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I am using rich snippets on my site, I have all of the code for them in the footer so that they are centrally located and easy to access. I do not want the text around these snippets rendered on the page because that info is elsewhere on the site. Is it ok to hide this text by using style="display:none" or will Google ignore the rich snippet entirely because the fields are hidden?

<!-- start rich snippet code -->
<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/LocalBusiness">
    <span itemprop="name" style="display:none">My Business Name</span>
    <div itemprop="address" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/PostalAddress">
        <span itemprop="streetAddress" style="display:none">123 Example Street, Suite 456</span>
        <span itemprop="addressLocality" style="display:none">Major City</span>
        <span itemprop="addressRegion" style="display:none">NY</span>
        <span itemprop="postalCode" style="display:none">12345</span>
        <span itemprop="addressCountry" style="display:none">US</span>
    </div>
    <span itemprop="telephone" style="display:none">(123) 456-7890</span>
    <a itemprop="URL" style="display:none">http://www.mycompanysite.com/</a>
</div>
<!-- end rich snippet code -->

Any info would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance!

ElasticThoughts
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3 Answers3

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As @Diodeus said, ideally you'd have these rich snippets on the actual info that is shown to the user elsewhere on the site. Duplicating it is usually unnecessary.

Yes, Google may well ignore this content based on the display:nones. Can I ask why you're setting it on each element rather than just once on the highest level div?

A way around the display:none potential SEO issue would be to hide it in a different way. For example give the parent div a class of .visuallyhidden and add this to your stylesheet:

.visuallyhidden {
    border: 0;
    clip: rect(0 0 0 0);
    height: 1px;
    margin: -1px;
    overflow: hidden;
    padding: 0;
    position: absolute;
    width: 1px;
}
Alec Rust
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  • Good stuff - I've added that CSS code and applied it to the div only, and removed the individual display:none code. A big thanks to the both of you! – ElasticThoughts Jan 16 '13 at 15:22
  • @AlecRust Have Google confirmed that this method is legitimate though..? – adaam Jul 16 '13 at 16:06
  • @adaam as far as I know, no. This is a common method for hiding something visually though if the request is still desired. For example I use it to hide tracking pixels. – Alec Rust Jul 18 '13 at 14:21
  • @AlecRust Okay thanks for the info. Experiencing this problem myself at the minute on a large scale web application. Argh! – adaam Aug 02 '13 at 13:56
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I would like to mention that Google tries heavily (using combination of algorithmic and manual things) to find websites which illegitimately use hidden text.

The typical penalty for that would be a removal from index for 30 days. However, you should not be concerned if you use hidden fields legitimate ways.

There is a very nice article Eric Enge Interviews Google's Matt Cutts regarding Google attitude toward illegitimately use of hidden text.

Tom
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Have a look at this: https://sites.google.com/site/webmasterhelpforum/en/faq-rich-snippets and search for the word 'tempting'.

' It can be tempting to add all the content relevant for a rich snippet in one place on the page, mark it up, and then hide the entire block of text using CSS or other techniques. Don't do this! Mark up the content where it already exists. Except in special circumstances ... '

It might seem like a clever idea to hide elements in a more complex way than by just display:none but, and i guess the same can be applied for hidden honeypot form fields, you are not the only one who can think of that.

Note: It is as easy to determine if a field is hidden by display:none as it is by margin:0; padding:0; width:1px; height:1px; overflow:hidden or by position:absolute; top:-[a value bigger than the page height]px or by something similar.

People would rich-snippet everything as an Apple product page if it would be ok to hide the snippet and provide any other kind of information on the porn - i mean page.

You got all that information already hanging out on the site, so just add the correct microdata tags to the corresponding text passages and google (other search engines, too by the way) will be happy.

So, for example, if your main page title already exists, put the itemprop="description" tag in the <div> tag thats is wrapping the title and you should be fine.

:)

Phil
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