Cloaking is a security app you install before its settings appear. Once installed, it lets you create rules that serve different content to automated crawlers and ad-review bots than to real human buyers, so your campaigns can pass policy review while your real landing page reaches customers. Open Apps, find Cloaking in the Security & Privacy collection, click Install, then reopen the app to manage rules. Cloaking is a subscription app, so an active plan is required.
How cloaking works
Each rule pairs content a clean human visitor sees with a decoy that flagged (suspicious) traffic sees. When someone opens a product page, Storeep classifies the request. Flagged traffic is served the fake product; clean visitors see the real product or are redirected to your real URL. The same verdict is reused across the product page, search, related, and featured listings within that visit, so a flagged visitor never sees the real product anywhere.
Cloaked real products are also kept out of your sitemap and RSS/Google Shopping feed, so search engines index the decoy, not the real offer.
Cloaking limits by plan
The number of rules you can create depends on your subscription plan:
- Free: up to 10 rules
- Basic: up to 20 rules
- Pro: up to 30 rules
- Master: up to 40 rules
- Business: up to 50 rules
When you reach the limit, the Add new cloaking product link is replaced by a message asking you to upgrade your plan.
Adding a cloaking rule
- Open the Cloaking app and click Add new cloaking product.
- Configure the fields below.
- Click Add.
Activate
The Activate toggle controls whether the rule is live. It is on by default, but you can add a rule inactive and enable it later. Inactive rules are ignored entirely.
Cloaking type
- Product: visitors and customers see the real product at the same URL. Flagged traffic is served a different product at that same URL.
- Redirect URL: clean visitors are redirected to an external URL. Flagged traffic stays on the decoy product page instead of being redirected.
Real product / Redirect URL
With Product, pick the Real product from your catalog. A product cannot be the real product in more than one rule, and a product used as the real side cannot also be a fake product elsewhere.
With Redirect URL, enter the destination in the Redirect URL field. The https:// prefix is added for you, the value must be a valid web address, and it cannot exceed 255 characters.
Fake product
Pick the Fake product bots will see. It must differ from the real product and cannot already be the fake product in another rule. If the fake product is later unpublished or has no price set for the visitor's market, the page returns a 404 rather than leaking the real product.
Advanced detector
The Advanced detector toggle is on by default. While on, Storeep uses its own bot-detection algorithms to flag crawlers before they reach the page and keeps them off both the real product and the redirect URL. Turn it off and only the manual filters below stay active.
Devices
The Devices multi-select sets which device types are allowed to see the real product. Options are Desktop, Mobile, Tablet, and Television, all selected by default. Any device type you remove is treated as suspicious and shown the fake product. You must keep at least one device selected.
Number of clicks before filtering
The Number of clicks before filtering field accepts a whole number up to 999. If you set 30, the first 30 visiting networks see the fake product, and from the 31st onward clean visitors see the real product (bots still see the fake). Counting is by IP network, not raw page views, so refreshing will not reset it, and a network counted in the first 30 keeps seeing the fake product on later visits. Leave the field empty or set it to 0 to disable click-count filtering.
VPNs or proxies blocked
When VPNs or proxies blocked is on, visitors arriving through a VPN or proxy are shown the fake product. This filter only takes effect when the Advanced detector is also on, so leave the detector enabled if you rely on VPN blocking.
Restriction method and markets
- None: no country filtering for this rule.
- Blacklist: every country sees the real product except the ones you select.
- Whitelist: only the countries you select see the real product.
Use the Markets multi-select to choose those countries. Filtering is based on the visitor's detected country. Leaving Markets empty makes Blacklist or Whitelist have no effect.
How the verdict is decided
For each visit Storeep checks, in order, until one flags the visitor: the Advanced detector's bot signals, VPN/proxy use (when both toggles are on), the click quota, whether the network already used the quota, the device allowlist, then the country rule. The first match serves the fake product. Inside the store builder preview, cloaking is bypassed so you always see your real content.
Editing a cloaking rule
In the Cloaking products table, click any row to open the edit form. Every field from the add form is available. Click Save to apply changes.
Deleting a cloaking rule
Click the trash icon at the end of a row to delete one rule, or tick several checkboxes and use the Delete cloaking products action above the table.
If cloaking is not working as expected
- Confirm the rule's Activate toggle is on.
- Keep Advanced detector on if you depend on automatic bot detection or on VPN/proxy blocking.
- Make sure Devices still includes the device type of the real buyer who should see the real product.
- With Number of clicks before filtering, remember the first networks always see the fake product, human or bot.
- Check that Restriction Method and Markets are not accidentally blocking your target countries.
- If the page shows a 404, verify the fake product is published and priced in the visitor's market.