Hidden blog title

[lzr0]

Hi,
I set in Other Graphical Elements>Header>Blog Title to hidden.
However the line <h2 class="blogtitle hidden"><a href="http://www.generatorsforhomeuse.us">Generators For Home Use</a></h2> still remains in the page html.
I wonder if it is possible to get rid of this piece of script? Google algoritm may flag it as a hidden text/hidden link (i.e. something that is visible for googlebot but invisible for visitors) and penalize.
Thanks,
Lzr

[sayontan]

This is the header for your site. Google will not penalize you for that unless it has no relation to your site. The penalization applies only to spammy links

[lzr0]

This is the header for your site. Google will not penalize you for that unless it has no relation to your site. The penalization applies only to spammy links

Hi, Sayontan,
Still, what php file should I look into if I want to remove this <h2 class="blogtitle hidden">...</h2> line?
It's probably off topic on this forum, but just for reference, here is what Google says:

Hiding text or links in your content can cause your site to be perceived as untrustworthy since it presents information to search engines differently than to visitors. Text (such as excessive keywords) can be hidden in several ways, including:

•Using white text on a white background
•Including text behind an image
•Using CSS to hide text
•Setting the font size to 0

Of course, there is nothing deceptive in hidden blog title, but IT IS a keyword and you never know what their algorithm "thinks".

[Colin]

This is exactly what Google is telling you to do and that is hide it using CSS or have I misread the Google advice.

[lzr0]

This is exactly what Google is telling you to do and that is hide it using CSS or have I misread the Google advice.

I should've posted the link: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bi ... swer=66353 .
They are telling how a text can be hidden and then saying at the end

If you do find hidden text or links on your site, either remove them or, if they are relevant for your site's visitors, make them easily viewable.

.
Of course, they are referreing to deceptive intent (which in our case is not), but their algorithm might not realize it and could think it is a keyword stuffing.

[drake]

If you care so much about that I can suggest one of following ways to have blog title visible:

1. Use the actual image as header foreground rather than header background at Suffusion Option -> Skining -> Header.
2. Make a little transparent .png and upload it as header foreground at Skinning -> Header... (in your Google Bible I don't see any point to say to not use transparent images)

Either of the above solutions need also to set a image for blog title at Skinning -> Header, immediately above the upload field.
After any of those settings you need to set at Suffusion Options -> Other Graphical Elements -> Header other option than hidden for Blog Title / Header Image, so your problem is solved for ever.

[lzr0]

If you care so much about that I can suggest one of following ways to have blog title visible...

Hi, Drake,
Actually, I do NOT want to have blog title visible- I have rather a website than a blog and I feel it does not make sense to display the site title on static pages. That's why I checked Blog Title hidden. My question was how to remove the line
<h2 class="blogtitle hidden">....</h2> which still remains in html code and which contains the title and link not visible to visitors (good) but visible to search engines (not good).

[drake]

If you read carrefully my advices (and follow one of them) you will have a blogtitle visible (correct me if I am wrong, but you wish that the picture from header to be visible) but in the same time invisibile (your users don't see any text who tell them that there is a "blog" title)... Probably your visitors don't come on your site to read your source to see that there is a .blogtitle class...

Appart from that, ".blogtitle" is a wp class... that's it, WordPress was (and still is) a blogging system that was extended to show static pages, so we can make "sites"...

[sayontan]

I am probably *extremely* tired from my day job over the past few days, which is making me refuse to see the logic in the question.

This is the lowdown: a lot of concepts are abused from an SEO perspective, and this is definitely one of them. Here is a simple test: search for "suffusion" on Google. You will see the home page for Suffusion come up at the top (with an almighty PageRank of 8). This is a site that has the term "suffusion" at the top in hidden text ("The Home of Suffusion"). If you search for "the home of suffusion" you will get the announcements page as the first result, which is again correct. So basically, all these are very minor details that don't necessarily impact you in any way. There is only one mantra to good SEO juice: Write great content. The other stuff takes care of things automatically.

Now, to address your question, what if I hid the element for you without really hiding it? If you want to treat Google's list as things to avoid, here is 1 thing that Google doesn't say: use a negative margin. If you set your header to be visible, then attach a custom style to it that says:

Code: Select all

.blogtitle { margin-left: -20000px;}

Unless your user is viewing your site on a gigantic screen at a high resolution you are not going to see the header.

But again, this could be considered deceptive behaviour.

[lzr0]

...1. Use the actual image as header foreground rather than header background at Suffusion Option -> Skining -> Header.
.....
After any of those settings you need to set at Suffusion Options -> Other Graphical Elements -> Header other option than hidden for Blog Title / Header Image, so your problem is solved for ever.

Yes, it does work- it removes hidden text from <h2>! (Previously I did not realize that by saying visible blogtitle you referred to an image rather than a textual title).
Thank you.

@sayontan
I am not saying that minor hidden text is necessarily a problem (Google does say about "deceptive intent"). However, they are known for constantly changing their algo. You never know what they decide tomorrow.

Code: Select all

.blogtitle { margin-left: -20000px;}

It reminds me a story about a guy who paid extra cent on his loan and the bank kept sending him bills for -$.01. He finally send them a check for -$.01. When they tried to deposit it, their computer system crashed which costed them $1000 in losses.