Is a spider back door cloaking?

[gavna]

Is it cloaking if you write some code that allows search engine spiders to access pages that are usually hidden behind registration?

The idea being so that content which can't normally be indexed gets included in google. However when the user clicks on the google links they will have to register on the site before being taken to the relevant page.

I believe this to be cloaking but a US partner company believe its fine and has been successful for them.

Any thoughts or experiences will be appreciated.

Thanks
Gavin

[DaveAtIFG]

partner company believe its fine and has been successful for them

I think it's probably OK but why not email Google and ask? And if you get a definite "Yea or Nay" from them, let us know! :)

Oh, and welcome to WebmasterWorld gavna!

[bhartzer]

Isn't this what Webmasterworld is doing? There are posts that show up in Google that are in the Supporter's forum (the paid area).

[dsmmg]

Don't think so... Change your browser agent to that of GoogleBot and try and get into the supporters forum with a paid for cookie; it just doesn't happen. The pages from the SF that show in Google are simply one's that were linked to somewhere, like the front page of the site. Pretty sure that's the reason I read here somewhere... Of course BT would be the only one to say for sure... :-)

Don't let this say to you 'Ohhhhh, if WW does it, it's OK.' They don't and the only person who can tell you it is OK is the big bad G itself; send them an e-mail already!

At least that's how I understand it; I know the MHO doesn't really count for much, but perhaps just 2 cents or something? :-)