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Re: Skip links and SEO

for

From: Karl Groves
Date: May 2, 2007 10:50AM

First, hidden text *does* work from an SEO standpoint. That's not the issue
It is frowned upon not because it will hurt your rankings but because Google
will out-and-out delist your site if they discover the hidden text.

That being said, I've never heard of anyone who's been delisted because they
had a skip link. Surely if Google can discover hidden text, and discovers
the skip link, they're smart enough to understand the difference between a
skip link and keyword stuffing.


Karl L. Groves
User-Centered Design, Inc.
Office: 703-729-0998
Mobile: 443-889-8763
E-Mail: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Web: http://www.user-centereddesign.com

> -----Original Message-----
> From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of MP
> Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2007 10:20 AM
> To: WebAIM Discussion List
> Subject: [WebAIM] Skip links and SEO
>
> Hi all,
>
> I've been discussing with some colleagues lately SEO and
> accessibility.
> Usually, I consider that SEO and accessibility to go hand and
> hand - make your content accessible to people with
> disabilities, and surely a robot machine at Google can read it too.
>
> However, a colleague of mine had been to an SEO conference,
> where she was told flat out that you should never ever hide
> text, otherwise it will hurt your Google rankings. The way
> she said the guy said it, it sounded like a cardinal
> rule/mantra. At first, it made sense to me (remember all that
> white on white text, hiding extra keywords, etc). But then I
> also thought back to something as simple as a "Skip to
> Content" which can be hidden from a standard web browser in
> any host of ways.
>
> I tried to get a definitive answer on this toic, but no luck.
> The Matt Cutt's blog (http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/) talks a
> lot about hidden links and how malicious they are, and how
> Google will cut you down if you use them, but he never
> answers the particular question about when things are hidden
> for accessibility's sake (although he's asked all the time in
> the comments). There's lots of speculation, and discussion as
> to whether skip links should be hidden/used at all, but what
> I really want to know is what of the consequence of using
> them now for SEO. It seems that Google lowering your rankings
> because you use what may be considered one of the most
> standard items on an accessible site seems just a little bit crazy.
>
> Before I send out a memo that says "stop using skip links,"
> I'd like to get some different takes on it. It seems that
> nowadays, if someone at Google says jump, web designers all how high.
>
> Marissa
>
>