Answer
May 03, 2022 - 09:41 AM
Google's official position is that it should not have any effect. See John Mueller's statement on Search Engine Journal)
"In a Google Office Hours hangout Google’s John Mueller corrected a lingering misperception about content hidden behind tags and accordions. Specifically, he busted the myth that Google [ignores, discounts or values less], content that’s hidden behind accordions and tabs."
Here’s the question posed to John: “In the mobile first indexing world, will the. hidden text, hidden content behind tabs and accordions still be devalued, for example because there’s a lower chance that it will be seen by a user?” Mueller answered with an unambiguous no:
“No.Specifically when it comes to content on mobile pages we do take into account anything that’s in the HTML. So if there’s something there that might be visible to users at some point we will include that… so that’s completely normal.”
While that is Google's official position, in practice, in 3 out of 10 cases Google's crawlers do not pick up the tabbed content--and so it is not indexed and the affected site does not realize the SEO benefit. This is according to a practicing SEO consultant who has worked on hundreds of sites.
He says that it usually comes down to the specific site structure. If the site has a tabbing/accordion structure that is easily crawled then the tabbed content will be indexed for all pages. If it is difficult to crawl, it won't be indexed for all pages.
You can test a single tabbed page and insert some unique word or phrase e.g. "Mr. Mtabaruka Kalenga Maulana" :) in one of the non-default tabs.
After a a week or two, search for the phrase in Google. Do you get a search result? If you do, then it means that Google had no issues crawling the tabbed content and the rest of your site is fine.
"In a Google Office Hours hangout Google’s John Mueller corrected a lingering misperception about content hidden behind tags and accordions. Specifically, he busted the myth that Google [ignores, discounts or values less], content that’s hidden behind accordions and tabs."
Here’s the question posed to John: “In the mobile first indexing world, will the. hidden text, hidden content behind tabs and accordions still be devalued, for example because there’s a lower chance that it will be seen by a user?” Mueller answered with an unambiguous no:
“No.Specifically when it comes to content on mobile pages we do take into account anything that’s in the HTML. So if there’s something there that might be visible to users at some point we will include that… so that’s completely normal.”
While that is Google's official position, in practice, in 3 out of 10 cases Google's crawlers do not pick up the tabbed content--and so it is not indexed and the affected site does not realize the SEO benefit. This is according to a practicing SEO consultant who has worked on hundreds of sites.
He says that it usually comes down to the specific site structure. If the site has a tabbing/accordion structure that is easily crawled then the tabbed content will be indexed for all pages. If it is difficult to crawl, it won't be indexed for all pages.
You can test a single tabbed page and insert some unique word or phrase e.g. "Mr. Mtabaruka Kalenga Maulana" :) in one of the non-default tabs.
After a a week or two, search for the phrase in Google. Do you get a search result? If you do, then it means that Google had no issues crawling the tabbed content and the rest of your site is fine.
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