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Fox8124981

: Using the same word in multiple links to other pages -- avoid looking spammy while getting the benefit of linking using that keyword We have top level categories on our site that have a bunch

@Fox8124981

Posted in: #Css #HiddenText #Html #Seo #Spam

We have top level categories on our site that have a bunch of child categories within them. So for example we have a category called "Aquarium Supplies" with like 50 categories within it (i.e. Lighting, Filters, etc.).

A little while back, the person who had my job changed the category titles to be more descriptive, but ultimately this just ended up putting "Aquarium" in front of every category (i.e. "Aquarium Lighting, "Aquarium Filters", etc.). So the listings of categories ended up being "Aquarium... Aquarium... Aquarium..." and so on, which we've gotten complaints about because of the amount of categories is just overwhelming and seeing "Aquarium" 50 times on a page is ridiculous.

Fast forward to now, where we've just gone through making the website more ADA friendly. Well, ADA doesn't like when you have generic links like "Read More" because things need to make sense out of context. ADA recommends setting up "hidden" text that is still readable by a screen reader. So what you end up doing is the following:

<p><span class="ada">10 tips for travelling - </span>Read More</p>


With the following CSS

.ada {font-size:0;}


This hides the text within the span tag but allows for it to still be read by a screen reader.

So my question is this: If I want to remove every instance of "Aquarium" from my category names, but still technically keep them so my inbound links are descriptive enough for SEO purposes, would using this ADA method of setting font-size to 0 work? Or would Google see it as spam?

EDIT: A visual of what I want to do

<ul>
<li><span class="ada">Aquarium </span>Lighting</li>
<li><span class="ada">Aquarium </span>Filters</li>
</ul>

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@Heady270

Link text on links within your own site does not appear to be a major ranking signal right now. Using keywords on links to other pages on your site does not seem to help those pages rank better for those keywords.

Choose anchor text link for interior links that are easy to use for your readers. Using the same word to start each link looks spammy. You might think that putting the word in would help each page rank better for those keywords, but it is more likely to get your site slapped with an over-optimization penalty from Google.

Hiding the text from users while showing it to Google is called cloaking. Using zero sized font, or white text on a white background is expressly forbidden in Google's webmaster guidelines. Don't try to put the word in the link, but hide it from users, or your site will get slapped with a cloaking penalty from Google.

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@Hamm4606531

Some research would reveal that setting font-size to 0 would probably be frowned upon in this instance, considering it isn't actually for ADA but because I want a more aesthetically pleasing category page.
support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66353
I will continue to look for a possible solution to my dilemna

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