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

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: September 17, 2025

Sep 17, 2025 - 10:00 am
Google

Google Discover Tests Showing X Posts From Just Your Followers?

Sep 17, 2025 - 7:51 am
Other Search Engines

OpenAI Updates Search In ChatGPT: Factuality, Shopping & Formatting

Sep 17, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google

Google: Searchers Want AI Summaries Over Links

Sep 17, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google Maps

Google Business API Q&A Feature Going Away November 3 (Changes Coming?)

Sep 17, 2025 - 7:21 am
Google Ads

New Google Merchant Center Suspension Video Verification

Sep 17, 2025 - 7:11 am
 
Previous Story: Google Indexing AJAX Content Via POST Requests: Facebook & Disqus