Comments on: A quick word about cloaking http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/a-quick-word-about-cloaking/ neat fun stuff Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:33:38 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Amit Rana http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/a-quick-word-about-cloaking/#comment-401377 Amit Rana Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:08:53 +0000 http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/a-quick-word-about-cloaking/#comment-401377 Hi Matt, I had a question regarding cloaking of urls query parameters. Our application uses query parameters for tracking user flow and we don't want search engines to index the query parameters as this will pollute our user tracking metrics. We remove all the tracking parameters when the crawlers access the page and add the tracking parameters only when a user is viewing the pages. Does this also qualify as a cloaking technique and will be qualified for a penalty. For ex. On page A there is a link to page B: http://example.com/pageA.php?src=pageA -- For users http://example.com/pageA.php -- For search engines Amit Hi Matt,

I had a question regarding cloaking of urls query parameters.
Our application uses query parameters for tracking user flow and we don’t want search engines to index the query parameters as this will pollute our user tracking metrics.
We remove all the tracking parameters when the crawlers access the page and add the tracking parameters only when a user is viewing the pages. Does this also qualify as a cloaking technique and will be qualified for a penalty.
For ex.
On page A there is a link to page B:
http://example.com/pageA.php?src=pageA — For users
http://example.com/pageA.php — For search engines

Amit

]]> By: Pete http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/a-quick-word-about-cloaking/#comment-323391 Pete Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:07:06 +0000 http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/a-quick-word-about-cloaking/#comment-323391 Hi Matt, 1. Scribd definitely serves text to Googlebot (instead of the regular flash content) Would that be seen as cloaking? And if yes, why is it still in Google's index. 2. Also, I always see thousands of links on any Scribd page linking back to the same page with different link text that they retrieve from analytics claiming that users landed on that page using those keywords. Now to any SEO professional, this is clearly a spammy technique, serving tons of anchor text to the bots while delivering 0 usability - rather adding to the frustration of users as those links do not lead anywhere but the page that you are already on. I wonder why such spammy techniques are not discounted in Google SERPS. We see it constantly popping up in search results while users are getting frustrated. I recently recall a tweet by a user frustrated with Google serving irrelevant content from Scribd. I can hunt for it again if you want it but I would rather put your Google searching abilities to test :-) Pete Hi Matt,

1. Scribd definitely serves text to Googlebot (instead of the regular flash content) Would that be seen as cloaking? And if yes, why is it still in Google’s index.

2. Also, I always see thousands of links on any Scribd page linking back to the same page with different link text that they retrieve from analytics claiming that users landed on that page using those keywords. Now to any SEO professional, this is clearly a spammy technique, serving tons of anchor text to the bots while delivering 0 usability – rather adding to the frustration of users as those links do not lead anywhere but the page that you are already on.

I wonder why such spammy techniques are not discounted in Google SERPS. We see it constantly popping up in search results while users are getting frustrated. I recently recall a tweet by a user frustrated with Google serving irrelevant content from Scribd. I can hunt for it again if you want it but I would rather put your Google searching abilities to test :-)

Pete

]]> By: Marc http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/a-quick-word-about-cloaking/#comment-274277 Marc Fri, 13 Mar 2009 21:33:24 +0000 http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/a-quick-word-about-cloaking/#comment-274277 @ Jeff Said and Shawn about expert-exchange.com >If you scroll waaaay down… Yes, but this content is only viewable if you send a google ref. If you view their page directly you won't see any content. In my mind this is cloaking as not everone sends a ref with his browser. @ Jeff Said and Shawn about expert-exchange.com
>If you scroll waaaay down…
Yes, but this content is only viewable if you send a google ref. If you view their page directly you won’t see any content.

In my mind this is cloaking as not everone sends a ref with his browser.

]]> By: Durdenet http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/a-quick-word-about-cloaking/#comment-130028 Durdenet Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:41:23 +0000 http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/a-quick-word-about-cloaking/#comment-130028 If google really wanted to apply the policy: "users should always see the same page that Googlebot saw", They would not allow website like expedia.com hotels.com opodo.com (just to mention some travel sites) To show a completely different homepage (automatic redirection depending on ip geo location) depending if you are a bot or not. Bots don't get any redirection. In addition to this if this was an issue why they are not even checking the Ip? or other technique to hide this fact. They all use simple User-agent detection. And even a 301 redirection.... Ip geolocation is now permanent?! Also this question: Can a site with a pr that is less than 6-7 that these sites have, do the exact same policy without risking being banned? It would be very interesting to have an answer from Matt Cutts on this..... But my guess is that he is going to skip them completely... If google really wanted to apply the policy: “users should always see the same page that Googlebot saw”,
They would not allow website like
expedia.com
hotels.com
opodo.com
(just to mention some travel sites)
To show a completely different homepage (automatic redirection depending on ip geo location) depending if you are a bot or not. Bots don’t get any redirection.
In addition to this if this was an issue why they are not even checking the Ip? or other technique to hide this fact.
They all use simple User-agent detection. And even a 301 redirection…. Ip geolocation is now permanent?!

