Anti-cloaking hysteria

[Brett_Tabke]

Is it me, or is there suddenly a rash of anti-cloaking talk everywhere? I've been to three forums today and this was the only one without a anti-cloaking post in it. Me thinks the wise guys are on the prowl.

[oilman]

Mikkel,
Go ahead and post it but start a new thread with it if you don't mind. I can't speak for all moderators here but I am pretty sure none of us have an issue. There is some good stuff there. Most of us already read it over at SEF anyway.

[NFFC]

Go for it Mikkel, be prepared for some difficult questions though. ;)

[rcjordan]

Mikkel,

Post it, please! And pay no attention to NFFC.

[floydstar2000]

I would like to know what the big problem with cloaking is, the idea of cloaking is to protect your hard worked code. Although i am quite new to the idea of cloaking, from what i have read on the net,i think it is the best thing since sliced bread. I personaly have just taught myself HTML and am in the process of teaching myself Javascript, at the end of the day, i would like to think that code i write from all my hard work and hours of study would be mine and mine alone. Please don't miss understand me i have nothing against sharing information, i just have a problem with morons stealing other peoples hard work.
So if anyone could give me some more information on the bad side of cloaking it would be most appreciated.

Thanks

[Mikkel Svendsen]

That is easy :) Spamming is the answer.

If you serve one page to SEs and one page to users then how will SEs know if both pages hold the same kind of content? If you uptimize the two versions of the page for completely different keywords then you will cheat not only the SEs but also the users. No SE will accept that.

[floydstar2000]

Thanks for the reply Mikkel, but i kind of guessed that would be the answer, my whole point is why can't they keep a record of all the pages suspected of spamming and then check them for relevancy. I still stand by my point that cloaking is way of keeping your page code safe. I understand the point you were making, and you will always get [..] who exploit every situation in this case cloaking.

Back to my question, do you think it is possible to differentiate between spammers and programmers who are just trying to protect their hard worked code.

Edited by: Air

[floydstar2000]

cool Mikkel, read your other post on Comment On Cloaking from an SE and it sort of answered my question, as i said in that topic it would be cool if SE could differentiate between spam and quality.

(too many spelling mistakes in the other post, had to post this again.)

[WebGuerrilla]

Regarding the recent hysteria - A great deal of it is being generated by SEO companies or companies that sell some type of SEO product.

My personal favorite is Brent Winters/WebPosition. He promotes the "cloaking is evil" quite often. In the latest edition of his newsletter he writes about how completely ethical doorway pages are and how cloaking is spam.

Of course nowhere in the article does he even mention the fact that the abuse of WPG has contributed far more spam to SE indexes than cloaking probably does.

In the same issue, he also ran an ad for a cloaking company. It just seems a bit hypocritical.

There is also a company in Colorado that regularly distributes press releases promoting their "SEO Code of Ethics" or "SEO Buyers Guide", both of which are full of inaccurate statements about cloaking as well as other distortions about things like automated submission.

These are just a few examples of many companies who are engaging in fear marketing. If misrepresenting facts can bring in new business, so beit.

[Brett_Tabke]

Hi WG, I am not a user of WPG myself, but I do have some respect for what Brent has built over there. Taken as a whole, he has done some good for the community. I disagree with some of the cloaking stances he takes too.

And that press release you mentioned: I agree with the sentiment that a code of ethics is a good idea, but I sure don't agree with their 'ethics' list. There is a nasty set of do's/don'ts on their site that don't represent the community well at all.

There is always going to be a bit of GRK (get rich quick) promotion in SEO. I doubt we will get away from that very soon.

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