• majorAlexa

        See all notifications

        Skip to content
        Moz logo Menu open Menu close
        • Products
          • Moz Pro
          • Moz Pro Home
          • Moz Local
          • Moz Local Home
          • STAT
          • Moz API
          • Moz API Home
          • Compare SEO Products
          • Moz Data
        • Free SEO Tools
          • Domain Analysis
          • Keyword Explorer
          • Link Explorer
          • Competitive Research
          • MozBar
          • More Free SEO Tools
        • Learn SEO
          • Beginner's Guide to SEO
          • SEO Learning Center
          • Moz Academy
          • MozCon
          • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
        • Blog
        • Why Moz
          • Digital Marketers
          • Agency Solutions
          • Enterprise Solutions
          • Small Business Solutions
          • The Moz Story
          • New Releases
        • Log in
        • Log out
        • Products
          • Moz Pro

            Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

          • Moz Local

            Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

          • STAT

            SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

          • Moz API

            Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

          • Compare SEO Products

            See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

          • Moz Data

            Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

          Let your business shine with Listings AI
          Moz Local

          Let your business shine with Listings AI

          Learn more
        • Free SEO Tools
          • Domain Analysis

            Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

          • Keyword Explorer

            Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

          • Link Explorer

            Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

          • Competitive Research

            Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

          • MozBar

            See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

          • More Free SEO Tools

            Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

          NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
          Moz Pro

          NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

          Learn more
        • Learn SEO
          • Beginner's Guide to SEO

            The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

          • SEO Learning Center

            Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

          • On-Demand Webinars

            Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

          • How-To Guides

            Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

          • Moz Academy

            Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

          • MozCon

            Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

          Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
          Moz API

          Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

          Find your plan
        • Blog
        • Why Moz
          • Digital Marketers

            Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

          • Small Business Solutions

            Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

          • Agency Solutions

            Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

          • Enterprise Solutions

            Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

          • The Moz Story

            Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

          • New Releases

            Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

          Surface actionable competitive intel
          New Feature

          Surface actionable competitive intel

          Learn More
        • Log in
          • Moz Pro
          • Moz Local
          • Moz Local Dashboard
          • Moz API
          • Moz API Dashboard
          • Moz Academy
        • Avatar
          • Moz Home
          • Notifications
          • Account & Billing
          • Manage Users
          • Community Profile
          • My Q&A
          • My Videos
          • Log Out

        The Moz Q&A Forum

        • Forum
        • Questions
        • My Q&A
        • Users
        • Ask the Community

        Welcome to the Q&A Forum

        Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

        1. Home
        2. SEO Tactics
        3. International SEO
        4. Advise on the right way to block country specific users but not block Googlebot - and not be seen to be cloaking. Help please!

        Moz Q&A is closed.

        After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

        Advise on the right way to block country specific users but not block Googlebot - and not be seen to be cloaking. Help please!

        International SEO
        international seo crawling
        4
        6
        282
        Loading More Posts
        • Watching

          Notify me of new replies.
          Show question in unread.

        • Not Watching

          Do not notify me of new replies.
          Show question in unread if category is not ignored.

        • Ignoring

          Do not notify me of new replies.
          Do not show question in unread.

        • Oldest to Newest
        • Newest to Oldest
        • Most Votes
        Reply
        • Reply as question
        Locked
        This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
        • MarkCanning
          MarkCanning last edited by

          Hi,

          I am working on the SEO of an online gaming platform - a platform that can only be accessed by people in certain countries, where the games and content are legally allowed.
          Example: The games are not allowed in the USA, but they are allowed in Canada.

          Present Situation:
          Presently when a user from the USA visits the site they get directed to a restricted location page with the following message:

          RESTRICTED LOCATION
          Due to licensing restrictions, we can't currently offer our services in your location. We're working hard to expand our reach, so stay tuned for updates!

          Because USA visitors are blocked Google which primarily (but not always) crawls from the USA is also blocked, so the company webpages are not being crawled and indexed.

          Objective / What we want to achieve:

          The website will have multiple region and language locations. Some of these will exist as standalone websites and others will exist as folders on the domain. Examples below:
          domain.com/en-ca [English Canada]
          domain.com/fr-ca [french Canada]
          domain.com/es-mx [spanish mexico]
          domain.com/pt-br [portugese brazil]
          domain.co.in/hi [hindi India]

          If a user from USA or another restricted location tries to access our site they should not have access but should get a restricted access message.
          However we still want google to be able to access, crawl and index our pages.

          Can i suggest how do we do this without getting done for cloaking etc?

