No Cloaked Text

TL;DR

There’s a technical or content issue reducing how well your page can be crawled, understood, or cited. Follow the steps below to diagnose the cause, apply the fix, and verify the result. Finish by running an Oversearch AI Page Optimizer scan.

Why this matters

Access and crawlability are prerequisites. If crawlers can’t fetch or parse your content, rankings and citations become unreliable, and LLMs may fail to extract answers.

Where this shows up in Oversearch

In Oversearch, open AI Page Optimizer and run a scan for the affected page. Then open Benchmark Breakdown to see evidence, and use the View guide link to jump back here when needed.

What counts as cloaking or hidden text?

Cloaking means showing different content to search engines than to users. Hidden text means content that is invisible to users but readable by crawlers — such as white text on a white background, text positioned off-screen, or zero-font-size text.

Both are violations of search engine guidelines and can result in penalties. However, legitimate UI patterns like accordions, tabs, and “read more” sections are generally acceptable as long as the content is accessible to users on interaction.

• Cloaking: Serving different HTML to Googlebot vs. users → penalty risk.
• Hidden text: CSS-hidden text meant only for crawlers → penalty risk.
• Legitimate: Accordions, tabs, read-more that users can expand → generally okay.
• Google can detect hidden text via CSS analysis.

If you use Oversearch, open AI Page Optimizer → Benchmark Breakdown to see whether hidden content was detected.

Can hidden text get my site penalized?

Yes. Google explicitly lists hidden text as a spam policy violation. Manual actions can result in pages or entire sites being removed from search results.

The risk is highest when hidden text is keyword-stuffed or clearly intended to manipulate rankings. Accidental hidden text (e.g., from a CSS bug) is less likely to trigger a penalty, but should still be fixed.

• Google’s spam policies prohibit hidden text and cloaking.
• Manual actions appear in Google Search Console → Security & Manual Actions.
• Even algorithmic detection (without a manual action) can suppress rankings.
• Fix any hidden text immediately, then request a review if a manual action was applied.

If you use Oversearch, open AI Page Optimizer → Benchmark Breakdown to check for cloaked or hidden content flags.

Is it okay to hide content behind tabs/accordions?

Yes, as long as the content is in the HTML and accessible to users on click or tap. Google has confirmed it fully indexes content behind tabs and accordions.

The key distinction is whether the content is in the DOM (just visually hidden until interaction) versus loaded only on demand via JavaScript. If it is in the HTML from the start, it is indexable.

• Content in the DOM but visually collapsed (CSS display:none toggled by JS) → indexed.
• Content loaded via AJAX only when the user clicks → may not be indexed.
• Use semantic HTML for accordion/tab content, not just empty containers filled by JS.
• Ensure the content is accessible to screen readers as well.

If you use Oversearch, open AI Page Optimizer → Benchmark Breakdown to verify that tab/accordion content is detected.

How do I remove hidden SEO spam injected by plugins?

Audit your site’s HTML for hidden elements you did not create. Check for injected text with display:none, font-size:0, or position:absolute; left:-9999px that contains keyword-stuffed content.

This is common with compromised WordPress plugins, compromised sites, or low-quality SEO plugins that insert hidden link blocks. Use View Source or a crawler to find hidden content.

• Search your page source for suspicious keyword-dense hidden blocks.
• Check all active plugins for known vulnerabilities.
• Scan with a security tool (Sucuri, Wordfence) if you suspect a security breach.
• Remove the offending plugin and clean up unauthorized markup.

If you use Oversearch, open AI Page Optimizer → Benchmark Breakdown to detect hidden content issues.

Common root causes

• Template-level configuration mismatch or conflicting signals.

How to detect

• In Oversearch AI Page Optimizer, open the scan for this URL and review the Benchmark Breakdown evidence.
• Verify the signal outside Oversearch with at least one method: fetch the HTML with curl -L, check response headers, or use a crawler/URL inspection.
• Confirm you’re testing the exact canonical URL (final URL after redirects), not a variant.

How to fix

Understand what qualifies as hidden text (see: What counts as cloaking or hidden text?) and whether your UI patterns are safe (see: Is it okay to hide content behind tabs/accordions?). Then follow the steps below.

1. Apply the fix recommended by your scan and validate with Oversearch.

Verify the fix

• Run an Oversearch AI Page Optimizer scan for the same URL and confirm the benchmark is now passing.
• Confirm the page is 200 OK and the primary content is present in initial HTML.
• Validate with an external tool (crawler, URL inspection, Lighthouse) to avoid false positives.

Prevention

• Add automated checks for robots/noindex/canonical on deploy.
• Keep a single, documented preferred URL policy (host/protocol/trailing slash).
• After releases, spot-check Oversearch AI Page Optimizer on critical templates.

FAQ

Do ‘read more’ sections count as hidden text?

No. Read-more sections that expand on click are legitimate UX patterns. Google indexes the content behind them as long as it is in the HTML. When in doubt, ensure the hidden content is in the DOM on page load, not loaded via a separate request.

How do I check if my site has been penalized for hidden text?

Check Google Search Console → Security & Manual Actions for manual actions. Algorithmic penalties do not show up there but manifest as sudden traffic drops. When in doubt, search your site’s HTML for display:none, font-size:0, or position:absolute with large negative offsets and verify each is legitimate.

Is CSS display:none always considered hidden text?

No. CSS display:none is legitimate for UI elements like menus, modals, and accordions that toggle visibility on user interaction. It becomes a problem only when used to hide keyword-stuffed content from users. When in doubt, ask: can a user see this content by interacting with the page?

Can third-party scripts inject hidden text without my knowledge?

Yes. Compromised plugins, inserted ads, or compromised scripts can add hidden link blocks or keyword-stuffed text. Regularly audit your page source for elements you did not create. When in doubt, scan with a security tool and review all third-party scripts.

Does visually hidden text for accessibility count as hidden text?

Screen-reader-only text (using clip-rect or similar accessible-hiding techniques) is legitimate and not penalized by Google. It serves a real user need. When in doubt, use standard accessible-hiding CSS patterns and ensure the text is genuinely for accessibility.

How can I verify the fix after removing hidden text?

View page source and search for suspicious display:none or off-screen positioned text. Compare the visible page with the raw HTML to ensure they match. When in doubt, run an Oversearch AI Page Optimizer scan to check.