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What content-blocking modes are available in Poool Access?
What content-blocking modes are available in Poool Access?

We help you select the most suitable method based on your specific challenges and market trends.

Flore Bayle avatar
Written by Flore Bayle
Updated yesterday

Content accessibility and paywall circumvention are significant concerns that require careful thought during the integration of Poool.

Several factors need to be considered when making this choice:

  • Your acquisition strategy,

  • The type of content you publish,

  • The share of revenue derived from advertising,

  • The audiences you are targeting.

With Poool, three options are available to help you hide your content and display the paywall module.

Overview of the three available methods

Let’s begin with an overview of the three methods you have available. Each one has its own features, advantages, and disadvantages.

Let’s now dive into the details of each method!

Native Blocking Methods

Native methods allow publishers to integrate Poool very quickly without developing an internal content-blocking/unblocking mechanism. The Poool script handles this functionality natively.

The principle of these two methods is to load the full content onto the page and then manipulate its visibility based on the selected option.

We developed these methods based on our experience and techniques implemented across many major news sites.

Two native methods are available:

The Hide Method (CSS)
The Hide method is the simplest to implement and has the fewest side effects.

  • We calculate the size of the <div> on which the attributes data-poool and data-poool-mode are applied.

  • The content is trimmed to the percentage specified in the percent attribute.

  • When the paywall is unlocked, the original size of the content <div> is restored.

With this method, the full content remains present on the page and can be accessed by inspecting the page source.

In rare cases, the "hide" mode may cause display issues when the content is unlocked.

If you encounter this, you can use the following configuration line:

access.config('disable_content_height_calculation', true);

💡 SEO Focus: Since the content remains available on the page, this blocking method does not negatively impact SEO.

In any case, we recommend structuring your data properly, following Google's guidelines 👉 here

The Excerpt Method (JavaScript)
This is Poool's default masking mode. Similar to the Hide method, we calculate the percentage of text to hide. The main difference is that the text is not technically kept on the page but is stored in a JavaScript element (a viewholder) that users cannot access.

However, the text remains visible in the page's source code.

Using the Excerpt mode may cause conflicts with other JavaScript scripts. If you are using multiple ad scripts, the "Hide" mode is preferable.

This mode is also not recommended for single-page applications (Angular, React, Vue, etc.).

💡 SEO Focus: Like the "Hide" mode, this blocking method preserves SEO because the content remains available on the page.

Again, make sure to structure your data following Google's recommendations 👉 here

The Custom Blocking Method

Unlike the previous two methods, which require no technical development on the publisher's side, the "custom" mode requires a bit more work.

In the Custom mode, Poool gives you full control over content blocking and unblocking. We trigger the "onLock" event during blocking and the "onRelease" event during unblocking. With these two events, you can create your own logic.

This functionality is useful, for example, if you want to perform an unblocking via an API for maximum security.

👉 A custom integration example is available here.

💡 SEO Focus: In the case of the "custom" mode, we recommend staying vigilant about SEO issues. Again, data structuring should be carefully considered.

You can also make the content accessible to Google bots. The details are explained by Google 👉 in this article.

How to Choose?


Now that you have the details of how each method works, it’s time to make your choice...

First of all, we have a great article by Madeleine on The Audiencers that addresses this issue 👉 Paywall bypass: Why it’s not such a big deal? It’s very useful for putting the topic into perspective.

Next, we recommend weighing different criteria to make an informed decision:

Technical Criteria

  • Budget and available integration time

  • Technical specifics of your site

  • Specific security requirements

Strategic Criteria

  • What is your conversion strategy? What audience are you targeting?

  • What share of advertising revenue is part of your model?

  • What type of content do you publish?

And, of course, our team is here to advise you on the method best suited to your needs 🙂

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