Using Hidden Text & Links On Your Web Pages

December 5, 2008 · Filed Under SEO Advice, SEO Tips, blackhat seo

Today I addressed a question that was posted about generating backlinks to a website. The person asking the question had worked on a clients site that had a relatively high PR (Page Rank). The owner of the site did not want any links on the site (links leaving the site I’m assuming, they didn’t go into details) and from an SEO standpoint, not a great choice, but none the less, the client’s choice.

Since the client didn’t want any outgoing links and had such a high PR on the site, the person who had developed the site wanted to know if it was ok to put the same color text on the same color background on a few of the pages, linking to the developers own sites.

This is called “invisible text” and will label you a spammer, at least where the search engines are concerned. Your own personal moral character might not feel that way but to put it frankly, that doesn’t matter.

Needless to say, I recommended (strongly I might add) that they refrain from doing so. Actually following through and doing such a thing would likely cause not only the site with the invisible text to get banned but the site it links to, to get banned as well.

In our BoneheadSEO classes that are coming up in 2009, we’ll cover black-hat techniques in great detail so that you can be fully aware of the tactics that may get you banned.

We’ll talk soon.