Which technique is often seen as a black hat tactic in SEO?

Cloaking methods are considered a black hat tactic in SEO because they involve presenting different content or URLs to users and search engines. This deceptive practice is meant to manipulate search engine rankings by showing one version of a webpage to search engine crawlers and a completely different version to human visitors. The intent behind cloaking is to trick search engines into ranking a page higher for certain keywords, which violates the guidelines set forth by search engines like Google.

In contrast, techniques such as regular content updates, creating high-quality backlinks, and optimizing page load times are all regarded as white hat SEO practices. These strategies focus on improving user experience and providing genuine, valuable content, thereby aligning with the best practices recommended by search engines. Regular updates keep content fresh, quality backlinks enhance a site's authority, and faster load times contribute to user satisfaction, all of which are beneficial for long-term SEO success.