Page 1 of 1

SEO question - is this cloaking or spamming?

Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2007 2:36 pm
by TheProgrammer
feyd | Please use

Code: Select all

,

Code: Select all

and [syntax="..."] tags where appropriate when posting code. Your post has been edited to reflect how we'd like it posted. Please read:  [url=http://forums.devnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?t=21171]Posting Code in the Forums[/url] to learn how to do it too.[/color]


Hello,
I'm in doubt of using a technique for a menu because I'm not sure if it can be considered cloaking or spamming, and then result in a ban from Google. So here's what i have: a menu with links that must be images and have rollover. Because i don't want to use javascript i use the css rollover technique (in wich both the normal look and the rollover look is in the same image). For those that don't know:

[syntax="css"]
#menu a {
   widht: 100px;
   height: 30px;
   display: block;
   background-position:0% 0%;
   background-repeat:no-repeat;
}

#menu div {
   display: inline;
   float: left;
}

#menu a:hover {
   background-position:0% 100%;
}

#home {
  background-image: url(images/home.gif);
}

#about {
  background-image: url(images/about.gif);
}

...............and so on.....................
so my html will look like this:

Code: Select all

<div id="menu">
   <div><a id="home" href="index.php">&nbsp;</a></div>
   <div><a id="about" href="aboutphp">&nbsp;</a></div>
   ..................and so on..........................
</div>
well, it's all working just fine, but i hate that those links are empty. is hurting seo very much. so i thought i'll do something like this:

CSS:

Code: Select all

#menu h1 {
  display: hidden;
}
HTML:

Code: Select all

<div id="menu">
   <div><a id="home" href="index.php"><h1>Home</h1></a></div>
   <div><a id="about" href="aboutphp"><h1>About us</h1></a></div>
   ..................and so on..........................
</div>
So the h1s wont be visible, but will be there in html, and the rest will work as planned. IS THIS CLOACKING OR SPAMMING? is just one word and i'm not adding unrelated content there. Really don't know what to do. I'm afraid that in my attempt to help I will do more harm.

What do you think?


feyd | Please use[/syntax]

Code: Select all

,

Code: Select all

and [syntax="..."] tags where appropriate when posting code. Your post has been edited to reflect how we'd like it posted. Please read:  [url=http://forums.devnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?t=21171]Posting Code in the Forums[/url] to learn how to do it too.[/color]

Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2007 2:41 pm
by John Cartwright
If you are hiding information from a normal user, it is considering cloaking. To what extent you will be affected, I don't know.

Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2007 3:03 pm
by Luke
I've do this sometimes, and I don't get banned from google... in fact, most of my sites rank pretty well...

Code: Select all

<div id="menu_container">
 <ul id="menu">
  <li><a href="index.php" id="home_link"><span>Home</span></a></li>
  <li><a href="contact_us.php" id="contact_link"><span>Contact Us</span></a></li>
  <li><a href="about_us.php" id="about_us_link"><span>About Us</span></a></li>
  <li><a href="our_work.php" id="our_work_link"><span>Our Work</span></a></li>
 </ul>
</div>

Code: Select all

#menu li a span
{
    display: none;
}
#menu li a
{
    display: block;
    height: 25px;
}
a#home_link
{
    background: #fff url(images/menu/home_sprite.gif) no-repeat 0px 0px;
}
a#home_link:hover
{
    background: #fff url(images/menu/home_sprite.gif) no-repeat 0px 25px;
}
a#contact_us_link
{
    background: #fff url(images/menu/contact_us_sprite.gif) no-repeat 0px 0px;
}
a#contact_link:hover
{
    background: #fff url(images/menu/contact_us_sprite.gif) no-repeat 0px 25px;
}
/* and so on... */
But most of the time, I use text links and not images, because image links are lame in my opinion... so the html and css would look something like this...

Code: Select all

<div id="menu_container">
 <ul id="menu">
  <li><a href="index.php"><span>Home</span></a></li>
  <li><a href="contact_us.php"><span>Contact Us</span></a></li>
  <li><a href="about_us.php"><span>About Us</span></a></li>
  <li><a href="our_work.php"><span>Our Work</span></a></li>
 </ul>
</div>

Code: Select all

#menu li a span
{
    font-weight: bold;
    color: #fff;
}
#menu ul li a
{
    display: block;
    height: 25px;
    background: #fff url(images/menu_sprite.gif) no-repeat 0px 0px;
}
#menu ul li a:hover
{
    background: #fff url(images/menu_sprite.gif) no-repeat 0px 25px;
}

Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2007 3:11 pm
by TheProgrammer
The Ninja Space Goat wrote: But most of the time, I use text links and not images, because image links are lame in my opinion... so the html and css would look something like this...
well, i do think that too..but what you can do..these designers ..ahhh :roll:
thanks very much :)