Google slipping up?

[TSR]

One of the search phrases that I target is 'accommodation cape town', so I naturally investigated when clients who previously ranked well for this term were recently dropped from Google. The #1 ranked site appears to be using a hidden style sheet and the site ranked #4 (sirfrancis.co.za) is using hidden text.

I reported this to Google some time (around a week) ago and received a reply from them that they would investigate, but as off today those two sites are still ranked in the same position. Perhaps the fact that the #1 ranked site (gaynetcapetown.co.za) has a Google search box on their page has some bearing on that?

It seems that in some cases, the old ways of fooling spiders are still effective. Or maybe Google is more talk that action, I will be eagerly waiting to see.

[ihelpyou]

Welcome to the forums TSR! :hi:

I do not think the Google search would have a bearing on things. Google has let spam slip by lately, but when they investigate and find it, the site may drop when the next index comes around.

[Mel]

Hi TSR and welcome to the forums.

I am not aware of any search engine who includes the style sheet in the rankings of a site or who would care one way or another if the style sheet is hidden or not. I prefer in fact to place the style sheet "off Page" to reduce what the search engine has to read in order to get to my content.

Hidden text is another kettle of fish however, but unless it is a bunch of relevant text, that could seriously effect the ranking of the page it may well be that it is a shift in the Google Page Rank that is causing the differences.

[Blue]

:hi:

[Web Witch]

:hi: TSR

[JuniorHarris]

Welcome TSR!~ :hi: