Search engine optimization (SEO) is the result of the empirical practice and theoretical basis for moving a website to the higher ranks of search engine results pages (SERPs). In the long run, it is about making your site more likely to be featured at the top of search results when people enter relevant keywords related to the theme of your site.
Conversely, cloaking is an illicit technique that may hamper your SEO activities. However, what is cloaking in SEO? Let’s find out in this article.
What is Cloaking in SEO?
Cloaking is one of the unscrupulous SEO techniques that involves showing different content to crawler bots (i.e., search engines) rather than what actual human viewers see. This strategy tries to cheat the algorithms by publishing information crammed with relevant keywords to get higher rankings, while some users may see something very different.
Very often, cloaking is carried out by using code that recognizes whether a search engine crawler or a human user is making a request. On this basis, it generates different versions of the content. The displayed content for search engines is densely optimized with the target keywords, yet users may see irrelevant information or even ads.
There are a few methods to cloaking, for instance, hidden text, IP addresses or user agent switching, and doorway pages. Hidden text is a technique where the keywords stuffed into the text are invisible to visitors but perceptible to search engines. This can be achieved by using white text on a white background or by positioning the keywords outside the viewport.
IP address or user agent switching is another common approach where a website determines the user’s IP address or user agent to serve different content basing on that information. Search engines would perhaps see a page with many keywords, and visitors with specific IP addresses would be redirected to another page altogether.
Lastly, door pages are short-term pages designed for quick rankings of certain keywords and redirect users elsewhere. Search engines will see a page that is relevant to the search query. But users will end up on a page totally irrelevant to it.
Types of Cloaking
There are two main categories of cloaking, with vastly different purposes and consequences:
Black Hat Cloaking
This is the malicious version of cloaking to mislead a search engine to win undeservedly higher rankings. The use of black hat cloaking is a violation of search engine guidelines and can result in severe penalties, such as being removed from SERPs.
White Hat Cloaking
Read more: What is White Hat SEO?
In rare cases, cloaking is employed for good purposes. As an illustration, a website could make use of cloaking to make it possible for blind users to access it through screen readers. With alternative content that is understandable to screen readers, the website ensures everybody has a great experience.
Nevertheless, ethical cloaking may not be easy and should be done very carefully and transparently to avoid any confusion with search engines. It’s better, in this case, to get advice from an SEO consultancy like Tech-One prior to using cloaking of any form.
Examples of Cloaking
Here are some common examples of cloaking you should be aware of:
Hidden Text and Links
This mostly aims at placing the same keyword-related text on the background of the page in the same color as the background; this way, the text remains out of the eyes of users, but the search engines are still able to read it. In addition, links going to other pages of the website may remain hidden by their cloaking.
Read more: What is Deep Linking?
IP-Based Cloaking
Such a strategy shows different content to users depending on their IP address location. Here is a simple illustration. A website shows a mobile-friendly version to users with a known mobile IP address and displays a desktop version to others. If the mobile version has different content that is way less informative than the desktop one, what you get is cloaking, not responsive web design.
User-Agent Cloaking
This technique is triggered by a user-agent identifier comprising the software ID requested by the webpage (often a search engine crawler). A website could be optimized to serve a keyword-stuffed version only to search engine crawlers, while human site visitors see a normal version of the content.
JavaScript Cloaking
In this case, the website relies on JavaScript and dynamically loads additional content that was not discovered by the search engine crawler, who had finished indexing the page. This causes a situation where crawler bots see the content optimized for SEO in mind, but users see something completely different.
What is the Best Practice to Avoid Cloaking in SEO?
Luckily, there are some best practices you can follow to ensure your website adheres to ethical SEO guidelines and avoids any potential cloaking issues:
Follow Search Engine Guidelines
It’s no secret that Google and other search engines have a clear set of rules that webmasters need to follow. Periodically read this guide to learn about the latest SEO best practices and uphold compliance with your website.
Ensure Consistency in Content Presentation
The content users are shown must be an exact copy of what a search engine crawler sees. Overloading keywords in titles or hidden text, redirecting only users to a different page, and loading dynamic content that the crawlers cannot recognize are not accepted.
Use Proper HTML Markup and Structured Data
Employing HTML structure and utilizing schema markup can be important for the readability of your website for search engines. The schema markup offers them a natural, richer context, which helps them better understand your articles without resorting to deceptive actions.
Regularly Monitor Websites for Potential Cloaking Issues
There are online tools like SiteChecker and Dupli Checker that assist you in checking for cloaking on your website. Using them on a regular basis can save you from or warn you about possible issues that might lead to a drop in your search engine rankings. You can combine auditing tools with manual testing to ensure that your website does not have any cloaking.
Conclusion
So, what is cloaking in SEO? The name should speak for itself. It is a deceiving method that may do a lot of harm to your website and your online reputation in general. Cloaking may be used for both fair reasons and evil purposes; hence, only adhering to the proper ways is recommended to get your site to high rankings without any negative consequences.
Remember that ethical SEO is built on excellent content and user-friendly experience, while any pesky strategy will always fall behind in the long run. Boosting trust with search engines and users is the key to a well-thought-out SEO campaign.
Want to learn more about SEO? Visit Tech-One today.
Read more: https://tech-one.io/learn/what-is-deep-linking-in-seo/