There are a lot of myths around this topic that have prevailed for a lot of time in the SEO industry. One of those myths is "Google does not crawl content in accordion" or "Content hidden in tabs is not crawled by Google". Let me explain it to you in brief.
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What Google thinks about Tabbed or Accordion Content?
Google has always been focusing on improving user experience in one way or the other. It does not matter what you do on your page, it will understand the front-end of your website and will display it to the user accordingly. This is not a self-sufficient explanation though, let me, deep-dive, into it.
For example, you set your background to a hard color "Grey", and at the same time, the font color that your website is using is grey or dark grey. Now, Google will consider this as a black hat technique, as it will predict that you are trying to hide content from the users. This is not an appropriate example but this was to explain a simple thing about "User Experience". Here is how tabs look like.
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How tabbed or accordion content affect User Experience?
As we know that Google focuses on delivering a good user experience, we must too focus on it if we want our website to be on top of search results. Because Google really cares about user experience. We are not talking about other search engines out there, but Google definitely has a lot to do with how users will interact with your website.
Now let us take an example of content that is too lengthy to fit on a single page, will it be a good idea to keep all the content visible?
The answer would be definitely "NO".
The Concept of Tabbed Content
Tabbed content was originally used by website owners to give users complete information, but take less of their screen space. For example, you want to learn about Google's EAT SEO, you will probably look for the things that you don't know and will likely skip the things that you are already aware of.
Some frequently asked questions about Tabs, Accordions, and hidden content in 2024
Will it affect our SEO negatively or positively if we use tabs or accordions?
It will be a good idea to use tabs or accordions in your content if the content length is a lot. And this is a good practice if you are looking to make your site as user-friendly as possible.
Do Google crawl and index content in Accordion/Tabbed content?
Yes, Google can crawl all the content present on your page irrespective of how your content is designed. Does not matter if you are using tabs or accordions to show your content as collapsed. Indexing however is another concept and will discuss it some other time.
Do you know if hidden content hurts or benefits SEO?
Hidden content can have several meanings depending on how you are implementing it.
If you are using "display: none;" infinitely for everyone, it will hurt your SEO if you are using your keywords hidden. Using this technique is good when you want users to see something on your page only while opening on a desktop and not while opening from a mobile device.
Sometimes Google can detect it as a black hat technique and you may get penalized for the same. So, I suggest using this function carefully and only where it makes sense.
Is tabbed content bad for SEO in 2024 and later?
Tabbed content is not bad for SEO. In fact, keeping content in tabs makes the page user-friendly and gives a boost to the user experience. As we know user experience is a ranking factor in 2024, it is always good to use tabs for better usability.
Do you know if accordions are bad for SEO?
Accordions are also known as tabs in common and are good for SEO. Accordions improve usability especially while going through the content on mobile. When we have longer content, it is always a good idea to make use of accordions.
Do Accordions Affect SEO?
Accordions have no to very less impact on boosting the SEO value of a web page. It does not reduce the SEO value either. The fact is that it improves usability on mobile instead, which in return adds up to mobile usability.
Accordions are actually good to improve user experience.
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