Can I be penalised by Google for a hidden link?

[isxrc]

I downloaded a wordpress template that I really liked, the free version is in built with a link at the bottom of every page to another site.

The owner has mentioned this and stated that the paid version does not contain the link.

Because it is unrelated to my site, I wanted to remove it, but this was proving difficult as I could not find the link within any of the CSS.

I managed to change the CSS colour of the link on the style.css file so it matches the background of my site and thus becomes "invisible" so it cannot be seen, although it is still there.

Is this something I can be penalised for by search engines?

[enni]

I don't think that Google give any penalty for the hidden link but it will affect your site which is not good. So hidden link is not good.

[Kush4242]

i think its by default.... get paid version for remove it.....

[isxrc]

Why will it affect my site? Can anybody clarify on this issue?

I would get the paid version but I can't afford it unfortunately.

[paulgl]

It won't effect your site at all. Don't even try to hide it.

Your fears are completely illogical. Nothing about one irrelevant
link is bad. Unless it links to an illegal activity.

Seriously. Do all of these irrelevant links in the sigs here give
the WF a penalty? Of course not.

You are just another clear case of people panicking for no reason.

I guess the WF is the rehab center.

Making the link invisible would probably violate the terms of using
the free template.

Paul

[friendfeed]

Nothing worry about getting penalized.. Hidden Link wont affects your site.

Keep going on your way.

Guru

[mesmerist]

Originally Posted by paulgl

It won't effect your site at all. Don't even try to hide it.

Your fears are completely illogical. Nothing about one irrelevant
link is bad. Unless it links to an illegal activity.

Seriously. Do all of these irrelevant links in the sigs here give
the WF a penalty? Of course not.

You are just another clear case of people panicking for no reason.

I guess the WF is the rehab center.

Paul

This! Well said Paul.

[JSProjects]

What's so bad about giving the designer credit? A single link isn't going to destroy your site or steal your traffic. Just pay for the theme or let the link stay as it is.

[webgnomes]

I would LOVE to know why people think an obviously hidden link WON'T hurt you. The big G has considered this a textbook case of spam for as long as I can remember. One of the single dumbest things you can ever do on a site is hide content.

Now that we're hopefully clear that hiding is BAD, you can relax about keeping the unhidden link on your page. As others have mentioned, it's not the end of the world if you have an external link (as long as you're not pointing to a spammy page). If you're still concerned, just buy the theme.

[Vooper]

From what I've heard hiding your links is a big NO NO. Hiding text in your content can cause your site to be perceived as untrustworthy since it presents information to search engines differently than to visitors.

[linkbuildr]

I'll 3rd in on that..go look at the Google webmaster help section for people getting axed for hidden links..there are nearly 600 results!

[Jdub2104]

Here is more information with regards to hidden links and Google Webmaster Tools.

Hope this helps,

Hidden text and links - Webmaster Tools Help

[RootShell-vb]

Don't worry about getting penalized

[Offline Titan]

No you don't need to worry. No ones going to see such a small thing.

[salvador]

hi,

i think there are two points here.

1.
if you want to use the free version, you *pay* with your backlink. if the theme is worth using, it is probably worth giving the designer credit.

if you do not want this, buy the theme and remove it. note, that there are a lot of themes and product, that keep the link *even in the paid version*, and the right to remove the copyright costs extra bucks.

2.
technically, i do not think that the hidden link will cause issues with google.

*because* it is pretty usual to include hidden links for enhanced navigation for non-graphical browsers.

for example: a 'skip to content' link, that only shows up in a text browser or screen reader or whatever, but is hidden in a css-interpreting graphical browser. if this would be evil, a lot of sites would have this problem.

to be sure, i would go with a display:none to completely remove it, if you set the text color to match the background it looks a lot more like keyword stuffing and spam.

hiding it should not cause problems with g but problems with the designer as you break the rules.

having unrelated links on your page does not harm your site (otherwise all links to hosters, advertiser, sites of personal interest could be a problem), hence this is no good reason to remove the link.

i suggest to just follow the license and keep the link.

regards,
thomas.

[warrich]

Yes Google will give penalty if you have hidden links on your site, some sites have text which is the same color as the background, some sites have text that are written in zero
size font. All these are liability to be punished with Google.

[isxrc]

After reading the webmaster info, I have decided to "unhide" the link. Even though it's only one link I guess technically Google could turn round and say that I have been using hidden links, so better to have one crappy link at the bottom of the theme than get penalised by being deindexed!!

Thanks for all the advice.

[John Moore]

Wow, I can't believe there's so much bad advice on one thread, hidden text/link is a definite no go, google openly states this, don't make things visable to the search engines that aren't visable to users, this is one of the easiest red flags to see proof of the site owner attempting to manipulate the search engines, and we wonder why we hear "my site has been deindexed" threads on here every other week.

[gxfcrjdj]

No, it won't affect your site.

[PooFinger]

Originally Posted by John Moore

Wow, I can't believe there's so much bad advice on one thread, hidden text/link is a definite no go, google openly states this, don't make things visable to the search engines that aren't visable to users, this is one of the easiest red flags to see proof of the site owner attempting to manipulate the search engines, and we wonder why we hear "my site has been deindexed" threads on here every other week.

I can't believe it also. Scary that these people are posting such crap, especially considering the penalty of deindex once you get caught. Any form of hidden links is considered black hat and has been for ages, I think 2004ish when this was rampant.