Frequently Asked Questions

Speed optimization scams involve using cloaking techniques to show different content to search engines and testing tools than what real users see. This typically means serving ultra-optimized, stripped-down content to Google PageSpeed Insights while delivering the actual, slower website to visitors. It's a deceptive practice that violates Google's guidelines and can result in severe penalties.

Common signs include: PageSpeed scores of 90+ but users complain about slow loading, sudden score improvements without major work, heavily obfuscated JavaScript in your code, unexplained drops in organic traffic, and Google Search Console warnings. The most reliable way is to use a detection tool like Cloaxr to scan for hidden cloaking techniques.

While not illegal in a criminal sense, cloaking violates Google's Webmaster Guidelines and can be considered fraudulent if a developer charged you for legitimate optimization but used cloaking instead. It can result in Google penalties, loss of search rankings, and potential legal action against the developer who implemented it.

Legitimate optimization improves actual website performance for all users through techniques like image compression, code minification, and server improvements. Cloaking only fakes good scores by serving different content to testing tools. Real optimization benefits everyone; cloaking only tricks testing tools.

While rare, cloaking can be inadvertently added through malicious plugins, compromised themes, or inherited from previous developers. However, most cloaking is intentionally implemented by developers trying to achieve unrealistic performance scores without doing actual optimization work.

Cloaxr uses AI-powered pattern recognition to analyze your website's code for over 12 categories of cloaking techniques. We scan for user-agent detection, obfuscated JavaScript, performance API tampering, service worker manipulation, and other common cloaking methods. Our system is regularly updated to catch new techniques as they emerge.

Our detection system has been trained on thousands of cloaking samples and maintains high accuracy. We use weighted scoring across multiple detection categories to minimize false positives while ensuring comprehensive coverage. The system clearly indicates severity levels and provides detailed category-by-category results.

A typical scan takes about 55-60 seconds to complete. This includes fetching your website content, analyzing all scripts and stylesheets, running pattern detection across 12+ categories, calculating severity scores, and generating a comprehensive report. The time ensures thorough analysis without rushing.

Cloaxr only accesses publicly available content that any visitor can see. We fetch your HTML, inline scripts/styles, and the first 10 JavaScript files and 5 CSS files. We don't access private areas, don't require passwords, and don't execute any code from your site for security reasons.

We recommend scanning monthly for regular monitoring, immediately after any developer makes changes, when installing new plugins or themes, if you notice sudden PageSpeed score changes, or if you experience unexplained traffic drops. Regular scanning helps catch cloaking early before it causes damage.

Google can impose manual actions that drastically reduce rankings, algorithmic penalties that automatically suppress your site, or complete de-indexing removing your site from search results entirely. Recovery from these penalties can take months or years, even after removing the cloaking.

Google's detection timeframe varies. Algorithmic detection can happen within days or weeks, while manual reviews might take months. However, once detected, penalties are often applied immediately and can cause sudden, dramatic drops in rankings and traffic.

Yes, but recovery is challenging and time-consuming. You must completely remove all cloaking code, submit a detailed reconsideration request to Google, implement legitimate optimization, and wait for Google to re-evaluate your site. Recovery typically takes 3-6 months minimum, sometimes longer.

Yes, your scores will likely drop significantly after removing cloaking because they'll reflect your site's real performance instead of fake metrics. This is necessary and actually beneficial - it's better to have honest scores and avoid penalties than fake high scores that risk your entire online presence.

Beyond direct penalties, cloaking damages user experience leading to higher bounce rates, reduces trust signals that Google uses for ranking, creates inconsistent crawling data confusing search engines, and can trigger spam filters affecting email deliverability and social media reach.

Start by running a scan to identify all cloaking instances, then follow our platform-specific removal guides. Generally, you'll need to remove suspicious plugins/apps, clean theme files of injected scripts, delete obfuscated JavaScript files, remove user-agent detection code, and clear all caches. Always backup your site first.

If you're not technically comfortable or the cloaking is deeply embedded, hiring a reputable professional is recommended. Ensure they understand cloaking removal (not just general development), can explain their process clearly, and guarantee no new cloaking will be added. Avoid anyone promising instant high PageSpeed scores.

After removal: verify with another scan that all cloaking is gone, submit a reconsideration request if you received a manual penalty, monitor Search Console for improvements, implement legitimate optimization techniques, and set up regular monitoring to prevent reoccurrence. Document everything for potential disputes.

Recovery timelines vary: algorithmic penalties might improve within 2-4 weeks, manual actions require reconsideration review (2-4 weeks), full ranking recovery can take 3-6 months or longer, and traffic recovery depends on competition and market changes. Patience and consistent legitimate SEO efforts are crucial.

Yes, cloaking can return through plugin/theme updates that reintroduce code, new installations with hidden cloaking, compromised sites adding malicious scripts, or developers reverting changes. Regular scanning and careful vetting of all updates and developers is essential for prevention.

Prevention strategies include: only hiring reputable developers who explain their methods, avoiding plugins/themes promising unrealistic performance, regularly scanning your site for changes, reviewing all code before deployment, monitoring both lab and real-user metrics, and maintaining backups before any updates.

Ask: "How exactly will you improve performance?", "Will all users see the same improvements?", "Can you guarantee no cloaking techniques?", "What specific files will you modify?", "How will changes affect SEO?", and "Can you provide before/after real user metrics?". Be wary of vague answers or promises of instant 90+ scores.

Absolutely! Legitimate methods include: optimizing images (compression, modern formats, lazy loading), minifying CSS/JavaScript, implementing proper caching strategies, using a CDN for global delivery, optimizing server response times, reducing third-party scripts, and improving code efficiency. These benefit all users, not just testing tools.

Warning signs include: promises of 95+ PageSpeed scores for any site, extremely low prices for "optimization", reluctance to explain technical details, no mention of real user metrics, immediate/overnight results promises, and claims of "secret techniques" or "Google tricks".

Be cautious with plugins claiming dramatic improvements. Research thoroughly, check reviews for penalty reports, avoid plugins with obfuscated code, test on a staging site first, and monitor changes after installation. Legitimate caching and optimization plugins are fine, but many "booster" plugins use cloaking.

Cloaking can affect any platform, but it's particularly common on WordPress due to the vast plugin ecosystem, Shopify through malicious apps, and custom sites where developers have full control. Platforms with easier code access tend to have more cloaking issues, but no platform is immune.

Yes, sophisticated cloaking often targets mobile and desktop PageSpeed tests separately, serving different optimizations based on the detected testing strategy. This is why you might see different scores or behaviors between mobile and desktop tests, and why real users on different devices may have vastly different experiences.

Cloaking can fake good Core Web Vitals scores in lab tests (like PageSpeed Insights) but cannot affect real user metrics collected by Chrome. This discrepancy between lab and field data is often a clear indicator of cloaking and is one reason Google uses real user data for ranking signals.

Legitimate CDNs and caching don't cause false positives because they serve the same optimized content to everyone. Cloaxr specifically looks for conditional serving based on user-agent detection and other cloaking patterns, not general optimization techniques. Proper caching actually helps avoid cloaking suspicions.

No, AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) and PWAs (Progressive Web Apps) are legitimate Google-approved technologies. They're not cloaking because they serve optimized experiences to all users consistently, not just to testing tools. However, improperly implemented AMP that only loads for Googlebot would be cloaking.