Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Will a CSS Overflow Scroll for content affect SEO rankings?
- 
					
					
					
					
 If I use a CSS overflow scroll for copy, will my SEO rankings be affected? Will Google still be able to index my copy accurately and will keywords used in the copy that are covered by the scroll be recognized by Google? 
- 
					
					
					
					
 Hidden means the text will never be shown to an end user under any circumstances. It could be in a div with "display:none" as its style, or white text on a white background. 
- 
					
					
					
					
 Thanks! 
- 
					
					
					
					
 OK so here is the deal, I have spoken with Google's John Mueller about this multiple times. Your content will indeed be indexed, however Google bot is not as basic as many people think, there are multiple things happening when the bots come to look at your site, one of them is related to the humming bird algorithm. The bot takes a snapshot of what is actually visible on the page and will give THAT content more preference in search. It will also look what is above the fold for customers. So it is advisable to not have a large logo at the top and for some content to be visible without scrolling. So just because some content is not visible does not mean it will not be indexed but it may be given far less weight than text that is immediately visible. I hope that answers your question? 
- 
					
					
					
					
 Thanks for the response Highland! Could you clarify "hidden?" Thanks again! 
- 
					
					
					
					
 As long as the text isn't hidden it will be indexed properly. It doesn't matter how you display it on the screen. 
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
- 
		
		Moz ToolsChat with the community about the Moz tools. 
- 
		
		SEO TacticsDiscuss the SEO process with fellow marketers 
- 
		
		CommunityDiscuss industry events, jobs, and news! 
- 
		
		Digital MarketingChat about tactics outside of SEO 
- 
		
		Research & TrendsDive into research and trends in the search industry. 
- 
		
		SupportConnect on product support and feature requests. 
Related Questions
- 
		
		
		
		
		
		Duplicate Content and Subdirectories
 Hi there and thank you in advance for your help! I'm seeking guidance on how to structure a resources directory (white papers, webinars, etc.) while avoiding duplicate content penalties. If you go to /resources on our site, there is filter function. If you filter for webinars, the URL becomes /resources/?type=webinar We didn't want that dynamic URL to be the primary URL for webinars, so we created a new page with the URL /resources/webinar that lists all of our webinars and includes a featured webinar up top. However, the same webinar titles now appear on the /resources page and the /resources/webinar page. Will that cause duplicate content issues? P.S. Not sure if it matters, but we also changed the URLs for the individual resource pages to include the resource type. For example, one of our webinar URLs is /resources/webinar/forecasting-your-revenue Thank you! Technical SEO | | SAIM_Marketing0
- 
		
		
		
		
		
		Does user engagement or content of pages requiring login help SEO?
 Hi! Our company is trying to come up with a few pages with some manuals to teach our users how to use our products. However, these pages require username and password. My understanding is that user engagement will help a website's keyword rankings and Google will not be able to crawl or have access to pages requiring login as it doesn't have username and password. Based on that idea, does that mean all the content and user engagement on those pages requiring login won't help our overall SEO? Thanks in advance! Technical SEO | | EverettChen0
- 
		
		
		
		
		
		does <base> in html affect seo?
 hey, just wanna know does <base> in head of website affect SEO? and if it's a yes, how? Technical SEO | | m17001
- 
		
		
		
		
		
		If I change Tags and Categories in Wordpress blog post, will it negatively affect SEO and cause 404s?
 Hi, I have belatedly come to the conclusion that I have been using tags and categories when blogging in wordpress incorrectly. The result is that Google seems to prefer to show my archives and tags in search results rather than the post itself. Not good UX. As the site is only a few months old, am I best to learn my lesson and tag and categorize correctly moving forward or Should I go back in to these posts and clean them up & categorize and tag correctly. If I do this, will it cause 404s and hurt my SEO? Thanks! Technical SEO | | johnyfiveisalive2
- 
		
		
		
		
		
		New theme adds ?v=1d20b5ff1ee9 to all URL's as part of cache. How does this affect SEO
 New theme I am working in ads ?v=1d20b5ff1ee9 to every URL. Theme developer says its a server setting issue. GoDaddy support says its part of cache an becoming prevalent in new themes. How does this impact SEO? Technical SEO | | DML-Tampa0
- 
		
		
		
		
		
		Will Adding Publish Date at end of Page Title for Blog posts Hurt SEO?
 I'd like to be able to easily track blog posts by month but in Google reports when you set a date range obviously older blog post still appear and with amount of blog posts we generate without seeing the date in the title it's not obvious what was published and when it was published. For example if a Blog Title was "/dangers-of-sharing-KM-knowledge-01-11-15 would it hurt SEO? The reason is I'd like to have a quick way to know how new posts do each month compared to older content Technical SEO | | inhouseninja0
- 
		
		
		
		
		
		Iframes & SEO
 I've got a client that wants a site with all content in iFrames. They saw another site they liked & asked if we could do it. Of course we can technically. How big a negative hit would they take with SEO? Is there anything we can do to mitigate it, such as redirects, etc? Thanks for the help! Technical SEO | | wcksmith0
- 
		
		
		
		
		
		Can local SEO harm national rankings?
 Today I met with a firm called Localeze that provides local directory submissions. I understand the importance of this service if your site is competing locally, however I'm not sure the effects of local SEO for a national brand. Our firm gets most of our traffic from across the country, not just one location, and our business is scattered (which is a good thing). We rank for service related keywords that are not tied to a location. We do not show up for local results so our business in our immediate location is weak. We would like to increase our local presence in search engines but I want to make sure that this will not take away from our national presence. Will optimizing a site for local search negatively affect general rankings? Thanks Technical SEO | | KevinBloom1
 
			
		 
			
		 
					
				 
					
				 
					
				 
					
				 
					
				 
					
				 
					
				