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According to Google Webmaster guideline "Hidden text" is not acceptable. Which means I do have a dov containing some good amount of title or paragraph with link or images if I make it display:none in my CSS, it is against Google crawl policy (thats how it seems).

My question is if I use it within media queries how Google will react? I mean 

@media handheld, only screen and (max-width: 767px) {
    body {
    }
    .mobile-friendly{ display:none;}
}

for fluid website development we often have to hide certain contents to make the site mobile friendly. Rather than making css for each browser we now code css within same file and define browser behaviour using media queries.

So is google take any action against it?

--Additional Piont/Question Thanks @John Conde; You are right. Google still is not taking much action against Hidden text. But still pro SEO suggest not to use it. In Example using logo within tag on wordpress and text-indenting them to -9999px ... there are more of the tricks involved.

As I am trying to play safe; this is annoying me a lot.

Google Hidden Text Violation Guide

You see they clearly mention CSS display properties. They didn't explain about these media query exception! As I am trying to be over sure and as Google didn't mentioned anything about it I'm still confused on this question. Any Advice?

Thanks for the edits by editors. I'm new here sorry for any inconvenience.

Why you may require to hide few contents? The blog I'm desiring is responsive. I want to let my visitors know about it's mobile friendly design. I have placed few mobile icons for better user experience and usability assurance. But I want them visible only on desktop browser not on mobile. Because if they are already browsing from mobile they don't needed to be notify. Infact I can rather tell them this site can be used as web apps while they are on mobile.

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  • This is actually a really nice question. Though I would try to keep all content visible on any device and just make sure the styles match to accomedate the device
    – sg3s
    Commented Aug 25, 2011 at 17:52

1 Answer 1

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Google has no problem with hidden text. They do have a problem with hidden text that is only available to search engines for the manipulation of their rankings.

So unless your hidden text is only there for the search engines to see, you have nothing to worry about. And making your site mobile friendly by removing content is definitely common and acceptable.

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  • 1
    This is most likely correct, and an honest philosophy will probably be enough to protect oneself from negative SEO effects. That said, how google physically distinguishes honest / devious usage is something to consider - I had a separate discussion about a similar issue here
    – Tom Bates
    Commented Jun 21, 2012 at 14:25
  • What about DIVs containing text that only become visible to the user if he hovers over a certain section on the page with the mouse?
    – basZero
    Commented Jul 27, 2012 at 9:32
  • That's perfectly fine and normal/common to do.
    – John Conde ♦
    Commented Jul 27, 2012 at 14:03
  • How can Google accurately assess which content is there for dishonest purposes, and which is there for the user? Given that their spider isn't going to start running JS.
    – Django Reinhardt
    Commented Dec 4, 2019 at 14:34
  • Their crawlers do process JavaScript and had for a while
    – John Conde ♦
    Commented Dec 4, 2019 at 20:29

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