The cloaking or camouflage is a search engine optimization technique in which the content presented to the search engine bot is different from that presented to the users of the web portal.
General information
If a user browses the web and accesses a specific web portal, certain files will be displayed under the URL that they have entered. But usually a page is accessed through a search engine, which produces the content of the web portal from an index. This index is formed by the Googlebot, also called a crawler, which reads the file, labels it and stores it in the index. When a user clicks on a page in the search results, they want the same content to be displayed, which is enabled when they directly access the page. However, with camouflage this is not the case.
The user can even see the same content, but search engines or crawlers cannot. This type of cloaking is called user-agent cloaking. But the camouflage can also depend on the IP address. However, cloaking is a violation of Google's quality guidelines and from other search engines like Yahoo or Bing.
The use of this technology is prohibited on a web page, since the content is false. This can be perceived by users as unfriendly or as a scam attempt when the files in a URL are different from what is shown in search results, according to Google. Cloaking is associated with doorway pages, which act as forwarders, even when they initially display other content.
Using cloaking
Camouflage is a controversial technique. While Google perceives this technology as unfriendly for the user and penalizes websites that use it, there are also advocates of camouflage who argue that cloaking is necessary to protect the metadata of a page[1].
At the same time, cloaking must be clearly separated from the legitimate representation of certain files. The mobile website presentation is commonly confused with cloaking. A cell phone user agent (Googlebot mobile) is used to crawl a cell phone web portal. If detected, a compact version of the web page can be downloaded from the server for optimal viewing on a cell phone device such as iPhone or Android. Mobile websites do not fall into the category of cloaking, since it is a cell phone user agent who visits the web portal, and not Googlebot.
Google welcomes mobile adaptations, since the compact screen is easier to use than the normal web version, and does not consider this cloaking. Any redirection that occurs due to geological data is not considered a cover-up. In this case, users are shown content that is of particular interest to them and that is related to their location.
Thus, individual scenarios must be distinguished to establish whether user-specific data is displayed because they are specifically relevant to them or if it is a deliberate attempt to mislead[2].
Importance for SEO
In search engine optimization, cloaking is considered a measure aimed at improving the ranking of websites. However, Google considers it a manual intervention to alter the ranking. Under certain circumstances, a web portal that uses the cloaking can be completely removed from the index and it will no longer be reachable through search engines. Camouflage is a Black Hat SEO technique. Thus, it is recommended that SEOs adhere to Google's webmaster guidelines and present the same content to the Googlebot that is displayed to users.
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