SEO: Is it proper to have hidden headings (because of HTML5 outlining)

Question

Let say I have the following BODY markup:

<body>
<h1>Visible H1</h1>

<nav>
    <h1>Hidden H1</h1>

    <ul>
        <li>Menu item 1</li>
        <li>Menu item 2</li>
    </ul>
</nav>

<section class="main">
    <h1>Hidden H1</h1>

    <article>
        <h1>Visible H1</h1>

        <p>Some content here</p>
        <p>Some content here</p>
    </article>
</section>
</body>

According to the HTML5 specs (or at least what I understood) it says every meaningful container (section, nav, header, footer, article) should have heading (for outlining purposes). On the other hand I know that it is not a good idea to hide H1s as Google may think I am doing black hat SEO.

Is the provided markup proper in your opinion? Should I keep the hidden H1s or I should delete them?

Any advises will be helpful.

use h2 in your section ? and i think a hidden h it's not very usefull — Clément Andraud, Mar 24 '14 at 17:34
This question appears to be off-topic because it is about SEO — John Conde, Mar 25 '14 at 11:56

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited May 27 '14 at 22:50

Do not include any HIDDEN content - even if you need for HTML5 - create new pages and based to show the content in different formats. Google rules are always changing but Google is working on content indexing using Hummingbird and they are not really focused on HTML5 yet so its a fair assumption that any HIDDEN content even if you have good intentions might be flagged by search bots as an attempt to do content stuffing.

SEO: Is it proper to have hidden headings (because of HTML5 outlining)

1 Answers1