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bhartzer
Staff
Joined: Jun 08, 2000
# Posts: 7042
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Posted: 2004-Apr-26 21:56
Aplus.net Admits Cloaking Customer Sites to Improve Search Ranking
http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2004/04/25/aplusnet_admits_cloaking_customer_sites_to_improve_search_ranking.html
Aplus.net used a technique known as "cloaking," detecting when Google's spider was visiting any of its customer sites, and then inserting HTML code with the terms "Web Hosting," "Dedicated Servers" and "Domain Names," all linked to aplus.net.
I see that they're still ranking well for 'dedicated servers'. It's a shame that companies will do anything to get a good search engine ranking nowadays. Very unprofessional.
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cianuro
Joined: Jan 22, 2004
# Posts: 164
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Posted: 2004-Apr-27 03:25
Tut, Tut.
It seems like people are willing to go to more extreme lengths all the time. Its gotten to a stage where it would be easier to just do it the old fasioned way:
Optmomization
Advertising
Relevant, QUALITY content.
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bhartzer
Staff
Joined: Jun 08, 2000
# Posts: 7042
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Posted: 2004-Apr-27 23:14
Basically, what the web host was doing was add hidden text at the bottom of every single one of their clients' websites. These are done just like this:
<center style="visibility:hidden">
<a href="http://www.aplus.net">Web Hosting</a>
<a href="http://servers.aplus.net">Dedicated Servers</a>
<a href="http://domains.aplus.net">Domain Names</a> by Aplus.net
</center>
I was able to see (in the cached version of their clients' sites) this hidden text. It's quite possible that Google would ban the clients for having hidden text on their site--or severely penalize them. But, the web host wouldn't suffer at all because they aren't the ones with the hidden text, the clients' sites are.
In my opinion, this is definitely scumm-ier and worse than what Godaddy did for their clients (which was to ban googlebot from spidering their clients' sites).
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jbgilbert
Joined: Sep 16, 2002
# Posts: 321
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Posted: 2004-Apr-28 00:33
This hosting firm should be banned from all search engines!!!!!
They put content on all their clients sites (unknown to their clients) to fool and influence their search engine rankings. This is not rumor -- I personally checked and some of their client sites still show the arrogant violation in the cache of the search engine listings.
If the engines were to penalize sites for having "hidden text" EVERY ONE OF THEIR CLIENT'S COULD HAVE RECEIVED A PENALTY! And they could not see it, check it or stop it.
The clients should set up a class action and sue the hosting company.
If my hosting companies are reading this and try this technique, I will DEFINITLELY contact all their clients and take legal action.
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cianuro
Joined: Jan 22, 2004
# Posts: 164
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Posted: 2004-Apr-29 14:26
GoDaddy banned the googlebot from all their clients sites!?! WOW.
Can you point me to where I can find some more information about please?
With regards APLUS.Net, I am sure they had some fine print mentioning in some strange shape or form that this was within their "Rights". If not, why has no-one taken action?
How long was it going on for?
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cianuro
Joined: Jan 22, 2004
# Posts: 164
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Posted: 2004-Apr-29 14:31
Sorry, about my comment:
"Can you point me to where I can find some more information about please? "
Please ignore, I am such an idiot!
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greenleaves
Joined: Mar 21, 2002
# Posts: 720
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Posted: 2004-Apr-29 22:10
I am such an idiot!
Don't worry, no body is perfect.
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bhartzer
Staff
Joined: Jun 08, 2000
# Posts: 7042
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Posted: 2004-Apr-29 22:17
If not, why has no-one taken action?
I'm not sure all their 17,000+ clients know about it.
How long was it going on for?
Quite a while, I gather. What's more important is that it's still going on:
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=dedicated+servers
Unless Google manually does something about this spam, it will take quite a while for them to get around to updating the links.
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