How Google handles dynamic content has always been a huge topic of discussion among the SEO community – and it’s a huge help when Google steps up and gives us official answers. Gary Illyes stepped in to a Stack Overflow discussion to help us understand whether or not Google will see dynamically generated content within hidden tabs – and the answer isn’t what some of you wanted to hear.
For example, let’s say you have the following:
[tabs type=”horizontal”]
[tabs_head]
[tab_title] Tab 1 – Static[/tab_title]
[tab_title] Tab 2 – Dynamic[/tab_title]
[/tabs_head]
[tab] Tab 1 | Static Content [/tab]
[tab] Tab 2 | Dynamic Content Generated Only When Tab Is Loaded [/tab]
[/tabs]
The second tab has content which isn’t viewable when the page loads, and is only generated when that tab comes into view. Will Google ever see the content within that tab? Sadly, NO.
No, we (Google) won’t see the content behind tabs if the content under the tab is dynamically generated (i.e. not just hidden).
Keep in mind you can always make use of the Fetch as Google tool to see what your webpage will look like to the Google bot.