Comments on:

By: Boris

Boris — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 23:16:54 +0000

It always amazes how the comments stray from the topic. I am further amazed how little that I know… So I keep reading.

By: SEO Chicks |The SEO Blog with attitude

SEO Chicks |The SEO Blog with attitude — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 17:34:55 +0000

[...] the web. Everyone’s favorite Viking (and if she isn’t, she darn well should be) had a great post about ip redirection, and the intent issue was a big one with that. She asked if the engines would see geo-targeting as [...]

By: Judith Lewis

Judith Lewis — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 12:49:50 +0000

OK I’m dyslexic and read WAY TOO MUCH on the old SEO web these days. Somewhere in the fog of my poor elderly brain I could swear MC said something, somewhere about something like this. Or chocolate. It’s a fair bet he said something about his cats though

I’m pushing a big age number so my brain is no longer as plastic as it once was…

As I remember it, Matt said it’s A-OK. Then again, as I remember it, chocolate tasted better and came in larger bars. However potato chips came in smaller bags so you win some, you lose some…

If my poor aged memory is recalling without a twist, Google is cool about geo-targeting. It goes down to goolebot and what you serve him (I’m first in line for chocolate). If you’re being all white-hat (and Lisa, we all know you are!!) and delivering to googlebot that which you serve up to everyone else it’s A-OK. It’s only ‘bad cloaking’ when you serve up to googlebot something different than what it is you serve end users. This is also applicable in delivering text content which mirrors flash content.

So I hope that was coherent because I’m exhausted and my nose is stuffed up and it’s Friday and I need some chocolate
*pouts*

By: WebGeek

WebGeek — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 10:10:57 +0000

Thanks Lisa. SEO Chicks is a great blog. I look forward to reading more of your insight as well.

By: Lisa Ditlefsen

Lisa Ditlefsen — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 08:17:43 +0000

Thanks for your input WebGeek =) Great points. I hope that is the case!

By: WebGeek

WebGeek — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 08:05:34 +0000

Hey Lisa,
This question comes up a lot, and it’s a good one. In my humble opinion the definition you’re using for cloaking might be slightly inaccurate (although commonly used) – I think that particular definition fits better for dynamic content personalization. It’s a known fact that Yahoo (and other engines to varying degrees) alter their content depending on what IP address users are coming from. That’s simply geotargeting and personalization. I would suggest that a more accurate definition for cloaking would be your definition of “cloaking is where you display different content to the search engines than you do to the user…” but with an added phrase “…with the intent to deceive” (like you mentioned elsewhere in your post). I don’t consider personalization to be cloaking, and Search Engines, if their honest themselves, won’t either. If this was considered cloaking, search engines would disable some amazing features of the web development world and set technology back quite a bit. Some really major sites geotarget in the ways you are mentioning and they aren’t penalized. You have to be careful how you do it though…Geotargeting and SEO brings up some unique problems, and the strategies to overcome them have to be well-thought-out. I’ve developed and SEO’d sites that are geotargeted and have different content for several different countries. None of them have received penalties.

By: scottpolk

scottpolk — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 22:46:37 +0000

Great article Lisa … yep – its all about “Intent and Extent” and of course how Google (or other search engines) perceive it.

By: Julie Joyce

Julie Joyce — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 22:41:22 +0000

…and for “Rob Kerry hates vegetarians” too actually–one you’ll be quite proud of I’m sure, you big meat hog.

By: Julie Joyce

Julie Joyce — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 21:46:26 +0000

I thought we were googlebombing you for zebra-striped man thong actually…crap.

By: Lisa Ditlefsen

Lisa Ditlefsen — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 21:15:56 +0000

ha ha whatever donkey…I will change Googles mind about you….