Sneaky Keyword Trick!?

[hustlenflow]

Hey guys i thought of something i need your advice. I am doing some seo for a client (outsourcing the backlinking) and i thought of a way to add keywords to his capture page in a origional way. Lets say he has a white background....could i add like..3-4 keywords in white text and have it blend in with the background?

So i wont have to write unecessary keywords for the site but still have google pick up on them. let me know what you think

[paulgl]

It was for search engines, not people.

It's not new. It's the oldest trick in the book.

2-3 probably does not matter, but...why go there?

Your better off coming up with an intro sentence,
use the <h1> heading, and use regular colored text.

Hidden text and links - Webmaster Tools Help

Paul

[antonio5429]

That doesn't sound too bad

[JoshuaG]

Lol this exploit was accounted for by google like 1o years ago.
Won't work, and if you get get spammy with it your site will get de-indexed.

[mainstreetcm]

I'm going to encourage you NOT to do this as every SEO 101 article you will find says do not do this. I believe this is considered a black hat technique and is not an appropriate way to market your website. You might get away with it for awhile, but eventually it will catch up to you and your hard work will flush down the tubes.

[Bellthorpe]

Just spend your time improving the content.

[AlphaWarrior]

Bad idea. My understanding is that G does not like hidden keywords where the keywords are the same color as the background. May get your site banned from G.

[webdango]

put it in a div and then position it -1000 px to the left

or my favorite: keyword stuffed div layer z-index 0 under the real content layer z-index one. simply fill the real content layer with white (or whatever your page color is) - and make sure it's large enough to cover the keyword layer.

[bosie]

In my humble opinion you stand to risk more than you stand to gain. As has already been mentioned, G has been aware of this for years - put in some extra work improving content, this will keep G happy and improve your site.

[Yoel Cohen]

this is an amusing post

Don't do it it's a waste of time!

As many others have said this is very old!

A "newer" one to use would be to use alt tags in images with a similar color in the RGB space (with hidden text) - but don't do that either!

Don't try spamming the engines - follow what really works and you'll see quicker and long lasting results.

Learn how to use CSS to style your page and insert H1, h2 and h3 tags where necessary.

Include your keywords in the text and LSI words + get backlinks!

Be cool white hat rules (how corny does that sound? LOL but it's true)

[timpears]

It has been a while since I read about this, but if you Google it, you should be able to find it. Google will spank you for doing this. They consider it very unethical, and spammy. Not worth it.

Don't take my word for it, check with Google, it shouldn't be that hard to find.

[GeorgR.]

one of the oldest method(s) and 100% and absolutely NOT recommended.
It's like begging google to de-index your site for VERY obvious spamming/bl@ckhat techniques.

[Lucid]

> In my humble opinion you stand to risk more than you stand to gain

Ditto.

Plus, are you planning to hide the fact you are doing this to a client's site? Not a good idea. Even if you tell him and he approves, he probably doesn't know what are the consequences. He's hiring you to tell him after all.

[paulgl]

The way I've read it, is that 1 to 3 words do not get a look.
(NO I AM NOT SAYING TO DO IT!)

And using that little of words is what he is talking about.
But, there is absolutely no reason to do if for real SEO.

The reason people do it, is to try and rank for higher, different
keywords than what the site appears to be on the surface.
Getting the best of both worlds, so to speak.

Times have changed. Search engines have changed. Google has
certainly changed. Google will look at the whole site and try
and figure out what your keywords should be.

Any SEO person worth their salt can figure out a good way to
incorporate other keywords. I myself have used the
<h3>general title followed by <h2>sub title followed by <h1>
great title. Or some variation.

I have seen some sites, years ago, where the bottom of a site
would appear to be a large, blank space. Putting your cursor
over it made it show that it 1,000 words.

Because you can't rank a site for 1,000 keywords like that,
the practice should have died.

Paul

[bigcat1967]

dude - where have you been? Google doesn't fall for that. I say about seven years ago they got wise to that.

[chollas]

worst idea ever, reminds me of the web circa 1996

[HCLee]

You are probably asking for trouble. Why would anyone want to do things that are known to be black hat techniques; know that Google is against it, know that people get lots of trouble doing it. It would be better to channel your efforts into doing something that is legitimate and know you will never get into trouble.

[limochicago]

Originally Posted by hustlenflow

Hey guys i thought of something i need your advice. I am doing some seo for a client (outsourcing the backlinking) and i thought of a way to add keywords to his capture page in a origional way. Lets say he has a white background....could i add like..3-4 keywords in white text and have it blend in with the background?

So i wont have to write unecessary keywords for the site but still have google pick up on them. let me know what you think

That is a black hat and black hat techniques have corresponding penalties to Google. I suggest build your content natural.

[thinkweb]

well this is certainly an interesting read.. Paul and a few others are on point with the "dont do it" and get creative in the way of an H1/2 tags and call it a day.. Especially if its for a client you are doing work for.. Hope it helps you with options..

[bgmacaw]

It is important to understand that there are 100% legit reasons for hiding content on a page.

One common one are TV/Movie spoilers in forums and blogs. The section with the spoiler won't be visible until revealed by user interaction.

Another common one can happen with common online application widgets like tabs and panels, as in this ASP.NET example: Tabs Sample (toggle the "Show Controls Owned" checkbox to see exactly what I'm talking about.)

It is difficult to impossible for Google to algorithmically determine if the intent on most pages is spammy or legit usage, only a visual inspection would reveal that. In other words, make sure that any 'trick' you try like this looks like a legit widget implementation, not a blatant spamming attempt.