Hidden Text and Hidden Links
Webmasters add hidden text and/or hidden links to lure search engines and users to their pages. Hidden text is visible to the search engine, but not to the user who might find it distracting or annoying. Here are some things you should know about hidden text:

• It may be completely invisible to the human eye.

• It may be in the same color as the background color on the page, or in a color that is so close to the background color that it almost invisible and will not be noticed.

• It may be formatted in a very, very small font size (e.g., 1-point) so that it will not be noticed.

• It may be placed outside the normal viewing area. For example, there may be a large blank space between the normal viewing area and a "hidden" area of text all the way at the bottom of the page or far to the right.

• Sometimes there is just a line or two of hidden text, but you may even see a whole page of it.

• Most hidden text is there to trick the search engine, but occasionally you will find hidden text that is not spam.

For example, if the webmaster merely hides the date of an update, it is not spam.

Hidden text may be revealed by:

• Applying Ctrl-A (or "⌘" and "A" for Apple computer users).

• Looking outside the normal viewing area.

• Using advanced techniques: disabling CSS, disabling JavaScript, viewing the source code.
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