          Would this approach be ok? (please see below)

          We continue to work as the present situation is presently doing, showing visitors from the USA a restricted message.
          However rather than redirecting these visitors to a restricted location page, we just black out the page and show them a floating message as if it were a model window.
          While Googlebot would be allowed to visit and crawl the website.

          I have also read that it would be good to put paywall schema on each webpage to let Google know that we are not cloaking and its a restricted paid page. All public pages are accessible but only if the visitor is from a location that is not restricted

          Any feedback and direction that can be given would be greatly appreciated as i am new to this angle of SEO.

          Sincere thanks,

          George_Inoriseo Robert_Ripple 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • JackBen4100
            JackBen4100 last edited by

            o ensure SEO compliance while restricting access to certain countries, follow these 3 steps and keep in mind that these are critical to follow if you want to work on multinational and multilingual site:

            Page Blackout for Restricted Visitors: Instead of redirecting users, blackout the content and display a message. For example, https://fifamobilefc.com/ shows a message to users from restricted countries while allowing Google to crawl the pages.

            Implement Paywall Schema: Use paywall schema markup to signal to Google that content is restricted but not cloaked. This helps maintain transparency with search engines.

            Geo-Targeting: Employ geo-targeting to identify and present the message to users from restricted countries, while still allowing Google to access the content.

            By applying these methods, you can maintain SEO compliance while effectively restricting access to users from certain countries. Regular monitoring via Google Search Console ensures continued adherence to best practices.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • Robert_Ripple
              Robert_Ripple @MarkCanning last edited by

              @MarkCanning said in Advise on the right way to block country specific users but not block Googlebot - and not be seen to be cloaking. Help please!:

              Hi,
              I am working on the SEO of an online gaming platform - a platform that can only be accessed by people in certain countries, where the games and content are legally allowed.
              Example: The games are not allowed in the USA, but they are allowed in Canada.
              Present Situation:
              Presently when a user from the USA visits the site they get directed to a restricted location page with the following message:
              RESTRICTED LOCATION
              Due to licensing restrictions, we can't currently offer our services in your location. We're working hard to expand our reach, so stay tuned for updates!
              Because USA visitors are blocked Google which primarily (but not always) crawls from the USA is also blocked, so the company webpages are not being crawled and indexed.
              Objective / What we want to achieve:
              The website will have multiple region and language locations. Some of these will exist as standalone websites and others will exist as folders on the domain. Examples below:
              domain.com/en-ca [English Canada]
              domain.com/fr-ca [french Canada]
              domain.com/es-mx [spanish mexico]
              domain.com/pt-br [portugese brazil]
              domain.co.in/hi [hindi India]
              If a user from USA or another restricted location tries to access our site they should not have access but should get a restricted access message.
              However we still want google to be able to access, crawl and index our pages.
              Can i suggest how do we do this without getting done for cloaking etc?
              Would this approach be ok? (please see below)
              We continue to work as the present situation is presently doing, showing visitors from the USA a restricted message.
              However rather than redirecting these visitors to a restricted location page, we just black out the page and show them a floating message as if it were a model window.
              While Googlebot would be allowed to visit and crawl the website.
              I have also read that it would be good to put paywall schema on each webpage to let Google know that we are not cloaking and its a restricted paid page. All public pages are accessible but only if the visitor is from a location that is not restricted
              Any feedback and direction that can be given would be greatly appreciated as i am new to this angle of SEO.

              By blacking out the page for visitors from restricted locations while allowing Googlebot access, you're ensuring compliance without hindering indexing. Implementing paywall schema can further clarify to Google that the restriction is based on licensing rather than cloaking. Just ensure consistent implementation across all restricted pages and adhere to Google's guidelines to avoid any issues.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • MarkCanning
                MarkCanning @George_Inoriseo last edited by

                @George_Inoriseo hi george, i submitted a previous reply on here but can't see it anywhere.

                Firstly thank you for your feedback. I have some extra questions.

                Lets assume we have a Canadian version of the website and a US human visitor tries to visit that site or any page on the site. They should be able to browse to the site but an overlay would appear meaning they cannot use the site or proceed any further. The overlap would say te site is restricted in their location. I see other companies doing this. What way would google handle this:

                1. Could they proceed to crawl the website or would the javascript overlap prevent Googlebot from crawling and indexeing?
                2. If googlebot where to look at the hash information of the page companred to the hash of what a user sees would they be the same? I believe if their is a big difference in the hash this is a signal for cloaking - because it shows the information / page size is substantially different.
                3. Would it be wise to avoid user agent lookups in the code? Again i believe this can signal to Google to Googl that manipulation is taking place.

