Cloaking - Bots filtering lets you create rules that show bots and ad review crawlers a different product than real buyers. Open Apps, find it in the Security and Privacy collection, install it, then click the gear icon on its card to manage rules. It is a paid app billed monthly from your wallet (included on the Business plan). The price shows on its card, and Installing and managing apps explains billing.
How cloaking works
Each rule pairs what a real visitor sees with a decoy that flagged (suspicious) traffic sees. Flagged traffic gets the fake product. Real visitors see the real product or are redirected to your URL. A flagged visitor sees the fake product everywhere in your store during that visit, including search and product lists.
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:
- Starter: 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, and the value must be a valid web address.
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 If the fake product is later unpublished or has no price set for the visitor's market, the page returns a 404 rather than leaking the real product.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 to flag crawlers and keeps them off both the real product and the redirect URL. Turn it off and only the filters below stay active.
Delayed reveal
When Delayed reveal is on, every visitor lands on the fake product first. After the Delay time you set (3 to 15 seconds), real visitors are moved to the real product or the redirect URL, while filtered bots keep seeing the fake one. Ad reviewers and screenshot tools rarely stay on a page, so they capture the fake product, while a real buyer who keeps reading gets your offer.
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
In Number of clicks before filtering, enter a whole number. If you set 30, the first 30 visitors see the fake product, and everyone after that sees the real product, except bots. Visitors are counted by their internet connection, so refreshing the page does not change the count, and one of the first 30 who comes back later still sees the fake product. Leave it empty or set 0 to turn this off.
Required ad click
Ad platforms add a click identifier to your link when someone clicks your ad. In Required ad click, pick the platforms your ads run on: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok, Snapchat, or Google. Only visitors who arrive from a real ad click on those platforms see the real product. A reviewer who opens your product link straight from the ads manager has no click identifier, so they see the fake product. Keep in mind that direct visits, search traffic, and email links also see the fake product while this is set. Leave it empty to let every visitor through.
Block VPNs and proxies
When Block VPNs and proxies 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 rules combine
A visitor sees the real product only if they pass every filter you turned on. If any one of them flags the visitor, they see the fake product. Inside the builder preview, cloaking is skipped 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 visitors always see the fake product, human or bot.
- With Required ad click set, test from a real ad click. Opening the link yourself shows the fake product.
- 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.