As we all know, the success of a website is determined by the no. of visitors it attracts.
And the most efficient way to attract visitors is through organic traffic from search engines. Implementing effective SEO strategies is crucial to achieving top ranking in search engine results
Since SEO is a gradual process which consumes time and effort, some resort to using black-hat SEO techniques like cloaking for quick results. But it will cause ultimate damage to your site’s reputation at a later stage.
In this blog, we’re providing you with a detailed study of what is cloaking in SEO and why it’s best to avoid it.
Let’s dive in to explore the topic in detail.
What is Cloaking in SEO?
Cloaking is the practice of presenting one version of a web page to search engines while displaying a different version to its actual human visitors.
SEO cloaking example: When users visit a website they see a visually appealing website with a lot of graphics and multimedia elements and little text. However, the same site, when presented to search engines, will contain different content with more text and fewer images. This is done because search engines have limited abilities to understand images and graphics.
The purpose of doing cloaking in SEO is to quickly improve a website’s rankings in a short period.
However, it’s a direct attempt to deceive the search engines like Google and a clear violation of their policies and guidelines. As a result, it may lead to penalties from Google.
Different Types of Cloaking: How Is It Done
Cloaking occurs in several ways and all are against search engine policies and guidelines. The most common cloaking techniques are:
Hidden Text
Within this methodology, website owners embed hidden text across various pages to trick search engines. They match the background and foreground colours to obscure the text’s visibility. Moreover, some use CSS or Javascript to conceal the text within the website’s layout.
IP Address Cloaking
This is the most commonly used method of cloaking in SEO.
This happens when a user is redirected to the intended website through a second website that is ranking on Google.
For seamlessly redirecting the users, web owners set up .htaccess through reverse DNS records.
User Agent Cloaking
In this approach, designated applications known as user agents are used in lieu of traditional users. These user agents evaluate the website visitors and determine the appropriate version of the cloaked site to display. This is achieved through a code dispatched directly to the server. Consequently, when a search engine crawler visits the site, the cloaked content is served to it.
HTTP Accept-Language Header Cloaking
In this type of cloaking, the user’s HTTP accept-language header is checked to identify whether it’s a regular user or a crawler. If it’s a crawler then the cloaked version is presented instead of the original version.
Java Script Cloaking
This technique involves displaying different versions of content to users who have Javascript enabled in their web browsers and those who do not (such as search engines).
Flash Web Pages
In this method, content-rich HTML pages are shown to search engine crawlers while flash pages are shown to human users.
Why Should You Avoid Cloaking in SEO
You should avoid cloaking for the following reasons:
Short-Term Gains, Long-Term Risks
Although you may get a boost in rankings in a short period with less effort, it won’t last long as search engines will eventually catch on. And once caught, you’ll lose all the rankings you gained and your site could be penalized.
So, it’s recommended to focus on long-term achievements instead of quick fixes like cloaking.
Will Result in Penalty from Search Engines
Major search engines, including Google, strictly prohibit all black hat SEO practices including cloaking. Their guidelines clearly state that any violation will result in severe penalties such as loss of rankings, indefinite ban, deindexing from search engines etc.
Recovering from such penalties is always extremely difficult and can ruin all the hard work you’ve put into your website.
So, it’s highly important to refrain from such activities and adhere to search engine guidelines to avoid any setbacks.
You’ll Definitely Get Caught
Search engines are constantly evolving and their algorithms are becoming more advanced to easily detect and penalize deceptive activities such as cloaking.
It’s quite impossible to hide any such activity from them for a long period of time. It’s highly probable that search engines will eventually detect it.
Therefore, it’s only a matter of time before you get caught
Affects User Experience
Cloaking SEO involves serving different versions of content to users and search engines. Sometimes this may result in prioritising search engines over user experience. Consequently, users may see irrelevant content that doesn’t provide any value to them, leading to disappointment and dissatisfaction.
Loss of Brand Reputation and Trust
Using cloaking as a strategy can damage your brand’s reputation in front of search engines as well as your users also. It not only affects your search engine rankings but also your credibility with users. This can lead to a loss of both rankings and trust from your audience.
How to Detect Cloaking
While search engines have advanced algorithms to identify cloaking, here are some methods to detect if a website is cloaking or not:
By using an Online Cloaking Checker
You can detect the cloaking of a website by using online tools like Sitechecker or Duplichecker. These tools are quite efficient and free to use.
Comparing the Search Engine Result to the Actual Page
When you see a link to a web page in the search engine results, there’ll be a small description extracted from the same web page content. If you go to that page you should see the description there somewhere. If you don’t, you can understand that the website is using cloaking in its SEO activities.
Look for Other Signs
Sometimes web owners indulge in other malpractices such as keyword stuffing, low-quality content, article spinning, paid backlinks and duplicate content. While these behaviours necessarily indicate cloaking, they can be considered attempts to trick search engines.
Allowed Practices in Cloaking
Geolocation
Geolocation is the method of displaying websites based on the user’s geographical location. For example, Google will appear differently to a user in India and UK. This method is intended mainly to enhance a website’s relevance and user experience.
URL Rewriting
This refers to the act of modifying the appearance of a URL to include relevant keywords and enhance its readability for the purpose of SEO while keeping the page structure intact.
Flexible Sampling
With this method, users can access the first page of content by clicking on a listed page on Google without signing up on the host site.
Different Versions for Different Devices
Creating multiple versions of a website to fit mobile and desktop separately is not considered cloaking. It’s usually done to improve the user experience of a website on different devices.
Final Thought
In summary, web owners should avoid black hat techniques like cloaking and instead focus on creating high-quality content that is valuable to users.
Also, it’s far more beneficial to spend your time and effort on authentic SEO strategies that improve user experience and yield long-lasting results.
