I haven't noticed the hidden text for the site you are talking about but I have noticed and reported hidden text on a hot sauce site (Cholula) that uses an insane amount of hidden text! The search engines should monitor this better because it makes the smaller companies that practice safe SEO techniques tough to get listed. I have repeatedly reported the Cholula website to the search engines for their hidden text but I guess they aren't going to do anything about it. I feel like I am talking to a brick wall. I know that if I put hidden text on my page, then I would get slammed, banned and banished (or maybe not). Has anyone reported hidden text to search engines and have the search engines actually done something about it?
Yes, i have seen couple of sites using one pixel image and give some alternative Text (ALT tag) for that image and set h1 properties using style sheet for that image and in my experience yahoo and msn are more faster than google in finding fraudandent sites. This will discourage others who do really good s.e.o and tempts them to mis use.
I just do not understand why some people do this. I can see if you were doing it for pointing links in your own site, but doing it for the purpose higher serps just makes no since, you know someone is going to catch it sooner or later.
It's a game of risk.. if you use bad SEO ethics but dont get caught, you can build up enough Branding for your site and name to get you good PR and good alexa ranking. Then if SEs catch you well, its kinda too late to penalize you now since everyone already knows who you are and goes to your site.
donot do that!
google is an excellent technology company and they will know what you are doing to fool them then you will be banned forever for the game
Using small amounts of hidden text thats not meant to decieve (not like the FT) is OK by Google according to Susan Moskwa of Google Webmaster Central last week.
