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View Full Version : Cloaking – to use or not to use???

SkGold
06-16-2005, 01:38 AM
Hi,

I heard a lot about cloaking. I know that is possibility to be penalized by Google and other search engines.
But I don’t want my customers to see the affiliate URL’s.
The ClickBank suggest to use the following Cloaker HTML:
<html>
<head>
<title>Loading page...</title>
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="2;URL=http://AFFILIATE.VENDOR.hop.clickbank.net">
<script>
url='http://AFFILIATE.VENDOR.hop.clickbank.net';
if(document.images) { top.location.replace(url); }
else { top.location.href=url; }
</script>
</head>
<body>Loading
<a href=http://AFFILIATE.VENDOR.hop.clickbank.net>page</a>...
</body>
</html>

If I use this HTML will it penalize my site?
Any opinion will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Skgold
Marcia
06-16-2005, 02:03 AM
To be perfectly honest, if some other affiliate catches you and thinks you will be over-writing their tracking cookie with your cloaked page they land on at the SERPs, they are very likely to file a spam report.

If it's Google, the site may survive while the "algo" is tuned to handle it, but if you run into a hand review at Yahoo, they can be meaner than junkyard dogs about sneaky redirects.
Underpaid
06-16-2005, 03:43 AM
.... but if you run into a hand review at Yahoo, they can be meaner than junkyard dogs about sneaky redirects.

Marcia - does that also apply to encrypted affiliate links ? These arent 'cloaked' pages, just hiding the affiliate id.
DaveN
06-16-2005, 04:00 AM
encrypted affiliate links :: Bingo ;)

DaveN
SkGold
06-16-2005, 04:14 AM
Thank you guys for the answers.
Underpaid, what do you use to encrypt affiliate links?

Could anyone suggest any inexpensive software to encrypt affiliate links?
Marcia
06-16-2005, 04:14 AM
<html>
<head>
<title>Loading page...</title>
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="2;URL=http://AFFILIATE.VENDOR.hop.clickbank.net">
<script>
url='http://AFFILIATE.VENDOR.hop.clickbank.net';
if(document.images) { top.location.replace(url); }
else { top.location.href=url; }
</script>
</head>
<body>Loading
<a href=http://AFFILIATE.VENDOR.hop.clickbank.net>page</a>...
</body>
</html> That isn't an encrypted link like CJ uses, that's redirecting a page with nothing on it.
seomike
06-16-2005, 02:26 PM
they can be meaner than junkyard dogs about sneaky redirects.

No no, they add that because they want to detour you from using sneaky redirects, not that they can catch you.

As per the code. that is not cloaking. It's just a meta refresh with a java failsafe. Chances are a user won't have both meta and java turned off in their browser but if they do they see the link. If you are linking from product page to this redirect page to dupe a spider into not thinking you're an affiliate it may work. Though it's not the best way you'll keep your product pages from falling out of the SERPS for a while.
Underpaid
06-16-2005, 03:02 PM
encrypted affiliate links :: Bingo Dave - But these links are encrypted by Com Junction or the actual merchant. Are you saying these are not good ??


Underpaid, what do you use to encrypt affiliate links? SkGold - These are NOT used to cloak pages from the SEs - They are only to hide long ugly links, and to make them look more natural to users. I only use what is provided by CJ, Linkshare, etc, but there are some free link cloakers around. Just do a search on G or Y.
Marcia
06-16-2005, 07:09 PM
The only thing that's encrypted is the text in the URL of the CJ links, to protect against "funny stuff" being done with the referrers. That's exactlly what the engines see, it's just a mess of characters.

http://www.example.com/b9*9999cy95y5LNXYZBNZPWCQTRSSQ

Same as you see when looking at the source code. That isn't cloaking, it's encryption of the characters.

It's just a meta refresh with a java failsafe.Right, and there could be absolutely *nothing* on the page that's being redirected - or it could be autogenerated content that's been served to the engines because the user never sees the page.

It's right in there in the Yahoo guidelines, that's one of the things they don't want in the index.
rhmonroe
06-16-2005, 08:12 PM
Could anyone suggest any inexpensive software to encrypt affiliate links?


Just use Tiny URL... www.tinyurl.com

Its free and easy.

Robin
SkGold
06-16-2005, 11:33 PM
As far as I understand the ClickBank suggested code is a cloaking and better not to use it.

Just use Tiny URL... www.tinyurl.com
Its free and easy.

Robin - thanks for suggestion. I guess the tinyurl will not solve the problem (by the way the ClickBank code as well) and not protect you from "funny stuff" as Marcia said, because the destination page will show your affiliate ID in address bar.

Is it any software available to create an encrypted URL as CJ doing?
The address bar on destination page will show only encrypted code.
Something like http://www.example.com/b9*9999cy95y5LNXYZBNZPWCQTRSSQ


Thanks,
SkGold
rhmonroe
06-17-2005, 02:24 PM
So last night while speaking with a friend of mine in AU, this topic came up and he recommended a program called "Affliate Shield" available at: http://www.all4you.dk/FreewareWorld/links.php?id=15137

This is a script that you use on your website, and it encrypts all of the affliate links it finds on the entire site.

You might want to download it and read the help file - really a "read me first" file and see if it will do what you want it to. I think I am going to put it on a couple of my own sites.


Robin :p
SkGold
06-17-2005, 11:38 PM
You might want to download it and read the help file - really a "read me first" file and see if it will do what you want it to.
It is still not what I want. It just mouseover effect that hide affiliate ID in the status bar at the bottom of the browser.

I want to hide affiliate ID in address bar on destination page.

Thank you Robin for your reply anyway.

SkGold.
MediaMagnet
06-18-2005, 06:27 PM
It is still not what I want. It just mouseover effect that hide affiliate ID in the status bar at the bottom of the browser.

I want to hide affiliate ID in address bar on destination page.

Thank you Robin for your reply anyway.

SkGold.

Wow, that would be difficult I think. Because seriously you would have to write some application, perhaps running on your domain, that would retrieve the page (using the affiliate link) and then redisplay the page to the visitor. This could work I suppose but the "original" landing page could have cookies and other session data that it would not get from *your* browser. You could possibly not receive commission credit from sales which would really suck lol.
SkGold
06-18-2005, 11:30 PM
Wow, that would be difficult I think. ...... You could possibly not receive commission credit from sales which would really suck lol.

The CJ doing it. So it is possible. Just don't no how.

SkGold
Marcia
06-19-2005, 12:27 AM
Exactly - that's CJ doing it so they can interpret the encryption, right? All the networks say *not* to alter the tracking code in any way to ensure getting credit for sales.
MediaMagnet
06-19-2005, 01:42 AM
Ok sure, so for the first visit you might be fine and dandy, but what if the user returns later to make a purchase - like say, later in the day when the credit card comes home - his/her browser wont have your information (which would have normally been in a cookie).

I'm just really not that confident in people going back to where the "saw" an advertisement and then click on the ad again. I suggest that the visitor would know the product/service and then go back again later, to the www.myproduct.com homepage, since that's what all of the logos were probably saying.

But heck, if there are no logos and an encrypted link, maybe people will bookmark it. Or if you're reselling flowers (or something) under your own brand this might not matter to you.

Dunno, just a thought in response.