Hiding real URLs from people, only Google can know...

[SashaPavelMisha]

Hi

i am not sure if this is cloaking or what? I want to give google 1 set of URLs, and for everyone else - another set, for same pages, just slightly adjusted.

for example, Google sees /index5.html while others get /index/5.html - just a tiny bit different. i know people can see what's indexed in google. i will just 301 anything non-Google to the new page version, if it even matters..

is this bad? will Google find out and punish my site somehow? is this a well-known practice? what do you call this?

thanks for your help!

 

[CodingDisorder]

I'm sure a lot of people do that, isn't that just cloaking the content of your pages?

 

[SashaPavelMisha]

I'm sure a lot of people do that, isn't that just cloaking the content of your pages?

not even content. pages are exactly same, just URLs are served differently. i am curious if this is a punishable course of action?

 

[l33t']

@tiiberius maybe the right one for this?

 

[tiiberius]

This seems like a combination of redirects and URL rewriting.

Cloaking could be a problem but this is not it from what I understand.

 

[SashaPavelMisha]

so this could be just chugged to stupid admin not being able to set up proper 301s? =)

anyways, seems from your answers that this action should not produce any backlash from google..

 

[itz_styx]

only doing a 301 etc won't cut it. for cloaking you need to match UA's, IPs and rDNS.

 

[TomTheCat]

anyways, seems from your answers that this action should not produce any backlash from google..

You sure?

https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies#cloaking

 

[SashaPavelMisha]

You sure?

https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies#cloaking

i think we have established that what i am trying to do is not really cloaking, am i not correct? what i wanna do is present slightly different URL to google as opposed to everyone else. page content is 100% identical, even i can put canonical on both versions as same page (that is given to google).. so HTML is 100% same.

anyways, seems that the only way to go is experiment.. everyone has a different opinion..

 

[SashaPavelMisha]

only doing a 301 etc won't cut it. for cloaking you need to match UA's, IPs and rDNS.

only doing 301 won't cut what exactly?

 

[itz_styx]

only doing 301 won't cut what exactly?

proper cloaking i.e. showing google a version of the site and users a slightly different one.

 

[TomTheCat]

i think we have established that what i am trying to do is not really cloaking, am i not correct?

Depends on your intentions. Are you doing it with the intent to manipulate search rankings? If so, then is cloaking.

 

[itz_styx]

i think we have established that what i am trying to do is not really cloaking, am i not correct? what i wanna do is present slightly different URL to google as opposed to everyone else. page content is 100% identical, even i can put canonical on both versions as same page (that is given to google).. so HTML is 100% same.

anyways, seems that the only way to go is experiment.. everyone has a different opinion..

ok so its not cloaking, but then i don't see the point if the content is 1:1 the same only the URL is different, whats the use?

 

[SashaPavelMisha]

there's is this process called dmca URL delisting.. some of the "agents" retrieve URLs from google index, others - copy them from their browser or from CURL (with follow-thru). so for those latter ones, i am thinking about maybe giving them fake URLs.. this works when i know that visitor is doing just that, some of them use setups with extremely old UAs, so they end up getting a set of URLs that doesn't matter.. but i want to try a broader method, where thanks to users doing social sharing and bookmarking, chances are that both fake and real URLs will be accessible to Google, and so when google comes on a fake URL - i will sent it 301 to real URL... basically i will be doing this in the open, like the guy with 3 cards at a flea market...

 

[xReminisce]

From my understanding
what you are trying to do falls more towards the grounds of
URL spoofing.
Even if your intentions are honorable, URL are usually a factor in terms of trust when it comes to anything online.
You hiding your real URL already breaches that trust between you & your viewers.
Not to mention it's a fraud practice.

 

[SashaPavelMisha]

From my understanding
what you are trying to do falls more towards the grounds of
URL spoofing.
Even if your intentions are honorable, URL are usually a factor in terms of trust when it comes to anything online.
You hiding your real URL already breaches that trust between you & your viewers.
Not to mention it's a fraud practice.

fraud.net, huh? =)

i don't need to defend myself, we are in black hat section of this forum, right? plus i'd only be spoofing my own URLs, do you still call that spoofing, or simply an erroneous chain of 301s? like from a bad nginx rewrite rule..

 

[xReminisce]

fraud.net, huh? =)

i don't need to defend myself, we are in black hat section of this forum, right? plus i'd only be spoofing my own URLs, do you still call that spoofing, or simply an erroneous chain of 301s? like from a bad nginx rewrite rule..

Never said don't do it.
Not even sure why you are acting so passive-aggressive.
You asked if google cares, I replied.

 

[TAXI]

Google = /index5.html
Other = /index5.php

it could work?

Which of the two would be deleted by DMCA?

 

[warcraft14115]

I wonder why do you need to do that? Can you share?

 

[warcraft14115]

there's is this process called dmca URL delisting.. some of the "agents" retrieve URLs from google index, others - copy them from their browser or from CURL (with follow-thru). so for those latter ones, i am thinking about maybe giving them fake URLs.. this works when i know that visitor is doing just that, some of them use setups with extremely old UAs, so they end up getting a set of URLs that doesn't matter.. but i want to try a broader method, where thanks to users doing social sharing and bookmarking, chances are that both fake and real URLs will be accessible to Google, and so when google comes on a fake URL - i will sent it 301 to real URL... basically i will be doing this in the open, like the guy with 3 cards at a flea market...

How about changing URL? abc.com/aaa-123 => abc.com/aaa-321