Only showing googlebot schema.org tagged content - cloaking??
-
Would it be considered cloaking if I only show schema.or tagged content to searchengine bots and not to regular visitors. Mind you, no other change on the page, design or content. So instead of
Googlebot would be served:
41 Main Street
Regular visitors:
41 Main Street
-
Cloaking is defined by Google as "presenting different content to users and search engines".
I recall Matt Cutts offering a geo-targeting example to further explain this issue. It's ok to show users in Canada some content, and then users from the US different content. It is not ok (i.e. would be considered cloaking) to set it up to always show Google bot the US version.
Google wants you to treat their bot as a normal user and not make any special changes for them. In your case, you are specifically showing Google bot something different then regular users, so yes it is considered cloaking.
The two points to make in the case you brought up are:
-
you are not altering "content", you are altering meta tags which the users do not see anyway and do not impact the user experience
-
there is no malicious intent. You are not doing this to deceive users or Google.
In short, yes it meets the definition of cloaking. Google specifically says offering "different" content represents cloaking. Even though you are showing "more" content, that would be a difference. If you didn't show users an H1 tagged title at the top of your page, but you showed it to Google, that would be an example where you are showing more to Google and would definitely be cloaking.
My biggest concern would be Google's automated system detecting it as cloaking then removing your pages or site from the index. You would then explain your actions through the Reconsideration Request and then Google would either accept your explanation or require a change.
-
-
Quiet the contrary..it is certainly a somewhat theoretical question and has nothing to do with css or coding.
One reason is to get an opinion on what is considered cloaking, another reason is a to assess whether giving out more information (such as microtagged content) would be detrimental not to your rankings but to your whole business. -
Why would you consider making such a change? I cannot conceive of any logical reason. The meta data involved is not seen by users.
If I was to stretch for a reason, it would be that you are not familiar with website coding and are having CSS issues?
-
Hi Sebes, I don't think this will be too much of a problem. Google will crack down hard on cloaking that will actually benefit your website, although sometimes you can do it by accident. This is adding no value to your website and I wouldnt worry about it too much. Always try to make your website the same for crawler + visitors it goes without saying.
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
-
What is the best tag to use for your Logo ?
Hi, I'm wondering what is the best tag to use on your logo. We're currently using h1 and i want to scrap that ASAP.
On-Page Optimization | | Alex.harvey.Cortex0 -
IMG ALT tags - should they be the same or the product title?
I have about 300 products. Should I make all my IMG ALT tags with my keywords, such as sea glass jewelry, sea glass necklace, sea glass bracelets? Or, should I make them what their title is, some of which do not pertain to the keyword, such as By the Sea. Some of my products do have keywords in them, but not all. I am hesitant on changing all the titles, as almost all URLs are indexed.
On-Page Optimization | | tiffany11030 -
Duplicate Content on Event Pages
My client has a pretty popular service of event listings and, in hope of gathering more events, they opened up the platform to allow users to add events. This works really well for them and they are able to garner a lot more events this way. The major problem I'm finding is that many event coordinators and site owners will take the copy from their website and copy and paste it, duplicating a lot of the content. We have editor picks that contain a lot of unique content but the duplicate content scares me. It hasn't hurt our page ranking (we have a page ranking of 7) but I'm wondering if this is something that we should address. We don't have the manpower to eliminate all the duplication but if we cut down the duplication would we experience a significant advantage over people posting the same event?
On-Page Optimization | | mattdinbrooklyn0 -
Duplicate Mega tags
we have a e-commerce site, we have products that are the exact same but different sizes each has a page, we use the same mega tag would it be better to use no mega tag
On-Page Optimization | | DFC0 -
Which Meta Tags would you recommend having on the pages?
Hello, There are so many different meta tags which you can implement to the header of your website and I'm wanting to get people's opinions on which you feel are worth putting in and which are completely pointless? For example: Author Copyright Language Content-Type Content-Language Distribution Abstract Keywords Description Classification Canonical Expires Revisit-after Rating I look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions. Kind Regards, Shaun Swales Twitter: Https://www.twitter.com/CryptCommerce
On-Page Optimization | | ShaunSwales0 -
Canonical URL Tag
Hi, I have two pages that are identical on my site: http://www.absolutepower.nl/creatine-monohydraat and http://www.absolutepower.nl/CREATINE/creatine-monohydraat Should I use the canonical URL tag in this case? Thanks, Jasper
On-Page Optimization | | Japking0 -
Duplicate content
the report shows duplicate content for a category page that has more than one page. how can we avoid this since i cannot make a different meta content for the second page of the category page: http://www.geographics.com/2-Cool-Colors-Poster-Board-14x22/c183_66_327_387/index.html http://www.geographics.com/2-Cool-Colors-Poster-Board-14x22/c183_66_327_387/index.html?page=2 thanks, Madlena
On-Page Optimization | | Madlena0 -
Duplicate content? Not sure.
Good news! I have my first real SEO gig and now I have to be able to actually deliver. I'm up for it but I want to be sure I'm seeing what I think I am before suggesting any changes. I'm working my way throught Danny Dover's excellent book SEO Secrets and learning tons! To see if there is duplicate content on the site, I've taken a sentence from one of the pages on the site and searched for it: i.e., site:storybooksforhealing.com "Some of the most quiet moments are often the most difficult after a loss. Mornings, late nights, time alone." The SERPs show 7 pages that have this text on it. It seems like this is duplicate content, right? This is a Wordpress website so what's happening is the actual page is here: www.storybooksforhealing.com/publish-cup-of-joy/ but there are several archive pages that show excerpts of this text, too. If this is duplicate content (first question) then how would I go about remedying it? Should I set the canonical reference to /publish-cup-of-joy page? Thank you for being patient with my NOOB questions.
On-Page Optimization | | ChristiMc0