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

Google Search Mini Game Encourages Searchers To Search More

Sep 2, 2025 - 7:11 am
Bing Ads

Microsoft Advertising: Here's Why Your Bid May Be Over The Max CPC

Sep 2, 2025 - 7:05 am
Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: September 1, 2025

Sep 1, 2025 - 10:00 am
Google

Google Tests AI Overview With Knowledge Panel

Sep 1, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google: Crawl Changes Are Independent Of Big Google Updates

Sep 1, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google

Danny Sullivan At WordCamp On How Google Search Keeps Evolving

Sep 1, 2025 - 7:31 am
 
Previous Story: Google Indexing AJAX Content Via POST Requests: Facebook & Disqus