Ken: wrong, they stated they take it exactly like normal content. Especially in our mobile first area, this makes perfectly sense and they would be really wrong not to treat it exactly like normal content.

Léo Dugué: No this is wrong, there are studies from SEO's who test this and the content will not be ranked like visible content. Google say this to bring the webdesign to a new usability standard. It make sense to say this for the good of 2022/23 websites, but it is not true. Last year someone put all his content out of accordions and got a big ranking boost after that...

Ken: idk i guess it depends how its coded (why would it be different if the html is the same and content is hidden with css ?), at least i think google is trying to rank it normally, so if its not ranked correctly its rather a bug. I use accordions a lot anyway and one thing im sure is that the faq content is displayed in the serp (not always obviously, but it happens when relevent), even without schema. I tested it for faq and not faq content and it works in bing and google. You cannot make a heavy page without hidden content anyway, unless you want people to bounce off your page without reading.

Léo Dugué: Hidden Content was a blackhat Seo tactic from year 1999-2005 and above. In the beginning you could easily manipulate websites with hidden content and rank them on top 1 positions. So hidden content was always a problem for Google in all these years. All years the content dont get ranked because of that problem but google and the development goes further and in 2023 google has no problems to identify hidden content and the value. So if you think logical about that, the hidden content is not visible on the first view and people dont click on an element everytime. So in that case, the value of the hidden content cant be as high as normal visible content. In 2023 it is okay to have many hidden content and google understand it, but for ranking the content has probaply only 50-75% strength. There are studies about collapsed FAQ content from SEOs who tested this, you dont get on Google first page if its collapsed and on the bottom of a page. HOW ? Google want to deliver the best search experience, sending a user on a page scrolling 1 hour and than click on an expand tab ? It's too dificult for people. So content needs to be visible like studies say.

It's easy to develop this option, that all are open...

best regards

Ken: I understand but as an user myself, i can assure you that a heavy text page without hidden content is a pile of garbage to both my eyes and my brain. I can simply not expand all the text on the type of page i work on. I do not agree that collapsed content is harder to use than expanded, it's actually easier to understand and to choose which parts of the text are for you, it's like punctuation for UI. It wouldn't exist otherwise, as it's more work to do that rather than trowing a bunch of text with a few CTAs.

Léo Dugué: yeah, a website 2023 can have/should have hidden content, for sure! Thats not what i mean. I add tabbed content on my own websites. But FAQ's on the bottom needs the all open option and schema markup for best ranking on google.