                I heard from a google offical that paywall schema might not be a great method.
                "Paywall markup would not be suited here since there's no log-in or paymeny that can be done to get access when in the wrong country".

                Thanks

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • MarkCanning
                  MarkCanning @George_Inoriseo last edited by

                  @George_Inoriseo thanks very much George.

                  The website will have a .com domain and then subfolders will branch off that for different countries / languages. So the structure would be like this:

                  domain.com
                  doman.com/en-ca (english Canada}
                  domain.com/fr-ca (french Canada)

                  The company have licenses for certain countries and in countries where they don't have a license to operate (e.g. USA) users visiting our sites from those countries, should not be able to play. So on our Canadian website, if we detect a user is from USA (where we don't have a license) the user should get a message telling them they can't play. They should be able to visit the site ok, but the website would sniff the location and tell them that they can't play with the website blacked out.

                  As you suggested we could have a javascript overlay that loads if the user is from the USA. I assume this would only look at the geolocation and not the user agent? Looking up the user agent would be a clear sign we are doing something different for users and Googlebot would it not? Would an overlay restrict Googlebot from crawling the site and because the user is seeing something different to Googlebot could this be perceived as cloaking?

                  I spoke to someone at Google regarding paywall schema and the feeling was this: "paywall markup would not be suited since there is no log-in or payment that can be done to get access when in the wrong country".

                  Thanks again George.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • George_Inoriseo
                    George_Inoriseo @MarkCanning last edited by

                    @MarkCanning here is what I would do:

                    Avoid Redirects for Blocked Regions: Instead of redirecting users from blocked regions to a different page, use a client-side overlay (like a modal window) to display the restricted access message. This method keeps all users on the same URL.

                    Implement Paywall Schema: Applying the paywall schema is a smart move. It informs Google that your content restrictions are based on user location, not pay-to-access barriers, which helps avoid penalties for cloaking.

                    Ensure Accessible Content for Googlebot: Allow Googlebot to crawl the original content. Ensure that your site’s robots.txt file permits Googlebot to access the URLs of region-specific pages.

                    Use hreflang Tags for Multi-Region Sites: For multiple language and region versions, use hreflang tags to help Google understand the geographic and language targeting of your pages. This will also prevent duplicate content issues.

                    Monitor and Adapt: Keep an eye on Google Search Console to monitor how these changes affect your site's indexing and adjust your strategies as needed.

                    This strategy should help you manage SEO for restricted content effectively, while staying compliant with Google’s guidelines.

                    Best of luck!

                    MarkCanning 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • 1 / 1
                    • First post
                      Last post

                    Browse Questions

                    Explore more categories

                    • Moz Tools

                      Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                    • SEO Tactics

                      Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                    • Community

                      Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                    • Digital Marketing

                      Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                    • Research & Trends

                      Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                    • Support

                      Connect on product support and feature requests.

                    • See all categories

                    Related Questions

                    • Azurius

                      Unsolved Crawling only the Home of my website

                      crawl error crawling crawl

                      Hello,
                      I don't understand why MOZ crawl only the homepage of our webiste https://www.modelos-de-curriculum.com We add the website correctly, and we asked for crawling all the pages. But the tool find only the homepage. Why? We are testing the tool before to suscribe. But we need to be sure that the tool is working for our website. If you can please help us.

                      Product Support | | Azurius
                      0
                    • Aman0022

                      Website is not getting indexed

                      indexing crawling

                      Hi,
                      Hope you all are doing great!
                      I have created a dog blog a few weeks back which talks about all things about dogs (http://pawspulse.com/). I am publishing couple of articles everyday which are more than 5k words long with proper keyword research but still Google is not indexing my content. My content is systematically categorized in proper categories related to dog guides, nutrition, accessories, dog breeds etc.
                      Can anyone help me how to get the website index faster fully. Any help will be much appreciated. Thanks

                      Content Development | | Aman0022
                      0
                    • Ravi_Rana

                      How to rank a website in different countries

                      seo tactic seo international seo seo rankings seo expert

                      I have a website which I want to rank in UK, NZ and AU and I want to keep my domain as .com in all the countries. I have specified the lang=en now what needs to be done to rank one website in 3 different English countries without changing the domain extension i.e. .com.au or .com.nz

                      SEO Tactics | | Ravi_Rana
                      0
                    • mattdinbrooklyn

                      Country and Language Specific URL Paths

                      Wanted to ask everyone a questions: So our company is going to be doing a website that is going to be full of videos. The url path will be country.domain.com/language/slug/content-id. We redirect the user when they go to the different country. So if you're in spain on a train to france your URL will change from es.domain.com/es/slug/content-id to fr.domain.com/es/slug/content-id. Each country can listen to each video in all languages. My question is with hreflang tags and canonicals. Aside from targeting users in a certain country via Google Search Console, how do I eliminate duplication and tell Google which I'd like to show up via which country. In spain I would like es.domain.com/es/slug/content-id to show in Google and would have hreflang tags on each of the es.domain pages but what about fr.domain.com/es/slug/content-id since it would show the same content? I can't canonical to one of them since I need them to show in their respective country. How do I show the difference in language and country without showing duplication?

