Table Text Same Colour as Page Background

[Kal]

Hi all - for the past year or so I have been hearing that the use of table text the same colour as the page background can get you penalized by some search engines.

For example, say your page has a white background (like mine) but the nav table has a dark blue background or image bkgd (like mine) and then you use white text links over the top. Some search engine spiders will "see" this as white text on a white background right? I've heard some engines may class this as invisible text because they won't or can't distinguish that your table has a different background to your page.

I've just changed my table text to a pale blue to avoid this problem but I'm worried the colour is too similar to the white background and may be flagged anyway. What do you think? Have any of you experience of sites being penalized for this design flaw in the past? Thanks in advance.

[WebSavvy]

Hi Kal,

It looks just splendid to me. I wouldn't gather that there would be any problems for you with the way your site is right now.

BTW... the little graphics down at the bottom didn't load. The page loads really quickly and you have tons of great content! :)

[sanity]

Hi Kal,

I agree with Deb - I wouldn't worry . Many designs are done this way. My site for eg. (Most sites we design too and never any penalties.) I have always assumed that the SE's would compare the text colour to what it's sitting on, in this case the table BG colour which is different.

I have always liked your site and agree there's heaps of content. FWIW I found the white text much easier to read. That's just my opinion though :D

Cheers,
Sophie

[Kal]

Thanks Deb! Also thanks for picking up the image problem - I have them referenced incorrectly. cheers

[Advisor]

Hi Kal,

The "myth" you speak of came about years and years ago when one of those stupid automatic tools on the web for checking to see if your code was up to search engine standards, would see that color as the same as the background color. It was never clear that search engines ever saw it that way, only the tool did. (Can't remember which one it was right now.) So, just to be safe, many a SEO would say not to do that. What I used to do was make the font color just slightly off of the background color, just in case. So like if it was white, instead of it being #FFFFFF I'd make it be #FFFFFE which looked pretty much the same to the naked eye.

But I haven't thought about that in years. I don't believe it's a problem with the search engines. Apparently, they're smart enough to see the background color on tables and know that you're not spamming.

Jill

[F-S]

I've wondered about that issue too. I'm not sure about the potential penalty.

I'm sure you could reduce the potential exposure to penalties in this case by using external CSS for your font styles. Search engines would never see colors in any element of your page if done by this means.

[Kal]

Thanks for all the replies guys. Hey Jill I also didn't worry about it much, but I read it in a recent article and then I noticed TopDog mention it as one of their "tips" at start up. Anyway I've already done what you're suggesting, so hopefully it won't matter regardless. Would be nice to know for sure - perhaps something to bring up at the London Conference?

[Matt B]

From talking with programmers at the search engines, the decision to ban sites is made by the "humans." Sites are reviewed to be sure that the intent is to deceive the engine's algorithm before a final decision is made.

If it is a design issue and not an intentional spam issue, I wouldn't worry. Any decision makers looking at the site would realize that you are not spamming.

But I can also understand your decision to play it safe. I've taken that route may times and have never been sorry.