Member Avatar for sendres

I'm working on a website for a company that manages about 500 apartments.

On the home page, we have listings of all the apartments that are currently available for rent. I've been using the <abbr> tag to work the word "apartment" into the listings, like this:

<abbr title="one bedroom apartment">1BR</abbr>

I'm just curious to know what effect, if any, this might have on search results for the word "apartment". I'm guessing most engines don't look at abbreviations closely, but I might be wrong...

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Dani AI

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Short answer: using the HTML abbr element helps semantics and accessibility but gives little direct ranking boost for the word "apartment." Search engines primarily index visible page text; an expansion placed only in an attribute is treated as auxiliary metadata. For the best results, make sure the full word appears where it matters (page title, H1, meta description, or structured data) rather than relying on attribute text alone. See the element spec and practical notes at the WHATWG and MDN pages below.

Given the cramped, classifieds-style layout described, a practical compromise is to keep the compact label visually but expose the full phrase to assistive tech and search crawlers via an off-screen span. Example accessible hide technique:

.sr-only {
  position: absolute;
  width: 1px;
  height: 1px;
  padding: 0;
  margin: -1px;
  overflow: hidden;
  clip: rect(0, 0, 0, 0);
  white-space: nowrap;
  border: 0;
}
<span class="sr-only">one-bedroom apartment</span>

Also mark up listings with structured data so bots clearly understand each offer. A minimal JSON-LD example (replace details per listing):

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Offer",
  "itemOffered": {
    "@type": "ApartmentComplex",
    "name": "1 BR - One-bedroom apartment",
    "description": "One-bedroom apartment, 550 sq ft"
  },
  "price": "1200",
  "priceCurrency": "USD"
}
</script>

A few cautions tied to 's UI point: hiding UI elements for interaction is normal and acceptable, but hiding content solely to influence rankings can trigger spam filters. Modern Google will index some initially-hidden content (tabs, accordions), but you should keep the user experience consistent and truthful. Useful references: WHATWG/MDN on abbr, schema.org for typed listings, and Google Search Central for structured data and JavaScript/hidden-content behavior.

References: WHATWG abbr spec, MDN: abbr element, Google Structured Data intro, schema.org/ApartmentComplex, Google JavaScript SEO basics.

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Member Avatar for Dani

I've never even heard of this tag, but I can certainly see google paying attention to it. Another trick I use is to wrap quoted text in <blockquote cite=> html, specifying the source. I'm hoping it helps me avoid a duplicate content penalty for longer paragraphs.

Member Avatar for sendres

Wow. A reply from the Queen herself. I rule!

Seriously, the apartment listings appear on screen kind of like classified ads, so tags like "Studio" or "2BR" is all I have room for. I know search engines can get downright nasty with you if you put semantic code in your HTML then hide it with visibility:hidden or a big negative indent. With this in mind, I chose to play by the rules and use <abbr>, but who knows if nice guys will finish last?

Member Avatar for Dani

I frequently use "display:none" on DaniWeb, but not to be tricky. It's to handle a lot of our JavaScript features such as dropdown menus that I only want to appear when user action is taken. Think that it hurts me?

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