[Ted S]

Originally Posted by CoffeeLovesYou

Lynne says this is Cloaking if your website shows up different for the user than the bot. Can this get my website banned from Google? Also, I can't find the table with the db logging =/

As Simon said, you really should read the thread description first... but since no ever does...

Let's define cloaking: showing a bot one thing and a user something else in an attempt to trick the search engine.

Out of the box this mod does nothing of the sort [you can tweak things to get more aggressive, but that's your call, not the mods]. For several views everyone sees your website and then, depending on your settings, they get a message or block page. There's nothing unique about the bot's experience except that it's treated like a new visitor every time, nothing is cloaked.

Not much different than a website which personalizes the experience as you click around is it?

There's a few news sites that get pretty aggressive with this sort of approach, like the WSJ. Engines get through to the full story and users always have to login to see more than a preview. Still, they rank... Why? Because search engines know that a membership site isn't gaming them by letting them see what people who pay can see. Heck, there's been programs over the last few years to let bots login to sites. The more Google or Bing or anyone else can slurp up, the better informed they are.

Can this get your site banned from Google? Anything is possible and I don't work for Google to say otherwise. But I'm going to theorize that this mod has far lower risk than the endless backlinks and swaps everyone seems to want to try with their forums these days.