Definition
Cloaking is a manipulation technique that involves displaying different content depending on whether the visitor is a search engine crawler or a human user. The server detects the visitor's user-agent or IP address and serves an SEO-optimized version to Google's bots while showing entirely different content to real users. This practice is explicitly prohibited by Google's guidelines because it deceives both the search engine and users. Detection of cloaking systematically leads to a severe manual penalty, which can result in complete deindexation of the site.
Key Points
- Cloaking is one of the most serious violations of Google's guidelines
- Penalties are nearly automatic and often issued manually
- Google's detection techniques are highly advanced and include manual audits
Practical Examples
User-agent cloaking
A site detects Googlebot and serves a page stuffed with keyword-optimized text, while human visitors see a completely different sales page.
IP-based cloaking
A site identifies known Google IP addresses and displays keyword-rich content for those IPs, while redirecting all other visitors to a standard commercial page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Cloaking almost always triggers a manual Google penalty, with partial or total deindexation of the site. Lifting this penalty is a long and difficult process that requires complete removal of the cloaking mechanism, followed by a reconsideration request that can take several weeks.
Yes, cloaking is strictly prohibited by Google. The only tolerated exception is dynamic rendering, where a site serves a pre-rendered version of its JavaScript content to bots, provided the content is identical to what users see.
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Last updated: 2026-02-07