Can I ask a Dumb SEO Question?

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

• 
  Alex McIl: Hello All,
  
  I was wondering if I could ask what might be considered a dumb SEO question?
  
  Many of us know that hiding text behind an image or making the text colour the same as the background is a big no no....and that Google's Algorithim is designed to detected hidden elements & penalize.
  
  Upon disabling CSS on my client's website, I noticed 'Radio Buttons' where incorporated to the Main Navigation (these are used for the functionality such as activate drop down, closing the menu etc).
  
  These Radio buttons only show when disabling CSS (not when CSS is enabled).
  My question is, could Google's Algorithims be seeing this as hidden elements, especially considering the only function of a Radio Button is for it to be selected?
  
  (image example provided below)
• 
  Jim Munro: Hi Alex, thank you for your participation here. This is a good question and will be answered during Thursday night's HOA. Here are some earlier responses we have put together on similar but not the same issue as yours. ;https://dumbseoquestions.com/s/hidden
• 
  Edwin Jonk: This is for navigation and users do see it when they open the dropdown, right? I do not think this will be a problem. However if it is excessive (the dropdown is huge) it may have a negative impact.
• 
  Alex McIl: Hello Jim....thank you for the information and I look forward to the answer too....I appreciate your time (really)
  
  Hello Edwin.....no the radio buttons do not show when the menu is opened (when CSS is applied), however, as mentioned the Radio buttons do show when CSS is disabled.....also thank you for your time.
  
  Alex
• 
  Edwin Jonk: I do not think it is an issue for search engines. But if they don't serve any purpose I would remove them.
• 
  Tony McCreath: I'm suspecting the old hidden content trick and Googles punishment of it is obsolete.
  
  Google now renders pages before indexing. This means hidden content is probably not even seen by the bot.
  
  What do others think?
• 
  Jim Munro: I'm sorry, Tony but I have a different opinion, I don't think it's likely that they'd rip out the foundations to paint the kitchen. I'm guessing there's legacy code that no-one's looked at in years. There are many facets and maybe the one method is not dominant over all.
• 
  Edwin Jonk: If I understand it correct there is no hidden content. For some reason there are empty radio buttons in the template. Or are empty radio buttons content?
• 
  Tony McCreath: I guess hidden stuff like links in menus or content under tabs should still be considered, so they will have to go beyond what's visible after rendering.
• 
  Alex McIl: Hi guys,
  
  Yes, they are hidden radio buttons, which are only visible with CSS is disabled. Once disabled you can physically check the radio button. However, when CSS is enabled, no radio buttons are visible, even when you expand the drop down menu.
  As far as I am aware these radio buttons are used to the functionality of the menu (especially for responsive design).
  
  All I know is that Google has change a lot since 2011 and the panda / pengiun updates and wonder if this hidden method might be having an effect.
  
  But I guess things might become more clearer on Thursday.
  
  Thanks guys, your work is awesom
• 
  Justin Murray: I say rip them out of the code. (intelligently and upgrade-safe)  ;No need to have extra lines of code generating stuff.  ;Don't think of it as SEO, think of it as housecleaning for your website.  ;Housecleaning your website falls in line with good SEO (fast website with clean code) A good developer should be able to do that in less than 20 minutes (and that's worst case.. I have to create a child theme in wordpress etc)