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For that reason, some webmasters use cloaking to get their websites listed on search engines.

What is cloaking?

A website that uses cloaking recognizes search engine spiders by their IP address. It returns web pages to search engine spiders that are different from the web pages that web surfers see. Usually, the cloaking software creates hundreds of web pages that are optimized for a special search term so that search engine spiders get the impression that the website contains a lot of relevant information about a special topic.

If you often search on Google then you probably can confirm that you can get good results with cloaking. You can often find web pages on Google that have little to do with the description on the result page.

Does this mean that cloaking is the holy grail of SEO?

Cloaking obviously works. Does this mean that you should use it for your web pages? That would be very risky. Very few web pages that use cloaking can keep their search engine rankings for a long time.

Google has a clear statement about cloaking on its webmaster pages: "Don't deceive your users or present different content to search engines than you display to users, which is commonly referred to as cloaking."

In general, most websites that use cloaking are getting banned from Google and other search engines sooner or later. It's only a question of time. In countries such as Germany it can even be illegal to use cloaking. If you want to get long term results with your website, you should avoid cloaking at all costs.

What do search engines want from you?

Search engines want to return high quality websites to their searchers. That means that you must make sure that your website is such a high quality site. There are three main factors that make a website a high quality website:

1. Your website should have a lot of content. If your website consists of one or two pages or just a few pictures then it will be very difficult to get high search engine rankings. Search engines also aren't interested in the 825th eBay affiliate page. It's important that your web page has great content. If that content can only be found on your website then that is even better.
   
   
2. You must make sure that search engines can parse your web pages. Make sure that your HTML code is clean and that search engines can easily find out what your web pages are about. Cluttered HTML code and web pages that have been 'optimized' for dozens of keywords often prevent high rankings. Focus on one or two keywords per web page. It's better that a web page is highly relevant to one or two keywords than somewhat relevant to a lot of keywords.
   
   
3. Your website must have good incoming links. Links from centralized link farms and link exchange systems don't work. You should make sure that the web sites that link to you are at least loosely related to your web site. The more related websites link to your site, the better.

All of this requires work and efforts on your part. Your web site is an important part of your business that requires the same attention as other parts of your business. The sooner you treat search engine optimization as an important investment for your web site success the sooner you'll get great results.

Yahoo! poll shows 80% of holiday shoppers will buy online

"More than eight out of ten holiday shoppers (83 percent) said they would shop for holiday gifts online, and a similar number, 80 percent, said they are likely to purchase gifts online from small businesses [...]

[Yahoo's] survey results are further evidence of strong support among consumers for e-commerce with small businesses."

Editor's note: Another article indicates that pre-holiday online sales surge 39 percent.

If you haven't optimized your web pages for high search engine rankings yet so that holiday shoppers can find you then you should so so right now.

Google to trial phone link on search ads

"The service, called 'Click to Call', appears to be aimed at the many small businesses that cannot use Google’s existing online advertising service because they have no web presence of their own."

AOL to choose: Microsoft or Google

"Time Warner's board of directors is hunkering down Thursday for discussions on the future of AOL, and is expected to choose between partnering with Microsoft's MSN division or Google."

Google users under the microscope

"International travelers will become Google's guinea pigs for the next three weeks, with the launch of a new internet laboratory at London's Heathrow airport."

 

Search engine newslets

• Yahoo has added new shortcuts.
• It appears Google is planning Google Calendar service.
• Ex-Google employees write about the early days at Google.
• Google might sponsor Manchester United.
• PPC search engine Miva might be looking for buyers.
• An ant named Google.
• Google admits it's exploiting legal loop-holes in the US that don't exist in Europe.
  

Q&A: Vint Cerf on Google's challenges, aspirations (interview)

"Internet pioneer Vint Cerf, Google's chief Internet evangelist, recently chatted with IDG News Service about a variety of topics related to the Mountain View, Calif. search giant."

Q&A: Bill Gates on supercomputing, software in science, and more (interview)

"Now, in a very short period of time, we will actually have more than matched the kind of relevance that Google can deliver. The role of Microsoft Research in that has been phenomenal."

Help, we've been Googled!

"The question concerns books that are still in copyright and will remain so for 70 years or more. If Google can scan these books, without the permission of the publisher, and include them in its database, then most libraries will not need to buy them. And if librarians do not buy them, they cannot be published. The whole world of learning will be damaged, and academic publishing will cease to be a viable business. [...]

So far as I am concerned, Google must accept the rights in intellectual property. The survival of the book depends on that."

Google vs. the venture capitalists

"VCs looking to fund startups and flip them to Google (GOOG) are facing an unlikely rival -- Google. The Mountain View, Calif., search giant has started buying companies on the cheap, before they even make the pilgrimage to Sand Hill Road."

Filthy rich, but Froogle

"That kind of space shot has created some very wealthy people -- an estimated 1,000 millionaires and 5 billionaires at the last count -- making Google that rare company where one in five staffers is a millionaire, at least on paper."

Another top rating for IBP: 5 out of 5 stars

"IBP is the multi award winning website promotion tool that helps you to get more revenue with higher search engine rankings in Google, Yahoo and all other major search engines.

The suite of 15 professional website promotion tools helps you with all aspects of website promotion and search engine optimization.

It offers everything you need to successfully promote your website, including a submission tool to submit your website to search engines and directories, a search engine ranking checker, a top 10 optimizer, a link popularity improver and a keyword generator.

IBP creates professional reports in PDF, HTML and Microsoft Word format. It can save the ranking results for databases and Microsoft Excel, and it can track your search engine rankings over time."

You can download the free IBP demo version here.

IBP is now available in three languages: English, German and Dutch

When you download IBP you can switch the language in the "File" menu in IBP. English and German are included in the download. If you want to have a Dutch IBP version, download this file.

• New features in Google Sitemaps
• Google Analytics - Is it worth its real price?
• Google's ranking algorithm update continues
• Are you ready for local search?
• Google's current ranking algorithm update
• How to succeed with search engine optimization.
• The Google-Sun deal and its impact on search
• The importance of being first
• View all past issues...