Cloaking and Resubmission

Minor cloaking and Google resubmission

[naturesflavors]

Background: (optional reading)
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Okay, I currently have Site A, which I've populated with lots of content. Keywords weren't completely optimized before - it was just a one-pass operation without any revision of content (besides minor editing like spelling, etc...). I submitted to Google back in August and it got indexed early September. The next re-index was sometime around November 10th, and the Googlebot went through a lot of my site, indexing a lot of pages.

Problem:
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I have PR=0, but my site is filled with content! I have a different gateway site that is similarly populated and has a PR of 5 or 6, with about 1 or 2 inbound links.

What I've Done:
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I added a small amount of cloaking code, suited just for Googlebot. If a Googlebot comes to the site, my script removes all Javascript, background images, and anything extra besides the vital content that a surfer would be looking for.

Even if a surfer viewed the cached, stripped-down version, he or she would still see the same content - just without most of the graphics, so the cloaking doesn't add any content - it just removes some of the "extra" stuff.

I've also added some more content and done some keyword density checks, and my main keywords are around 5-6%, give or take .5%

What I'm Considering:
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So now it's all ready to be re-indexed, but I have two problems. First, if Google discovers that I've SORT of cloaked the page, do you think I would be penalized, even for such a small change?

Second, should I resubmit to Google in hopes of getting it re-indexed sooner than 2 months?

Thanks!

- Jonathan

[DaveAtIFG]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld naturesflavors! :)

No offense but, the way I interpret your post, you have a bunch of things mixed together... I'll try to sort some of them... Bear with me! :)

I think your primary concern is having a PR0 on your Site A. Much has been written about PR0 problems in the Google News forum. Try a "site search" from the link at the top of this page and check out the Google News Library [webmasterworld.com].

I have a different gateway site that is similarly populated and has a PR of 5 or 6

If that content is identical (or nearly identical), that may be your entire problem. Check out the Google News discussions re: duplicate content.

if Google discovers that I've SORT of cloaked the page, do you think I would be penalized

"Sort of cloaked the page" is like being "a little bit pregnant!" :) As far as Google is concerned, IT'S CLOAKED. If they detect your cloaking, they may well reward it with a PR0.

If it was my site, I'd disable the cloaking, insure the content was unique, and get the site into Google with something above a PR0. THEN I might try some cloaking if I couldn't achieve decent rankings with traditional on page optimization techniques.

I probably missed some things but, hopefully, this post will stimulate some additional discussion.

[naturesflavors]

> I think your ... concern is having a PR0 on ... Site A
Not entirely. I realize that PR0 doesn't always equal low rankings, but this particular gateway site is in a competitive category, and I need all the PR I can get to push towards the top. My primary concern is just getting good rankings on Google, not necessarily just PR.

> If that content is identical (or nearly identical), that may be your entire problem.
No, it's not duplicate content - it's not even the same topic. An entirely new site, with new content, on a new topic. I was just referring to the amount of content and structure of that content.

> As far as Google is concerned, IT'S CLOAKED. If they detect your cloaking...
When it received the PR0, it was not cloaked. I've recently ADDED cloaking to strip away all elements that did not contribute to the content in any way (extra graphics and javascript).

> Welcome to WebmasterWorld naturesflavors
Heh. Thanks - I've already been a post-once-in-a-blue-moon member for some time - I just forgot my username AND password, so I signed up again. :)

I appreciate your response, though. I figured it might be a little bit confusing, which is why I tried to label my sections as "Background, What I've Done, etc..."

- Jonathan