A Comprehensive Guide on Cloaking in SEO

Every website owner wants his website and web pages to rank well on the search engine result pages (SERPs). Various practices are widely used to make a website worthy of a good ranking. Some of these exercises fall under WHITE HAT SEO, while some are labeled as BLACK HAT SEO. Cloaking is a black hat SEO practice used to dodge search engine crawlers and spiders. The information presented to the user differs from that presented to a search engine like Google. This article will thoroughly explain cloaking with its implementation. Keep reading to learn more!

What is Cloaking in SEO?

Cloaking is a black hat SEO practice where the content presented to users differs from that presented to search engine crawlers. By making a cloak content, the search engine ranking is distorted. The web server is programmed in a way that it returns different information to users and search engines.

Now, you might have understood that cloaking is a black hat SEO practice used to dodge search engines for better ranking. The search engine may ban your website permanently from indexing. As a website owner, you should not fall into such traps. Connecting with the right partners can prevent you from such actions. Hire the best SEO services Dubai for better SEO practices.

Cloaking in SEO can come in various types. The web server can be programmed in different ways to make it present different information to users and search engines. Following are some of the types of cloaking that are widely practiced.

i) User-agent Cloaking:

A user agent is a program (a software) that works for a user. For instance, an internet browser goes about as a user agent that gets site data on a working framework. When you key in an inquiry, the program sends a code to the worker to recognize/distinguish the user agent. Cloak content is served when the search engine identifies the user-agent to be a crawler.

ii) IP-based Cloaking:

The most preferred method of cloaking is the IP-based one. The website operators play tricks to redirect users to a page with higher traffic and good SERP ranking. The operators use the reverse DNS records, which are available in the cPanel of a hosting company. The desired results are achieved when the operator redirects users to their desired page with a good SERP ranking.

iii) JavaScript Cloaking:

Another trick played in the cloaking chapter is JavaScript cloaking. Users who are using JS-enabled browsers are served a different version of the website from those who are using JS-disabled browsers. Any user with a JavaScript browser may see the content differently from the one that is showed on a JS-disabled browser.

iv) HTTP Accept-language Header Cloaking:

The user is provided with the website version and content based on his/her HTTP Accept-language header. It is a complicated type of cloaking which is rarely used. The HTTP Accept-language header of the user is checked and based on the match results, a specific version of a website is presented.

v) HTTP_REFERER Cloaking:

Same as the previous technique, the HTTP_REFERER of the requester is checked. Based on the match results, a specific version of website content is presented.

All of these techniques are prohibited by the search engines since they violate the webmaster guidelines and rules.

Common Ways To Implement SEO Cloaking:

Various easy pointers are under practice to ensure cloaking is implemented in SEO practices. Following are some of the ways discussed.

i) Invisible or hidden text:

Utilizing this methodology, website admins add extra data like keywords stuffing, overwriting content in a hidden way. The website admin adds this data in the same color as background shading, which isn't apparent to naked eyes. The content is added in an undetectable way to dodge the search engines.

ii) Flash-based Websites:

Some of the websites cannot avoid flashes despite being a prohibited practice. Instead of creating the entire website in HTML, the website admins create flashy, content-rich pages and provide them to search engines. The visitors will see the flash pages once it is done.

iii) HTML Rich Websites:

One of the SEO guidelines is that your TEXT to HTML ratio should be as high as possible. The TEXT (content) should be more in weight when compared to the HTML tags. Many websites violate this rule by producing HTML-rich websites. The ranking achieved through this technique is short-lived.

iv) Image Gallery Websites:

Web admins use image gallery websites to get a higher ranking on SERPs. The website has more images than the actual web content, leaving the crawlers to go unnoticed.

Ensure the best SEO practices with SEO experts!

Black Hat SEO techniques can grant you ranking, but the advantages are only short-lived. Your website can get banned permanently by the search engine if detected. Why not play it safe? Get in touch with professional SEO experts and ensure white hat SEO practices for your website!