Search Engine Optimization - What is Div Spamming?

I received an email recently from someone who had heard of using hidden 'divs' to improve search engine rankings and wanted to know if it was a legitimate technique.

Short answer: no Long answer: heck no

'Legitimate' is in the eyes of the beholder I guess. Purposeful search engine optimization in itself is hotly debated by some as qualifying as 'spamming', but most search engines frown upon this particular practice - in fact, using hidden divs crammed with keywords can get your site penalized or banned.

So how is hidden div spamming done? It's pretty simple - a div is a useful tag used to contain an element such as text or an image; there's nothing wrong with using them in general page construction at all, it's how you use them that counts.

Here's an example of hidden div used for trying to gain higher search engine rankings:

block of text stuffed full of keywords

If you copy and paste that code into a page, then view the page in a browser - don't do it on your live site of course :), you'll notice that the 'block of text stuffed full of keywords' line is invisible. Some people also use it in conjunction with the Z-Index and other attributes to ensure that no white space appears on the page that may indicate its existence.

As with the div tag, the use of z-index and visibility:hidden are not in themselves viewed as being evil by search engines, they are very useful functions; it's just how they are applied that matters.

So, if you're checking out a competitors' site and can't figure out why they are ranking ahead of you; take a look to see if these little beasties are buried in their code. Even if they are, don't be tempted to follow suit; it's only a matter of time before they'll get slammed.

Also, if you engage the services of an search engine optimization company, check their work for this sort of thing. It's not uncommon for unethical or inexperienced SEO companies to use spamming (aka 'black hat') techniques as they can sometimes give you a short term rankings boost - just long enough for the company to pick up a nice fat fee from you.

Michael Bloch has been working the web as a successful marketing and development consultant since the late 90's. Michael owns and operates TamingTheBeast.net; a popular Internet marketing and ecommerce resources site providing online business owners and affiliate marketers with valuable free advice, articles, tutorials and tools.