Hi, say i exchange links with another website.
Then i cloak the links - represent them as no follow links to a google bot.

I don't cloak anything else but the attribute.

Will i be penalized?

If you get caught, then you'll be. It's still a link exchange and Google is very clear that it's going to penalize sites that engage in such activities. How do you do that anyway?

using php code.

if visitor=googlebot {
present link with nofollow
} else {
present a ******** link
}

I wоuldn't cloak (ever). I wоuld јust have thе redirect inѕtead of thе no follow tag. It's donе all thе time and уоu will bе fine. You dоn't wаnt tо have paid links that pass PR on your site. It gоеѕ аgainѕt thе guidelines.

Originally Posted by Typlo

I wоuldn't cloak (ever). I wоuld јust have thе redirect inѕtead of thе no follow tag. It's donе all thе time and уоu will bе fine. You dоn't wаnt tо have paid links that pass PR on your site. It gоеѕ аgainѕt thе guidelines.

I agree with this.

Google often does not even pay attention to 'nofollow', and they will probably not give you that much link love for a link exchange even if you have nofollow. But if they catch you cloaking, they will manually penalize your site.

The reward doesn't seem to outweigh the risk in this situation.

And if you absolutely must do a link exchange, a 301 redirect would probably be safer.