SEO

SEO Techniques: Cloaking Vs. Doorway Pages

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a word often heard on the web today. In simple terms, it’s a process that is currently used as a tool by many businesses to widen their internet presence. Statistics show that businesses with good command of SEO tools and techniques have wider audience reach and an increase in revenue.

Techniques differ. There’s more than one way to increase your ranking on the search engine page. Combinations of techniques allow better results. The key is learning which one to use and how to approach specific things.

The techniques are categorized according to use and according to the method on how it’s implemented. If there are normal yet complicated techniques, there are also what is known as the black hat techniques. These are the types that are not morally acceptable in the online field.

Practicing the use of black hat methods are not encouraged.

Still, learning what these are and what it entails may help you in the future. There may be other websites taking advantage of your own site.

The most common black hat techniques SEO: Cloaking & Doorway Pages. These two are often mixed and confused together.

What is cloaking? Cloaking is when the codes of a specific site have tampered and new codes are inserted. So when you search for a specific keyword and you click on the link, a different website than what you’ve expected will show up.

As a user, this is something really frustrating. And it has the potential to expose your current device at risk.

What are Doorway Pages? Doorway pages are continuous links. Instead of defining it, an example may help you understand the technique. Once you click a download link and you’re redirected to a specific page instead of going through with the download, that’s what’s considered as a doorway page. And the loop is continuous.

Is it good practice to use these techniques? Whatever most people say about it, it’s still a SEO technique. And it’s also effective since the website is ‘forced’ on the user. The user is not given a chance to decide whether to click the link or not.

However, it’s not accepted on the moral side of the SEO and web spectrum and is even considered a dirty trick to gain traffic.

What is required to successfully create this? One needs to have an expert command on codes and the SEO tools to be able to create such things. But you can easily be reported and the website can easily be shut down if it’s something very easy to trace.