We thought you may be interested to see this video from Google’s Matt Cutts – it discusses the question of whether Google sees SEO as spam. The great news is that Google definitely doesn’t consider SEO work to be spam.
“Search engine optimisation is a valid way to help people find what they are looking for via search engines. There are many valid ways that people can make the world better with SEO”
SYNOPSIS
Matt’s video goes a long way in dispelling the myth that SEO work is considered as spam by Google or that Google does not like it. In fact Matt says SEO done properly, by someone trustworthy is a great thing for your website.
Matt defines SEO as “trying to make sure that your pages are well represented within search engines”. He goes on to say; “There is plenty, an enormous amount of white hat, great quality stuff that you can do” to optimise your website.
Notice his emphasis on white hat (or ethical) techniques. SEO has moved on leaps and bounds and now the only way to optimise your site safely and effectively is to do it using only ethical content rich techniques.
Matt talks about on-page SEO (“making sure your site is crawlable and accessible“) and explains that the main aim is to ensure both your target audience and the search engines can access your site through links.
Keywords are discussed and Matt emphasises the need to undertake keyword research – the jargon and language you use on your website might not match what people are searching for online.
Matt covers some key considerations for those looking to undertake SEO work on their website:
- On-Page Crawlability & Site Structure
- Accessibility for your Target Audience (how easily can they find you)
- Language and Keyword Choice
- Site Usability
- Site Speed (speed is a definite ranking factor)
- Conversion Optimisation & A/B Testing
What Matt Cutts also says is that Google still does not condone black hat or unethical SEO techniques. People who simply keyword stuff the bottom of their homepage, or those who use purposely deceptive redirects are not encouraged as this is not enriching the quality of the search results whatsoever. Google is only interested in returning the best search results it can and thus these black hat SEO’s are not favoured by Matt and the Google team;
“SEO can be enormously useful but SEO can be abused and can be overdone” says Matt.
Regardless of the rogue traders of the SEO world;“Search engine optimisation is a valid way to help people find what they are looking for via search engines”
For more information Matt refers you to Webmaster Guidelines on Google.com/webmasters for more information about Google’s policies on SEO.
Matt closes his video saying “There are many valid ways that people can make the world better with SEO” and we agree with him!
Matt’s best advice for anyone looking to employ someone to do their SEO is;
“Find a good person, someone you can trust, someone who will tell you exactly what they are doing, the sort of person where you get good references or you have seen their work and it’s very helpful – they can absolutely help your website”
Insights
