Cloaking

Cloaking is intentional mismatch: Googlebot gets one thing, users get another. Examples: a text‑heavy page for Google, but an image or thin page for visitors. Or sending Google to /guide while users are redirected to /signup.

Google’s spam systems, including SpamBrain, target it. Spam updates roll out and can hit the whole site, not just one URL. A manual action can also be applied after human review.

• A paywall that uses the paywalled content markup, and shows the same headline, intro and structured data to Google and users.
• Responsive design that adapts layout to screen size while keeping the same main content.
• Geotargeting or language choice that changes currency or wording, not the topic or intent of the page.
• A or B tests that serve one of a few variants to all users and Google equally, are short‑lived, and do not hide content from users.
• Server‑side rendering or hydration that results in the same content for Google and users.

1. 1

   Compare what Google fetches

   Open Search Console’s URL Inspection for a page. View the crawled page HTML and screenshot. Compare it to what you see in a logged‑out browser.

2. 2

   Test user agents

   Load the same URL with a normal browser and with a crawler user agent using a crawler or curl. The core text, links and canonical should match.

3. 3

   Check redirects

   Use a redirect checker. Make sure Googlebot and users both get the same status code and final URL, for http to https, www to non‑www and mobile.

4. 4

   Look in server logs

   Sample access logs. Confirm that Googlebot IPs and user IPs are served the same path and do not split to different content.

5. 5

   Review changes and scripts

   Disable JavaScript, cookie walls and A or B test scripts. The core message and offers should still match what Google saw.

• Remove any IP or user‑agent rules that swap content for Googlebot.
• If you must pre‑render, serve the exact same HTML to users. Do not add extra text only for crawlers.
• For paywalls, add the paywalled content structured data and avoid showing more to Google than to subscribers.
• Keep A or B tests short and symmetric. Use 302 or 307 for temporary redirects in tests, not 301.
• Unify redirects. For example, both users and Google go from / to https://yourproduct.com/ with the same 301 chain.
• Document geo and device variants. Ensure the topic and claims are the same, and link alternates with hreflang where relevant.

A fixed page looks the same for Googlebot and a logged‑out user: same title, H1, body copy, links and canonical.

If Google detects cloaking, traffic can drop after a spam update or at any time. A manual action appears in Search Console with the affected pages.

1. 1

   Confirm the issue

   Open the Manual actions report. Read the type and examples. Check the Security issues report too, which is separate.

2. 2

   Fix fully

   Remove all mismatches and sneaky redirects. Make the live pages match what Googlebot will fetch.

3. 3

   Request review

   From the Manual actions report, file a reconsideration request. Explain the root cause, the changes and the date deployed. Reviews take days to weeks.

4. 4

   Expect timing

   Algorithmic hits from spam systems or core updates may need a later update to reassess the site as of 2026.