                      International SEO | | mattdinbrooklyn
                      0
                    • romh

                      Country subfolders showing as sitelinks in Google, country targeting for home page no longer working

                      Hi There, Just wondering if you can help. Our site has 3 region versions (General .com, /ie/ for Ireland and /gb/ for UK), each submitted to Google Webmaster Tools as seperate sites with hreflang tags in the head section of all pages.  Google was showing the correct results for a few weeks, but I resubmitted the home pages with slight text changes last week and something strange happened, though it may have been coincidental timing. When we search for the brand name in google.ie or google.co.uk, the .com now shows as the main site, where the sitelinks still show the correct country versions.  However, the country subdirectories are now appearing as sitelinks, which is likely causing the problem.  I have demoted these on GWT, but unsure as to whether that will work and it seems to take a while for sitelink demotion to work. Has anyone had anything similar happen?  I thought perhaps it was a markup issue breaking the head section so that Google can no longer see the hreflangs pointing to each other as alternates.  I checked the source code in w3 validator and it doesn't show any errors.  Anyway, any help would be much appreciated - and thanks to anyone who gets back, it's a tricky type of issue to troubleshoot. Thanks, Ro

                      International SEO | | romh
                      0
                    • Fisken

                      Two versions of a website with different languages - Best way to do it?

                      I'm working on a website for a Swedish artist and her page is in Swedish, everything is in Swedish on the site, even though it's not a lot of text on the site. We would like to have the site in English too, or another version of the site in English on a separate domain, what's the best way to proceed from here? The domain name is a .se (swedish domain), would it be better to create a another domain and host the english version of the site on a .com domain? Or will we bump into problems with duplicate content if we create a replica of the swedish site in english. We're using wordpress and I know that there's translation plugins out there, is that a good option? I'm a bit clueless on how to proceed and would love some help or guidance here.

                      International SEO | | Fisken
                      0
                    • HMK-NL

                      How to fix the duplicate content problem on different domains (.nl /.be) of your brand's websites in multiple countries?

                      Dear all, what is the best way to fix the duplicate content problem on different domains (.nl /.be) of your brand's websites in multiple countries? What must I add to my code of websites my .nl domain to avoid duplicate content and to keep the .nl website out of google.be, but still well-indexed in google.nl? What must I add to my code of websites my .be domain to avoid duplicate content and to keep the .nl website out of google.be, but still well-indexed in google.nl? Thanks in advance!

                      International SEO | | HMK-NL
                      3
                    • gomyseo

                      Country specific landing pages

                      I have a client who wants to put a re-direct on his landing pages based on the visitors IP address. The landing page will be a sub domain relevant to the country their IP is located in. I am a little concerned this will effect the SEO. Appreciate any advice. Dylan 🙂

                      International SEO | | gomyseo
                      0

                    Get started with Moz Pro!

                    Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                    Start my free trial
                    Products
                    • Moz Pro
                    • Moz Local
                    • Moz API
                    • Moz Data
                    • STAT
                    • Product Updates
                    Moz Solutions
                    • SMB Solutions
                    • Agency Solutions
                    • Enterprise Solutions
                    • Digital Marketers
                    Free SEO Tools
                    • Domain Authority Checker
                    • Link Explorer
                    • Keyword Explorer
                    • Competitive Research
                    • Brand Authority Checker
                    • Local Citation Checker
                    • MozBar Extension
                    • MozCast
                    Resources
                    • Blog
                    • SEO Learning Center
                    • Help Hub
                    • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                    • How-to Guides
                    • Moz Academy
                    • API Docs
                    About Moz
                    • About
                    • Team
                    • Careers
                    • Contact
                    Why Moz
                    • Case Studies
                    • Testimonials
                    Get Involved
                    • Become an Affiliate
                    • MozCon
                    • Webinars
                    • Practical Marketer Series
                    • MozPod
                    Connect with us

                    Contact the Help team

                    Join our newsletter
                    Moz logo
                    © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                    • Accessibility
                    • Terms of Use
                    • Privacy

                    Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.