diff --git a/websockify/websocket.py b/websockify/websocket.py
index 49e60b6..e37af0f 100644
--- a/websockify/websocket.py
+++ b/websockify/websocket.py
@@ -344,10 +344,11 @@ class WebSocket(object):
     def recv(self):
         """Read data from the WebSocket.
 
-        This will return any available data on the socket. If the
-        socket is closed then an empty buffer will be returned. The
-        reason for the close is found in the 'close_code' and
-        'close_reason' properties.
+        This will return any available data on the socket (which may
+        be the empty string if the peer sent an empty message or
+        messages). If the socket is closed then None will be
+        returned. The reason for the close is found in the
+        'close_code' and 'close_reason' properties.
 
         Unlike recvmsg() this method may return data from more than one
         WebSocket message. It is however not guaranteed to return all
@@ -362,10 +363,11 @@ class WebSocket(object):
     def recvmsg(self):
         """Read a single message from the WebSocket.
 
-        This will return a single WebSocket message from the socket.
-        If the socket is closed then an empty buffer will be returned.
-        The reason for the close is found in the 'close_code' and
-        'close_reason' properties.
+        This will return a single WebSocket message from the socket
+        (which will be the empty string if the peer sent an empty
+        message). If the socket is closed then None will be
+        returned. The reason for the close is found in the
+        'close_code' and 'close_reason' properties.
 
         Unlike recv() this method will not return data from more than
         one WebSocket message. Callers should continue calling
@@ -377,30 +379,22 @@ class WebSocket(object):
         # May have been called to flush out a close
         if self._received_close:
             self._flush()
-            return ''.encode("ascii")
+            return None
 
         # Anything already queued?
         if self.pending():
-            msg = self._recvmsg()
-            if msg is not None:
-                return msg
-
-            # Note: We cannot proceed to self._recv() here as we may
+            return self._recvmsg()
+            # Note: If self._recvmsg() raised WebSocketWantReadError,
+            #       we cannot proceed to self._recv() here as we may
             #       have already called it once as part of the caller's
             #       "while websock.pending():" loop
-            raise WebSocketWantReadError
 
         # Nope, let's try to read a bit
         if not self._recv_frames():
-            return ''.encode("ascii")
+            return None
 
         # Anything queued now?
-        msg = self._recvmsg()
-        if msg is not None:
-            return msg
-
-        # Still nope
-        raise WebSocketWantReadError
+        return self._recvmsg()
 
     def pending(self):
         """Check if any WebSocket data is pending.
@@ -594,7 +588,7 @@ class WebSocket(object):
 
                 if self._sent_close:
                     self._close()
-                    return ''.encode("ascii")
+                    return None
 
                 if not frame["fin"]:
                     self.shutdown(socket.SHUT_RDWR, 1003, "Unsupported: Fragmented close")
@@ -621,7 +615,7 @@ class WebSocket(object):
                         self.close_reason = reason
 
                 self.shutdown(code, reason)
-                return ''.encode("ascii")
+                return None
             elif frame["opcode"] == 0x9:
                 if not frame["fin"]:
                     self.shutdown(socket.SHUT_RDWR, 1003, "Unsupported: Fragmented ping")
@@ -637,7 +631,7 @@ class WebSocket(object):
             else:
                 self.shutdown(socket.SHUT_RDWR, 1003, "Unsupported: Unknown opcode 0x%02x" % frame["opcode"])
 
-        return None
+        raise WebSocketWantReadError
 
     def _flush(self):
         # Writes pending data to the socket
diff --git a/websockify/websocketproxy.py b/websockify/websocketproxy.py
index 6c17c10..6aa76e6 100644
--- a/websockify/websocketproxy.py
+++ b/websockify/websocketproxy.py
@@ -231,7 +231,7 @@ Traffic Legend:
             if target in ins:
                 # Receive target data, encode it and queue for client
                 buf = target.recv(self.buffer_size)
-                if len(buf) == 0:
+                if buf is None:
                     if self.verbose:
                         self.log_message("%s:%s: Target closed connection",
                                 self.server.target_host, self.server.target_port)
diff --git a/websockify/websockifyserver.py b/websockify/websockifyserver.py
index a531cb4..5bb755e 100644
--- a/websockify/websockifyserver.py
+++ b/websockify/websockifyserver.py
@@ -181,7 +181,7 @@ class WebSockifyRequestHandler(WebSocketRequestHandler, SimpleHTTPRequestHandler
                 self.print_traffic("}.")
                 break
 
-            if len(buf) == 0:
+            if buf is None:
                 closed = {'code': self.request.close_code,
                           'reason': self.request.close_reason}
                 return bufs, closed