Cloaking | SEO Cloaking Types : Different Types Of Cloaking

Cloaking
Cloaking is a SEO (search engine optimization) technique in which the content presented to the search engine spider is different from that presented to the user's browser.

In simple terms Cloaking can be defined as a means by which different versions of the same page are presented to the search engine and human visitors.

When a person requests the page of a particular URL from the website, the site's normal page is returned, but when a search engine spider makes the same request, a special page that has been created for the engine is returned and the normal page for the URL is concealed from the engine

Types of cloaking

There are different kinds of cloaking; some of these are listed below

IP address Cloaking: In this method, IP addresses are determined and then different content is presented to different IP addresses. In IP address cloaking, a search engine with a particular IP address will be presented with a certain version of a webpage whereas other IP addresses won’t be able to see this version as they will be present with entirely different versions.

User Agent cloaking: in this case also different versions of a web page are shown to different users. But in this case, distinction is made on the basis of User-Agent, i.e. People with different versions of web browsers are presented with different contents of the same page.

HTTP Accept_ REFERER Header Cloaking: In this type of Cloaking, different versions of the same website are served on the basis of the HTTP_REFERER Header value of the searcher.

HTTP Accept-Language Header Cloaking: In this type of Cloaking, different version of the same website is presented to different users on the basis of their web browser language.

JavaScript Cloaking: This type of Cloaking involves presenting one version of a website to the users with JavaScript enabled browser and presenting another version to those with JavaScript turned off (like search engines).