How is using Google Website Optimizer different to ‘Cloaking’

In the last article we told you about a useful Google application called Google Website Optimizer that allows you to try out different site designs and track the results. It’s a great tool, though relatively few people actually use it. We think that one of the major reasons for this is that, because of the way it works, it appears dangerously close to ‘cloaking,’ the ‘black hat’ tactic whereby the content presented to users is different to the content presented to the search engine spiders.

So, is using Google Website Optimizer the same as cloaking?

Well, yes and no. Yes in the black and white sense that your users are seeing something different to what the spiders are looking at, in that sense it is cloaking. However, probably more importantly, it’s unlikely to be called cloaking, at least not by Google. The Google Website Optimizer service has been launched by Google itself and has the Google branding all over it – they’re not going to penalize you for using a programme they created.

So what’s to stop you ‘testing’ indefinitely whilst an awful looking but search engine friendly website continues to whir away in the background powering you up the rankings. Well, nothing really, not at the moment. If you are going to stray into this ethical grey area though, I can only advise you to keep a close eye on announcements from Google on the subject. They can’t dodge the issue forever, some day they’re going to have to make a decision about cloaking and site testing. You don’t want to be caught out when they do.

Related posts:

1. Google Website Optimizer explained
2. How to increse your crawl rate (Part one)
3. Google redirects its China website to Hong Kong
4. Google News Site Enhances User Personalisation Features
5. Google censorship battle with China continues
6. Google to recommend brands on relevant searches – Bad news for the SEO industry