Google's Matt Cutts Definitive Cloaking Video

Nov 2, 2011 - 8:23 am 3 by

Google Cutts On CloakingGoogle's Matt Cutts recently did an almost 9 minute video on the topic of cloaking, he called the video the "definitive cloaking video."

Here are the main points:

  • Cloaking is showing different content to users than GoogleBot.
  • Cloaking Violation of Quality Guidelines
  • Cloaking is High Risk
  • It Is Often Used For Deceptive Reasons
  • No Such Thing Has White Hat Cloaking

Matt then goes through various things to look for when a site might be cloaking.

What about geolocation or mobile devices? The general rule is you "do not need to worry about it", because it is not cloaking. Why? As long as you serve GoogleBot was U.S. users see, then it is not cloaking. Same thing with mobile devices, because you should treat GoogleBot as a desktop user.

He gets into more details in this almost 9 minute video below.

Forum discussion at Google +.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Google Updates

Google December 2025 Core Update Intense Impact Early

Dec 14, 2025 - 7:35 am
Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: December 12, 2025

Dec 12, 2025 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google December 2025 Core Update, Discover Alignment To Rankings, Search Console Features, AI Mode Updates & More

Dec 12, 2025 - 8:01 am
Google Maps

Google Gemini Local Results In Visual Formats

Dec 12, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Ads

Google On AI Max Inferred Intent vs Raw Text

Dec 12, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google Maps

Google Maps Share Button Drops X For Reddit & Facebook

Dec 12, 2025 - 7:31 am
 
Previous Story: Google Indexing AJAX Content Via POST Requests: Facebook & Disqus