Mark’s Blog

I really enjoyed this talk by Google’s Matt Cutts delivered recently.  Matt Cutts is Google’s head guy in charge of removing spam from your search engine result pages.  Usually what he says can really clarify Google’s policies towards a given SEO behavior, or can indicate a weakness in Google’s algorithms if you are skilled at reading between the lines.  Granted, what he says is not gospel, but it is a public face on Google’s algorithms.

That being said, this talk essentially sums up a lot of SEO concepts, and really drives home a lot of concept.  People tend to be confused as to what SEO is.  People often ask me if they can easily shoot up in the results by using ______ SEO tactic (where the blank could be filled in by any number of spammy techniques).  If it were that easy, clearly the opportunity to exploit it would already have been exhausted by people trying to reach the top of the results, since a top position can be worth lots of money.  In reality, SEO is mostly going to be a set of best practices that allows the best interface between a search engine and your site.  Poorly optimized sites require search engines to make a lot of guesses as to your content and message.  Properly optimized sites present all relevant information to the search engine in a clear and concise fashion.

Of course there is the massive importance of links, but truly good content usually has no trouble attracting links, and attempts to artificially inflate your perceived popularity will fizzle out over time.  Either you will attract a larger competitor who can better emulate popularity, or Google/Bing/Yahoo will detect your subterfuge and appropriately discount your rankings.  Paid links, blog spam, and wiki spam are all regularly found by Google.  Matt Cutts recommendation to focus on content is the best chance you have at organically improving your rankings and viewership.

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