Cloaking in SEO refers to a deceptive technique where the content presented to search engine crawlers is different from that shown to users.
This practice is used to manipulate search engine rankings by misleading the search engines about the actual content of a webpage.
- Why it’s problematic: Search engines, like Google, aim to provide users with the most relevant and valuable content. Cloaking can lead to a poor user experience, as the content a user sees may not match their search intent.
- Risks involved: Engaging in cloaking can result in severe penalties from search engines, including lowering the site’s rankings or completely removing it from search results.
To sum up, cloaking is considered a violation of search engine guidelines and should be avoided to maintain a site’s integrity and its relationship with search engines.
