Page jacking occurs when a site owner takes source code of a page that performs well in search engines and cloaks it behind their own site. If this is done properly, a search engine spider will see optimized page and do one of two things; improve ranking of unrelated site, or remove original site from their indexes. This unethical use of cloaking is unfortunately difficult to spot, and is one of reasons why use of cloaking is so controversial.

Is Cloaking all that Bad?

Lets forget for a moment role and ethics of using cloaking for promotion and concentrate on human factor. After all main interest of any site owner should be thoughts and feelings of their visitors.

Given choice, I'm sure you would like to make your web site more intelligent. Does this particular visitor use a Mac or a PC? Opera, Netscape or Internet Explorer? Why should you waste user's time by asking them for information that is readily available by way their browser identifies itself? Wouldn't it be easier to just establish how best to optimize page source code for user's browser and operating system before they get it? By establishing details from user agent string and determining IP addresses, it is also possible to make an educated guess at best default language or localized settings. It would be far more convenient if your visitors didn't need to convert prices into their own currency or search through a long list of international branches to find their nearest store! Although examples used above describe use of program identification and IP address to customize user experience, user-friendly cloaking scripts can also make use of things such as referrer and session data. Knowing that a visitor came from a search engine while looking for a particular keyword gives you a great opportunity to optimise page for better conversions. This can even work for informational sites; if they came to that page looking for information, there is a chance that they might be interested in buying a book on subject!

Cloaking could also be used to protect yourself, your site and your visitors in a variety of ways. For example, it can be used to: -

Ban IPs of known email harvesters (useful if you run a community site).

Minimise damage and cost of bots flooding server.

Filter out questionable content from visitors that enter from a child oriented site.

Limit access by countries that require it by law or who are likely to find site content objectionable.

Disable site features such as order forms to those surfing from problem IP addresses or countries thought to be involved with fraud.

Such legitimate uses of cloaking ought not to be penalized by search engines. However activities of site owners that optimize for engines have meant that those that dare to implement such features to their site run risk of being banned by search engines.

The Future could be Bright!

The use of cloaking is sure to become more commonplace as time goes on. Not everyone will hold back on implementing features that improve usability of their site just because they are worried they will be banned by search engines.

It would be sad to see legitimate use of cloaking thwarted by minority of site owners who choose to use it purely to achieve higher rankings through deception. Cloaking has scope to make sites seem far more intelligent than they are, to point where it becomes invisible to vast majority of people who visit site that use it.

Wouldn't it be nice to make a visitor feel more "at home" on your site first time they visit it? Or to provide alternatives to those with limited access so they don't have to miss out entirely?

Cloaking can make such features a reality. If we are willing to let it!

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