Jigging copy above the fold

AccuraCast · #1 10-13-2004

Recently I came across a pretty interesting tactic used by some SEO company to create an optimised page using methodologies that made me wonder about their ethical validity:

The company created an HTML page with a style sheet. When you look at the code, it seems like a nice, text-rich page with good copy above the fold (the H1, H2, and regular text copy are the first tags in the BODY of the page).

However, when you view the page in IE, the abovementioned text is visible only at the bottom of the page, and instead there's a bunch of images and navigation bars etc at the top.

Closer inspection revealed that the style sheet fixes the actual text position to be 1800 px from the top... hence, even though it is top of the HTML code, it isn't really text above the page fold!

Does anyone know if this could be considered ok by Google? Would Google actually get fooled into believing that this is text above the fold?

The ethics of such methods are definitely questionable in my opinion.

critter · #2 10-13-2004

It's merely building webpages using <DIV> tags for alignment. Considered to be good web site design by many!

Critter

AussieWebmaster · #3 10-13-2004

Is a much touted practice. Does the page work for the user... does the page work for the spider.
This helps cater to what each is looking for in a prime page.

AccuraCast · #4 10-13-2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by AussieWebmaster

Is a much touted practice. Does the page work for the user... does the page work for the spider.
This helps cater to what each is looking for in a prime page.

But then does Google actually get fooled into believing the copy is appearing above the fold? (it isnt doing so for the user!)

AussieWebmaster · #5 10-13-2004

Yes the spider see the text near the top and gives it more weight... the user gets the needed image nav where it should be.

AccuraCast · #6 10-13-2004

I still wonder about the ethics of this method....

Thing is, all SEO texts and all the people in the know have always maintained that Search Engines dont like being deceived by methods such as redirect pages etc. This to me seems another means of deception.

So at best, the search engines should just ignore it - definitely not reward such an attempt at fooling the SE to believe the page is rich with keywords above the fold, when it really isnt!

Maybe i'm just being old-fashioned, but this seems to go against what i have learnt about SEM - give the search engines the same good text you would give your visitors, and they will reward you with good rankings accordingly.

St0n3y · #7 10-13-2004

My personal beliefe is that it is GOOD SEO, GOOD web design and GOOD for search engines. Its not as if they are hiding the text, just organizing it properly on the page. There are some instances where this kind of text placement is a necessary component to site design.

AussieWebmaster · #8 10-13-2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by St0n3y

My personal beliefe is that it is GOOD SEO, GOOD web design and GOOD for search engines. Its not as if they are hiding the text, just organizing it properly on the page. There are some instances where this kind of text placement is a necessary component to site design.

Was going to say the same thing. It is not like you are stuffing words... or other methods... basically this is done to give the spider its food and the visitor its food.
If you wanted to cheat the system there are a lot of better ways to do it... this shows a concern for providing everyone with what they want.

AccuraCast · #9 10-14-2004

Fair enough. Thanks for the help

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