Over the next few months you won’t be seeing much of Matt Cutts. In fact, until November-ish, you wont actually be seeing any of Matt Cutts – he’s vowed not to respond or interact with any work e-mails. Not at all. Thats right, he’s going on leave for a while – a much deserved break. We wish Matt all the best in his time off and hope he has a great few months.
That said, it can’t be ignored that for the SEO world this is big news. With his frequent videos and blog posts, Matt was the one that kept us all in the loop on Googles’ movements, and gave us the juicy tips on user-friendly SEO, but now the industry will have to cope alone.
So what do we do? Search marketers all over the world have been scratching their heads and staring at blank screens ever since the announcement; some have gathered in support groups to cope with the news. I even saw a grown man cry.
But all is not lost. Thankfully, Matt didn’t just up and leave, but instead left behind a series of detailed instructions of what to do in his absence.
Below we’ve listed Matt’s advice, and also added a few tips of our own. See if you can guess which ones are from the Google and which ones are from yours truly:
- Keep up to date with the Google Webmaster blog and the Inside Search blog, or watch the webmaster videos on YouTube.
- Wait outside Google HQ until someone answers your question – camp if needs be.
- Hit refresh over and over again on the Matt Cutts blog, in case he comes back.
- Ask experts for advice on the Office Hours Hangout or on the webmaster forums.
- Wing it – I’m sure it’ll be fine.
- Have a read over Googles documentation, for example the help centre or Webmaster Academy.
- Follow Google Webmasters on Google+ to stay in the loop with various updates.
- Wait quietly for Matt to return.
- Shout your questions at the computer screen and hope something happens.
- Check out Googles mini-site on how search engines work.
Hopefully these tips will keep you going until Matt gets back. He assures us that were in good hands with the team hes left in charge and insists they are more than capable of taking over. But just in case, the support group meets on Wednesdays at 6pm.
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