Table of contents
Cloaking is known as content cloaking. It is one of the techniques of Black Hat SEO , which involves showing different content to users than to Google robots. In practice, this means that google robots see the content on the page according to google rules and the page appears in search results, while in reality the content is completely different.
What is cloaking seo?
It is the misleading of the audience, as often the content displayed to users on the site is not ethical, such as pornographic or gambling-related content.
Can you use cloaking?
All Black Hat SEO techniques, like the use of cloaking, are not allowed and can lead to a significant lowering of a site’s authority and penalties. When Google’s robots recognize cloaking they will lower a site in search results.
Cloaking – types of Black Hat SEO
- User agent cloaking (IPUA cloaking) – displaying different content to users and search engine robots based on the User agent (the agent of the user sending the request).
- IP cloaking SEO – hiding content based on IP address of users, so robots can’t see it. If a user is determined, the server displays the content using:
- Adobe Flash – masking content by Adobe Flash application, which shows web pages with other content.
- Redirects – is the hiding of content in the original by redirecting to another page.
- JavaScript – this type of action involves masking the content of the page with JavaScript code, which first checks to see if the visitor is a search engine robot and then shows the visitor different page content.
How to protect yourself from Black Hat SEO?
- Apply White Hat SEO – SEO optimization techniques that follow Google’s guidelines.
- Be up-to-date with search engine algorithm updates.
- Create quality content – this is the surest way to achieve a high position in search results and stay there long-term.
- Report pages that sites are using cloaking. You can do this with Google through their search engine spam reporting form.
