What is Cloaking?

Cloaking is a search engine optimization (SEO) technique which can be more specifically be classified under Black Hat SEO. Well in Cloaking,content shown to the search engine crawlers and spiders is different from the content shown to visitors. Cloaking is Black Hat SEO technique to fool the visitors. Cloaking is executed by showing content based on the IP addresses or the User-Agent HTTP header of the user requesting the page. When a visitor is identified as a search engine spider or crawler, a server-side script shows a different version of the web page, one that contains content not present on the visible page, or that is present but not searchable. The main objective of cloaking is to deceive search engines so they display the page when it would not otherwise be displayed (Black Hat SEO).


Cloaking is often used to trick search engines into providing a website a higher ranking which in the normal scenario, wouldn't have been possible; Cloaking can also be used to trick visitors into visiting a site based on the search engine description which site turns out to have substantially different, or even adult content. Because of these tricks Cloaking is considered as a Black Hat SEO techniques and it clearly violates rules and regulations set by major search engines. Cloaking is a form of the doorway page technique.

Also read the article on Black Hat Search Engine Optimization

Black Hat SEO

Black Hat SEO or Black Hat Search Engine Optimization are defined as tools or techniques used to achieve high ranking in search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc using unethical and ways which don't subscribe to the rules and guidelines set by the search engines. Black Hat SEO is done by SEO consultants who know the functioning of search engines and know how to manipulate the search engines for their benefits.
Black Hat SEO techniques generally overlook and violate the guidelines set by search engines. Black Hat SEO techniques show one content to the spiders and crawlers, some other thing to the visitors which is clearly violates the Search Engines rules. Apart from violating rules, visitors get a very bad experience which has the potential to effect the popularity of search engines and their business. Black Hat SEO techniques are generally who used by consultants or webmasters who want to achieve top ranking in short time, for which they go over the board and violate guidelines set by Search Engines. Black Hat SEO techniques used by consultants and webmasters can be termed as  short sighted solutions for long term solutions.
Keyword Stuffing is a Black Hat SEO technique in which a keyword is repeated again and again to fool the crawlers and spiders.
Invisible text is used as Black Hat SEO technique in which text is made invisible to naked eyes but visible to crawlers and spiders. In this technique, white keyword with white background or black keyword with black background is inserted which won't be visible to visitors but visible to crawlers and spiders.
Consultants or webmasters also design a page which is visible to crawlers and spiders but not visitors. This helps the search engines to rank the pages higher. This techniques is know DOORWAY PAGES.

Black Hat SEO is like fast food snacks which taste fantastic to taste buds but in the long run it has the potential to take you to the clinic. It is advisable to avoid this because in the long term this might not help and if found violating Search Engines guidelines, search engines will stops listing your websites which will hurt you badly. It is always advisable to go for Organic SEO which will help you in the long term and help to get better Return On Investment(ROI) and a stable ranking which will improve as the number of visitors increase to your website or online business.

Meta Tags

Meta Tags are part of your code which are hidden from visitors and visible to search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing etc. These Meta Tags are importance because it gives information to the search engines regarding the page of your website. Generally, when crawlers or spiders visit your website or any page of your website, they try to get as much information which they can get to give a rank to any page according to the content available on it.
Meta Tags provide information regarding a page to search engines, so that they can categorize a page accordingly and provide the best search result. They are inserted into the HTML document and made invisible to visitors.