Is hidden content against Google's spam policy? Accordions, tabs and FAQ schema

What counts as spam

• Text the same colour as the background, or so close to it that people cannot read it.
• Text hidden behind an image.
• Font size or opacity set to zero.
• Links on tiny or invisible characters.

What is fine

Accordions, tabs, sliders and expandable sections are normal design. Google has said more than once that, since mobile-first indexing, content inside them is given full weight, because collapsing content for a better mobile layout is not deception.

The FAQ schema mistake

Two things are worth knowing. First, Google stopped showing FAQ rich results altogether on 7 May 2026, so FAQ schema no longer produces a rich result for any site. Second, and more important, Google's structured data guidelines say the marked-up content must be visible on the page. Putting questions and answers in schema that visitors cannot see breaks that rule. If you use FAQ schema, the same questions and answers must be on the page, open or in an accordion.

One more from an accessibility point of view

Be careful with tooltips and hover text. Content that only appears on mouse hover can be missed entirely by keyboard and touchscreen users, so anything important should be reachable without hovering.

Sources

• Google Search Central: Spam policies for Google web search (hidden text and links)
• Google Search Central: General structured data guidelines
• Google Search Central blog: Changes to HowTo and FAQ rich results (August 2023)
• Google Search Central: Latest documentation updates (FAQ rich results ended 7 May 2026)
• W3C WCAG 2.2: 1.4.13 Content on Hover or Focus

This answer started as a reply in a Reddit discussion.

Frequently asked questions

Is hidden content against Google's spam policy? Accordions, tabs and FAQ schema

it depends on why it is hidden. Content hidden to trick search engines, such as white text on a white background or text with a font size of zero, is spam. Content hidden to make the page easier to use, such as accordions and tabs that people can open, is fine.