Listen: Experiment Results: Can Hidden Content Rank Well?
Google gave no preference to visible content in our test but it's still the best practice to show any important content in the visible part of the page.
Transcript
What happens to your search rankings when you hide website content behind a pop-up or a lightbox?
To find out, we set up a test with four pages containing the same target keyword. Two of the pages showed the content immediately, while the other two hid the text behind a lightbox that users had to dismiss.
Surprisingly, Google didn't penalize the hidden content. The pages with the hidden text ranked just as well as the visible ones, and the top-ranking page in our test actually had its content hidden. Google even highlighted the hidden keyword in the search results snippet.
Despite these positive results, we discussed the experiment with Google's John Mueller at the Search Marketing Expo in Munich. Mueller was very clear: Google still prefers visible content over hidden content. He advised that the safest and best practice is to always keep your most important keywords and information immediately visible.
Our test pages were brand new and sat outside of a normal website template, which means Google might have treated them differently than an established site. While a temporary disclaimer might not ruin your rankings, keeping your critical content front and center remains the safest bet.