Watch: Google Ignores Hidden Content - Including Tabs?
In today's hangout with John Mueller from Google we found that Google tends to ignore content which seems to be off-screen, including tabs?
Transcript
How does Google handle content on your website that isn't immediately visible?
In a recent discussion, Google representatives revealed that the search engine tends to ignore content that is pushed off-screen. This has big implications for tabbed design, which is highly popular in modern web development. When information is hidden behind a tab, a user searching for a specific keyword might not see it right away when they land on your page.
Tests show that Google does still index tabbed content, but it is uncertain whether this hidden text carries the same ranking weight as content that is visible by default.
To solve this, you could split tabbed sections into separate pages with their own web addresses. However, dividing up a strong, cohesive page can sometimes conflict with other search guidelines. Because of this, the best recommendation is to display your entire content directly on the page, without hiding any of it behind tabs.