display: none

[j0nyDzine]

I've got a question about a display:None Div...
I'm working with a dev team, who has their heart set on using content in a Div set to display None with a mouseover event...
Now, I know it's been acknowledged even by Cutts that if it's not deemed as spam, it should be crawled eventually.
I guess what I'm trying to get a hold of is Google's decision making on this so I can best make up my mind for recommendations.
So if I'm right, it goes like this (please correct me if I'm wrong)...
1. site get's crawled, spots the hidden Div, and spotting the difference to displayed content vs code, flags the page.
2. Page is flagged
3. Since the bot AI can't actually make the decision, it requires someone to actually look at the hidden content and deem whether it is, in fact spamy or valid content...
4. Page is OK'd and continues to be crawled correctly...

The good news is, that is it's definitely valid content, though I personally would not do this kind of design and avoid the hidden content altogether... Also, it's a strong site with a healthy PR, and Google seems to overlook other issues we've had in the past...

If anyone has any valid insight on this, it would be appreciated.
Thanks!

[AussieWebmaster]

css hacking seems to be okay for now - especially the way you lay it out... the biggest drawback is the inserted content does not get crawled

[beu]

Originally Posted by j0nyDzine

I've got a question about a display:None Div...

As long as display:none is not abused in a way that hides content from users while at the same time showing content to search engine crawlers, it should be fine. That said, be sure text in your div isn't "deceptive in intent" and is a clear part of your GUI intended as well as available to users for consumption.

I'd also make sure it couldn't be mistaken for a ranking scheme, if reviewed by human eyes. If all of these issues are considered and addressed, you shouldn't have any problems.

fyi, google.com/ contains SPANs with 'display:none';

Good luck!

[jimbeetle]

the biggest drawback is the inserted content does not get crawled

AW, are you sure? From what I've seen anything set to display:none, display:hidden does get indexed.

[j0nyDzine]

Yeah, thanks guys...
From what I've seen, I've definitely seen the display:none content indexed. It's being done for navigation, so not for the purpose of being deceptive or anything. And yeah I know Google has used it, even a few big SEO sites as well, and it's all indexed... I just wanted to run it by others to make me feel better LOL...
I'd still avoid it if it were my own personal site, but that's out of my control says a team full of Devs... =)

[WebSanity]

Sorry if has this has been covered elsewhere: I'm new to this forum.

I try very hard to build drop down menus that are full CSS to ensure my sites are well indexed: this involves the use of visibility:hidden which I presume is treated similary by search engines to display:none discussed here.

There seems a slight reluctance here to use such CSS in the context of SEO, but is this approach better than Javascript dropdown menu systems (which I always thought were indexed poorly be search engines)?

Cheers,
Gez

[jimbeetle]

Welcome, WebSanity.

Sure, I'd go with the CSS solution over JS any day. It's both more user and search engine friendly.