Also this question: Can a site with a pr that is less than 6-7 that these sites have, do the exact same policy without risking being banned?
It would be very interesting to have an answer from Matt Cutts on this…..
But my guess is that he is going to skip them completely…

]]> By: Jeff http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/a-quick-word-about-cloaking/#comment-128174 Jeff Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:59:43 +0000 http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/a-quick-word-about-cloaking/#comment-128174 @Shawn about expert-exchange.com If you scroll waaaay down... past all the "answer only available for registered users" type posts, then past the huge menu, then down even more... you will find all the answers on the page. I think they just re-arrange the page elements with java or something. @Shawn about expert-exchange.com

If you scroll waaaay down… past all the “answer only available for registered users” type posts, then past the huge menu, then down even more… you will find all the answers on the page.

I think they just re-arrange the page elements with java or something.

]]> By: Savweb http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/a-quick-word-about-cloaking/#comment-121784 Savweb Wed, 30 Jan 2008 10:04:25 +0000 http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/a-quick-word-about-cloaking/#comment-121784 It seems to me that google supports cloaking, i've been reporting one website for about 3-5 months, and it is still showing #1 in search results for many popular queries on google. Check out this blog where the problem is described entirely: cloaking-google.blogspot.com Long live google and cloaking on it ! Bastards It seems to me that google supports cloaking, i’ve been reporting one website for about 3-5 months, and it is still showing #1 in search results for many popular queries on google.

Check out this blog where the problem is described entirely:
cloaking-google.blogspot.com

Long live google and cloaking on it !

Bastards

]]> By: 5ubliminal http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/a-quick-word-about-cloaking/#comment-117593 5ubliminal Sat, 01 Dec 2007 18:48:13 +0000 http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/a-quick-word-about-cloaking/#comment-117593 Checkout my page if you got some time. WMW still cloaks but I guess they do it based on country (geolocation). Maybe you, from the US, can't see this but I bump into this screen periodically. It really looks bad for Google as it appears you're supporting their cloaking. Hope you notice this message! Thanks. Checkout my page if you got some time. WMW still cloaks but I guess they do it based on country (geolocation). Maybe you, from the US, can’t see this but I bump into this screen periodically.

It really looks bad for Google as it appears you’re supporting their cloaking.

Hope you notice this message!
Thanks.

]]> By: Erik Dafforn http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/a-quick-word-about-cloaking/#comment-110945 Erik Dafforn Mon, 13 Aug 2007 18:55:44 +0000 http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/a-quick-word-about-cloaking/#comment-110945 Shawn - very interesting find. If you view the source code of that page, you can see that in addition to making the text "fuzzy," they've garbled it. But they've used a simple ROT-13 decoder on the text, so you can easily convert >> V qba'g unir n svk sbe vg ohg lrf V unir frra gung gbb. to >> I don't have a fix for it but yes I have seen that too. Or, it might be even faster to ditch Outlook 2007 ;-) Shawn – very interesting find. If you view the source code of that page, you can see that in addition to making the text “fuzzy,” they’ve garbled it. But they’ve used a simple ROT-13 decoder on the text, so you can easily convert

>> V qba’g unir n svk sbe vg ohg lrf V unir frra gung gbb.

to

>> I don’t have a fix for it but yes I have seen that too.

Or, it might be even faster to ditch Outlook 2007 ;-)

]]> By: Shawn K. Hall http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/a-quick-word-about-cloaking/#comment-110942 Shawn K. Hall Mon, 13 Aug 2007 18:07:14 +0000 http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/a-quick-word-about-cloaking/#comment-110942 experts-exchange.com is doing this now, too. Googled for "outlook delay in typing". This result appears: delay when typing in Outlook 2007 Question: I have a significant delay when typing emails in Outlook 2007. Sometimes I will type 3 or 4 words before they will appear on the screen. ... www.experts-exchange.com/Software/Internet_Email/Email/Q_22628261.html - 67k - Cached - Similar pages Clicking the link itself results in all the text being fuzzed out and the only content is the question. Clicking the "cached" link results in seeing the responses. They're sending Google different information than visitors. experts-exchange.com is doing this now, too.

Googled for “outlook delay in typing”. This result appears:

delay when typing in Outlook 2007
Question: I have a significant delay when typing emails in Outlook 2007. Sometimes I will type 3 or 4 words before they will appear on the screen. …
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Software/Internet_Email/Email/Q_22628261.html – 67k – Cached – Similar pages

Clicking the link itself results in all the text being fuzzed out and the only content is the question. Clicking the “cached” link results in seeing the responses. They’re sending Google different information than visitors.

]]> By: Trond http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/a-quick-word-about-cloaking/#comment-110855 Trond Sat, 11 Aug 2007 14:55:38 +0000 http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/a-quick-word-about-cloaking/#comment-110855 Very well said - from a highly respected name in SEO! Thanks for all of your great articles! Best regards, Trond Very well said – from a highly respected name in SEO!
Thanks for all of your great articles!

Best regards,
Trond

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