Bait-and-Switch (Cloaking)
Bait-and-Switch is a term borrowed from the criminal fields of fraud and confidence tricks, and involves persuading the victim to buy a lessor item because the bait is suddenly unavailable. Sometimes called “Cloaking,” in today’s online world, it usually refers to a Black-Hat technique in which a Search engine spider is fed a different view from that which the human visitors to the site see.
In some cases, approved Cloaking is allowed by some crawler-based search engines which offer paid inclusion programs (Inktomi, for example). Such programs usually operate on a flat-fee basis, but as they are not Paid Placement Programs, they merely place your listing in the engine’s index. It’s still up to you to elevate your PR through SEO techniques.
