Where are my pages on Google?

Cloaked pages working elsewhere, not on Google...

[johnser]

Hi
Google is in the middle of its update at the moment but I can't see any sign of my newly cloaked pages on their own promotional domains on www2 or www3.

The domains aren't even listed at all???

I'm getting top rankings for competitive terms with the cloaked pages everywhere else but not here.

(I've other non-cloaked pages coming top on Google for different competitive phrases)

How long is a piece of string but any thoughts??

I thought it might be the presence of the noarchive tag but I doubt it very much

Thanks
J

[chris_f]

Simple piece of advice. Don't cloak your pages. GG may have become wise to your cloaking and banned you site. I would wait for the update to stabilise then look for you pages in GG again.

Why would you want to cloak your pages anyway?

(edited by: chris_f at 12:02 pm (utc) on May 28, 2002)

[backus]

Sounds like you're busted mate! Did you backup you IP cloaking with UA cloaking? If not, then it's possible Googlebot got through and now you're busted.

Chris, sometimes cloaking is necessary - i.e. our main site is flash and we must cloak, no other way. Boss won't allow anything else.

[chris_f]

I that case backus you have one of two choices.

1. Inform you boss that flash sites will not be crawled by search engines so he either stop using flash (or at least tones it down)

2. Give the user a choice of a flash or a non-flash site.

Question: Why build a site in flash? Is it just for animation? If so, is it really worth putting people through that sort of pain?

[backus]

Chris, sorry, doesn't always work that way. If I want to try to convince my boss, it has to go through the hierachy, and somewhere along the way it gets binned. The site is a presentation, that's it. Cloaking is the only way.

[johnser]

Have to use cloaking coz of client's 100% flash site. Hate the stuff ;)

My problem is that browsers are redirected to a different domain on a different server so if googlebot did get past the IP part, it didn't pick the pages up coz of the redirect??

I've a javascript redirect (& very short meta refresh also) on the browser page which redirects the human. That might have been it?
J

[chris_f]

johnser,

It is best to use a server side redirect. Try doing a simple ASP page and use server.transfer.

backus,

I know the troubles of flash and the hierachy and I am sympothetic. However, at the end of the day I say 'lose flash and get your site traffic'. If they don't respond then I wait from them to say 'why isn't our site top'. I then show them all may previous suggestions.

I can take time but it has never failed.

I don't want you to feel I'm critising you or anyone. I am just really against cloaking of any kind. Just a personal view.

_{p.s. I'm stubborn}

[backus]

I understand completely. I've won anyway. I had my say in the last meeting. The site is in the process of being redesigned.

[papabaer]

Hello backus, that is interesting news. I recall you mentioning sometime ago about the need for cloaking because of the Flash site.

I take it that the redesign will be conventional html (with Flash components?). Will you still pursue cloaking? Or safer optimization tactics?

[edited by: papabaer at 1:39 am (utc) on June 4, 2002]

[WebGuerrilla]

I don't want you to feel I'm critising you or anyone. I am just really against cloaking of any kind. Just a personal view.

With all due respect to our anti-cloaking members, I think it's important to keep in mind the fact that this is The Cloaking Forum. Most people who post here, have already heard all the "you shouldn't cloak because it's bad"arguments.

[makemetop]

WebGuerilla, well said.

As a personal aside, I don't like cloaking when there are much easier options.

However, sometimes there are many commercial reasons (like - 'that is what you are being paid to do') where you may have to cloak. Those who don't like it can turn down the business - others won't.

As for me? No comment :)

[johnser]

Quick report following earlier post - Am such a happy bunny :)

My first serious attempt at cloaking for a major International client and my 7 cloaked domains are being picked up perfectly & achieving top ranks under very competitive KWs in Google during its dance.

Don't know what happened last month....

Does it normally take 2 months to get listed highly in Google? or maybe I wasn't in time for the May crawl.

Anyway - thanks so much everyone on this board for all your help to date. Am VERY grateful.

J

[Air]

johnser I am glad that you:
a)got good positions, congratulations, well done! and
b)that you came back to report, it nicely contributes to the original question and subsequent discussion.

[zechariah]

Having discovered a number of sites that cloaked, should I report it to dmoz & yahoo too. I've reported it to Google but can't see any results & no reply yet. Will dmoz & yahoo remove them - does dmoz has any policy on removing sites that cloak, if they it is?

[Slade]

I'm afraid you're not going to find any friends in this forum zechariah, I sugguest you do a search for abuse +engine-in-question.

How harsh and how frequently an engine gets to those reports varies. Work on your content, and links.

[zechariah]

Ok I'll get the hint, it's all about competition. That's why I've not got any friends. :( I'll work on it.

[makemetop]

DMOZ and Yahoo couldn't care less about cloaking. They are human edited directories that list what they see - not what they can't see (which is what cloaking is) :)