Cloaking, what do you think about this example ?
-
Hey,
I was going thru some of results and notice that those guys showing different content to google bots instead of regular users: http://www.classifiedads.com/apartments-299.html
It looks like they using geo targeting for regular user and showing general stuff for google.
Can they get a penalty for it? Or is it 100% safe to do that?
-
I agree with CleverPhD - personalizing content to the user isn't necessarily cloaking. It's fairly common to show search engines a "default" page with all the available options when personalizing results to the user based on location. I doubt that this instance will result in a penalty - although, as CleverPhD points out above, it's not the best solution for other reasons.
-
its general keywords not related to specific location so i think they did it to get better ranking, its more easy to link from main domain to lets say 100 categories than linking to 100 categories x 100 cities =10,000
what makes me think that its cloaking is for all visitors they do provide specific location but not for google bot, for google bot they showing page with ads around the world, but google bot as every other bot have an ip which related to specific location
-
Yep, this is a geotargeted page. That said, I am not sure it is "cloaking". I have a site where on all pages of the site we have a sidebar that shows geolocated data specific to that user. The info in that sidebar is different for different users. It is not "cloaking" as even though I am showing different information to different users (based on location), I am treating all users the same.
Regardless of how "safe" using geolocation is, I do not think it makes sense the way that this site/page is doing it. Would be better to have a dedicated "$cityname apartment" page so that Google can crawl it and let you rank for that page. Not sure that Google would penalize this as much as not being able to tell what the focus of the page is to categorize it properly for the correct location search.
What keyword is this page ranking for ?
P
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Unsolved Old domain taken over by new client
Hi Moz Peeps, I have a client who has taken over an old domain from a company that existed about 5 years ago. The business has a strong DA in a totally different industry. In any respect, since taking over and managing their SEO it's been close to 3 months, however search visibility continues to remain at zero. Is there anything I should be doing to get the site to be re-indexed again? Thanks
Local Website Optimization | | RichardNM0 -
Content Page URL Question
Our main website is geared toward the city where we are located and includes the city name in content page URLs. We also have separate websites for three surrounding cities; these websites have duplicate content except the city name: MainWebsite.com
Local Website Optimization | | sharon75025
City2-MainWebsite.com
City3-MainWebsite.com
City4-MainWebsite.com We're restructuring to eliminate the location websites and only use the main website. The new site will have city pages. We have well established Google business locations for all four cities. We will keep all locations, replacing the location website with the main website. Should we remove City-IL from all content page URLs in the new site? We don't want to lose traffic/ranking for City2 or City3 because the content pages have City1 in the URL. Page URLs are currently formatted as follows: www.MainWebsite.com/Service-1-City1-IL.html
www.MainWebsite.com/Service-2-City1-IL.html
www.MainWebsite.com/Service-3-City1-IL.html
www.MainWebsite.com/Service-4-City1-IL.html Thanks!0 -
Unsolved What are the best SEO plugins for WordPress?
Before embarking on a programming language learning journey, the first thing to think of is your motivation.
Local Website Optimization | | Kate_balls0 -
Captcha in Serf
i have a problem in search engine.. look at rank 3 that is my site.. how can i solve it ? this is post link : https://whcl.ir/super-fue/ sVSxGna sVSxGna
Local Website Optimization | | whcl.ir740 -
I have created a simple website, but one of the panels moves
All right, I've created a simple website (http://fontvilla.com) and I have had a problem for personal reasons. When you execute the code below and see the whiteboard at the right-hand side labeled as the.newsLetter and change the screen size, it moves away unlike that I have just floated right above. But if I float this one right then it floats to the middle of the screen, so works as I want it. In order to do that, I am going to make this reactive, and need to have it like the one above. You got a fix...?? Help, please! Thank you. Thank you. <title></span></p> <p><span>Home </span></p> <p><span></title> <nav> Contact Products About Home </nav> Here is just a simple title This is just a little bit of dummy text. This is just a little bit of dummy text. This is just a little bit of dummy text. This is just a little bit of dummy text. Welcome to A dummy website!! Latest News March 28, 2015 New advanced update with double speed and a whole bunch of cool new st.. more>> March 28, 2015 New advanced update with double speed and a whole bunch of cool new st.. more>>
Local Website Optimization | | fbowable0 -
How to Get 1st Page Google Rankings for a Local Company?
Hi guys, I'm owning a London removal company - Mega Removals and wants to achieve 1st page rankings on Google UK for keywords like: "removals London", "removal company London", "house removals London" but have no success so far. I need professional advice on how to do it. Should I hire an SEO or should focus on content? I will be very grateful for your help.
Local Website Optimization | | nanton1 -
Need Awesome Examples of Well-Designed Service & Product Pages
I'm looking for some examples of really well built product/service pages that have great conversion points on them. I find most small businesses do a terrible job at highlighting their features & benefits (the "why") for their services and wanted some inspiration from those that are doing a fabulous job.
Local Website Optimization | | JoyHawkins0 -
How to target an established .co.uk site/blog to audiences in other English speaking countries - UAE, Singapore for example?
Excuse for the novice questions, but looking for help! 🙂 I have an established .co.uk website/blog for which I have established a good solid following in the UK over a good number of years. That said I have recently relocated to Dubai and so I am looking to target my English blog content to English speakers here and Singapore? While the language setting of my site is "en" is there anyway that I can change this to "en-ae" and "en-sg" for example to build a following in these markets? Or is my .co.uk TLD an issue that is going to hold me back from building following in these locations? I ask as I have just read the hreflang announcement from Google, but noticed in my Webmaster Tools that I get the following message: "Your site has no hreflang tags". Thanks in advance!
Local Website Optimization | | twofourseven0