Making in content links discreet - black hat ?

[Sebastian]

Folks,

Here's the deal, I have a homepage with a lot of links to my internal pages, and I find the result to look quite spammy. Note that these are in content links.

I was thinking of making them look like regular text. These links are more for SEO than visitors anyways. The visitors can use the navigation.

Does Google frown upon such practices, or is it perfectly fine to make a hyperlink look like a regular string of text (no blue, no underlining).

The result is that you don't know it's a link basically.

Thanks

Sebastian

[domainer]

Pretty sure that's a no-no...it just goes against everything that Google's webmaster guidelines wants you to adhere to.

That being said, I did it on one of my big sites in the past without penalty...but I ended up being too paranoid and changing the links back to visible blue hyperlink color.

Bottom line - I wouldn't do it.

[Newjabber]

That being said, I did it on one of my big sites in the past without penalty...but I ended up being too paranoid and changing the links back to visible blue hyperlink color.

Bottom line - I wouldn't do it.

Same here, but if you wanna be a black wizard, then go ahead

[CK]

Folks,

Here's the deal, I have a homepage with a lot of links to my internal pages, and I find the result to look quite spammy. Note that these are in content links.

I was thinking of making them look like regular text. These links are more for SEO than visitors anyways. The visitors can use the navigation.

Does Google frown upon such practices, or is it perfectly fine to make a hyperlink look like a regular string of text (no blue, no underlining).

The result is that you don't know it's a link basically.

Thanks

Sebastian

If it appears too spammy for a reader than why would you think it looks good any other way? Spammy is spammy no matter how you try to hide it. I wouldnt do it. Just seems silly to try and manipulate internal linking when you must have other areas that you can interlink your pages together instead of hiding it on your homepage.

This about sums it up as far as what google thinks.

*

Webmaster guidelines
Quality guidelines


These quality guidelines cover the most common forms of deceptive or manipulative behavior, but Google may respond negatively to other misleading practices not listed here (e.g. tricking users by registering misspellings of well-known websites). It's not safe to assume that just because a specific deceptive technique isn't included on this page, Google approves of it.

Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you'd feel comfortable explaining what you've done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, "Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn't exist?"

Quality guidelines - basic principles

* Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines.

Quality guidelines - specific guidelines

* Avoid hidden text or hidden links.

[Michael Martinez]

I would not recommend hiding links from users under any circumstances.

[Sebastian]

Thanks guys, I will keep them apparent then, but organize them differently.

Sebastian

[dietcola]

Yea id avaoid - yu want to keep it natural...

i think the google thing relates more to like - making your background white and then putting white links behind it - but as for not having the underline or blue - its your website - do what you want to it - i wouldnt think they would punish you or frown on you for this - the idea is to find the links tho yea? i wouldnt make them bold tho at the same time.

good question Seb...