What is Cloaking?

Cloaking uses server-side detection to identify when Google's crawler visits (via user agent or IP). The server then shows Google different content than human visitors receive. Sometimes hidden text, sometimes entirely different pages.

To manipulate rankings by showing Google keyword-rich content while giving users a better experience, or to hide spam/malware from Google while delivering it to users. Both are serious violations. There's no legitimate reason to cloak.

No, responsive design and mobile-specific versions are legitimate as long as the content is essentially the same. Cloaking is specifically about deceiving search engines. Google supports serving different layouts to different devices.

Google uses various techniques: comparing cached pages to live versions, using different user agents and IP addresses, analyzing suspicious ranking patterns, and relying on manual reviews and spam reports.

Immediate and severe penalties, often complete removal from search results. Cloaking is one of the most serious violations because it's intentionally deceptive. Recovery is difficult and requires proving the deception is completely removed.