SteveOllington]

Major faux pas, never part of the game.

It's definitely a serious violation and at some point there will be a penalty for it. It will arrive in a spam workers list of sites to go through some when, and they'll see it and slap it. There's just not enough spam workers for that to be fast, and maybe it hasn't been reported enough or even at all to get into their lists yet.

It's too much of an old trick to ever work, and keyword density, etc... doesn't do squat now anyway so there's no point.

[blu42media]

Oy.... this is not good at all.  I understand why people do this, but I don't understand how they sleep at night knowing this just isn't ethical.  Funny part is, if they got their content in place properly they wouldn't have to resort to these sorts of practices anyway.

[dignan99]

With a few of the sites I am thinking of, they have done an excellent job with SEO and the site actually looks great.

They have done hidden text in ADDITION to all the best practices which seems to have put them over the top.

Two sites in particular, with hidden text, have not been punished in over two years.  Go figure.

[Ken_Jansen]

Major No-No.

Most likely they will eventually be found out and knocked down. It is painful to wait for that day to occur, I know. Just write more and better content