Commenting out CSS means disabling parts of your CSS code without deleting them. The code stays in place, but the browser ignores it and it has no effect on the design of your website.
This works through special characters: /* at the start and */ at the end of a section of code. Everything in between is not executed. Developers use this to test changes, find errors or switch code off temporarily.
In day-to-day work it is particularly handy when you want to find out which part of your CSS is responsible for a particular layout. Instead of removing code, you can simply hide it and reactivate it later.
Typical use cases
- debugging layout or design problems
- temporarily disabling styles
- documentation and comments in the code
- testing changes without losing anything
Why is this relevant for SEO?
Commenting out CSS has no direct influence on rankings. Indirectly, though, it can matter. Errors in styling can worsen the user experience, for example through unreadable content or broken layouts.
Search engines such as Google also assess how user-friendly a website is. Clean, well-structured code helps you build stable and fast pages.