Hidden text on your store: what Google’s spam rules say

White text on a white background, text pushed off-screen, or text shrunk to nothing: Google’s spam policies name each one as hidden text abuse. Delete keyword blocks nobody is meant to read, keep genuine screen-reader text, and find the theme or app that put the rest there.

Critical4 min read

By Edvinas Ivanauskas How the guides are reviewed

Why this matters

Google's spam policies for Search define the problem: “Hidden text or link abuse is the practice of placing content on a page in a way solely to manipulate search engines and not to be easily viewable by human visitors.” The examples read like a tour of old themes: “Using white text on a white background”, “Hiding text behind an image”, “Using CSS to position text off-screen” and “Setting the font size or opacity to 0”. The same page covers keyword stuffing, “filling a web page with keywords or numbers in an attempt to manipulate rankings in Google Search results”, including “Blocks of text that list cities and regions that a web page is trying to rank for”.

Not all hidden content is a problem, and Google says so. Its list of design elements that don't break the policy includes “Accordion or tabbed content that toggle between hiding and showing additional content” and “Text that's only accessible to screen readers and is intended to improve the experience for those using screen readers”. Keep your size-guide tabs and your accessible labels. The target is text that exists only for search engines.

Why it matters for Shopping: your product pages are the landing pages shoppers arrive on, and Google's “Editorial and professional requirements” policy wants landing pages that are “relevant, useful, and easy to interact with”. Hidden keyword blocks also turn up after a break-in. The spam policies describe content injection, where hackers try to “add content to your site that search engines can see but which may be harder for you and your users to spot”, and the editorial policy's domain safety section covers sites compromised by hacking.

The free scan reads your page code and flags blocks of text hidden with inline styles: white text on a white background, text pushed far off-screen, or a zero or one-pixel font size. It skips short labels and screen-reader classes, and it cannot tell an old SEO block from a design choice, so read each hit before you delete it. If a hidden block arrived with a redirect you did not set up, read cloaking and IP redirection too; every page check is on the misrepresentation checker.

Typical evidence

Text hidden from the customer still needs explaining

StoreVerifier can surface text that appears visually hidden in a public capture, such as matching foreground and background colours or zero opacity. Review its purpose and remove misleading or accidental hidden copy; the scan cannot assign intent.

Genuine Italian leather wallet, hand-stitched…

nike adidas puma cheap trainers replica designer

same block, “select all”

Genuine Italian leather wallet, hand-stitched…

nike adidas puma cheap trainers replica designer

White-on-white text is easy to expose by selecting the page. Remove it or make its purpose visible and accessible; do not infer a search or account outcome from this example.

The public signals this check looks for:

A paragraph of keywords in white text at the foot of product pages, visible only when you …
A paragraph of keywords in white text at the foot of product pages, visible only when you select the page.
Rival brand names hidden in the page to catch people searching for them
Rival brand names hidden in the page to catch people searching for them.
Text pushed off-screen with a large negative indent or position
Text pushed off-screen with a large negative indent or position.
Paragraphs set to a zero or one-pixel font size, or zero opacity
Paragraphs set to a zero or one-pixel font size, or zero opacity.
A list of towns the store “delivers to”, tucked into a block nobody can see
A list of towns the store “delivers to”, tucked into a block nobody can see.
A hidden block that came back after a theme or SEO app update, or that nobody on the team …
A hidden block that came back after a theme or SEO app update, or that nobody on the team remembers adding.

What it looks like once it is right

The keyword block is gone. The wallet's description names the leather, the size and the card slots in plain view, and the size guide sits in a tab a shopper can open.

Common mistakes

Common mistake

Below each wallet, a white-on-white paragraph lists “cheap wallets, best wallets UK, leather wallet sale, Rival Co wallets” and twenty town names. Select the page and it appears; scroll normally and it does not.

Fix checklist

Open a product page, press Ctrl+A (Cmd+A on a Mac) to select everything, and look for text that only shows up when highlighted. Do the same on the homepage and a collection page.
View the page source and search for color:#fff, color:white, font-size:0, opacity:0 and large negative text-indent or left values sitting next to long runs of text.
Trace each block to where it lives: the theme files, a page-builder section, a product description template, or an app. Remove it there, so it disappears from every page at once.
Keep what Google's spam policies allow: tabs, accordions, sliders, tooltips and screen-reader text written for people who use screen readers.
Rewrite any keywords worth keeping into copy a shopper would actually read, such as the product description, a size guide or a delivery page.
Remove or replace SEO booster apps and themes that inject hidden text, and repeat the select-all test after every update.
If you find text or links nobody added, treat it as a possible hack: change admin passwords, update the platform and apps, and check the security issues report in Search Console.

Compare visible text with the page styles

StoreVerifier can surface public text that appears visually hidden by its styles, such as matching colours, zero opacity or off-screen positioning. Review why it exists; a capture cannot establish intent.

color:#fff on #fffinvisible

opacity: 0transparent

left: -9999pxoff-screen

font-size: 0zero-height

all need review: text may be hidden from the shopper

Remove misleading or accidental hidden text and verify the live page yourself. Do not infer a search or account outcome from this example.

Questions merchants ask

Is hidden text against Google's policies?

Text hidden solely to manipulate search engines is. Google's spam policies list white text on a white background, text behind an image, text positioned off-screen with CSS, and a font size or opacity of 0 as examples of hidden text abuse.

Are tabs, accordions and screen-reader text a problem?

No. Google's spam policies list accordion or tabbed content, sliders, tooltips and text meant for screen readers among the design elements that do not violate them. Keep them.

I found hidden text on my store that I never added. What now?

Treat it as a possible hack. Google's spam policies describe content injection, where someone adds content search engines can see but you may not spot. Remove it, change passwords, update the platform and apps, and check Search Console for security issues.

Remediation

Risk signal

Hidden keyword blocks were a ranking trick once and a liability now: Google's spam policies name every version of them, and they make an honest store look like it has something to hide. Delete them at the source, keep the accessibility text, and find out who put them there if nobody on your team did.

PriorityTreat this and any other highest-severity findings as first-priority work, then document each fix.

EvidenceRecord the current state before each change, apply the fix, then capture the corrected state so every change is evidenced.

Similar cases

Sources

Last reviewed 23 Sep 2026.

That is one issue. The library documents 134.

The free scan lists what it finds on your store. The paid report adds the affected pages, captured evidence and step-by-step fixes. Start free, with no account needed.