A site that I am researching is ranking for its main page in the SERPS for a certain keyword. When I click on this result...I am redirected to another page within there website that is NOT the page that is ranking in the SERPS for that particular terms. To me this is cloaking with a little sneaky redirection. Any thoughts?
Probably just redirection, although who knows, it could just be a 301 - and that's legal. Try opening the page via notepad to find out for sure if it has a different source than the redirected one.
It looks like a temporary 302 redirect. The main page is ranking for the term "blue widgets" and I click on that term and get taken to another page within the site that is NOT the page that is ranking for that term. TO me that is a little cloaking or sneaky redirect. If Google thought the page that the person is getting directed to was the best page then that page would rank higher for the specific term.
I thought the page in google that ranks for a particular phrase has to be the page that the user gets when they click on that term. I say this because i read matt cutts latest post on cloaking: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/a-quick-word-about-cloaking/ In it he says: "return-the-same-content-as-Googlebot-saw behavior happens; it should happen for every click from a Google search result." and "Google searchers get the identical page to what Googlebot saw" IN THIS case....you don't get the page google is ranking....you get the page that you get redirected to.
Sounds like Misleading Redirection. I think that is against Google guidelines. You can't have a specific page rank and then just redirect users to a page you feel more appropriate.
Why the hell not? It's my site, and I will do with it as I please. If I feel a ranked page needs to change format, or if I want to test which layout is more conducive to a conversion, or change the theme to match the holidays without going through a bunch of hassle, or EVEN if I feel it's just "more appropriate"... I have EVERY RIGHT to do it! That's the whole point of the internet! Google is a lot better at telling the difference between what is legit, and what isn't. My advice to you questiontoyou, is stop wasting your time looking for what YOU think are "rule" infractions, and focus on the big picture in regards to YOUR sites.
well, maybe he's not wasting time. Do you ever thinked that he could be running after an competitor site? If that was the case, the competitor was stealing a good position with a bad method. And if that was the case, the guy should loose his time running after the infraction.
Why else do you think he would be doing it? Yes, using the Google spam report works really well. Like I said, Google is not stupid, and YOU don't even know if something "sneaky" is really taking place.