SEO Lessons Learned Through Pictures of Matt Cutts
Matt & his team produce a ton of helpful videos on a weekly basis at Google Webmaster Help on Youtube. I’ve watched several during my downtime and found there are some serious lessons to be learned.
1. Everything Helps About This Much
There are so very few ways to make a HUGE impact on your site. Whether it’s building content, optimizing a title tag, gaining quality external links, restructuring internal linking, or a variety of other items, everything incrementally helps push your site to better rankings & traffic.
Sure, you might have forgotten to 301 redirect your old site to your new one, but gaining great sustainable rankings –> traffic –> conversions is a process full of small wins that culminate into a big win down the road. That road might be a month for longtail keywords or years for your 800lb gorilla. Be skeptical of any SEO that promises fast results. They might come, but the chances that they’re sustainable for the longterm are slim.
2. Don’t Lie To Google
The fish was how big? Are you embellishing?
Google, like any good friend, doesn’t like to be lied to. Some examples of big time lies are cloaking or pushing keywords 9000 pixels off the page.
A less egregious lie or hide could be SEER stuffing an image alt tag. For our logo, it would make sense to have the image alt say SEER Interactive. It should still be fine to have it say SEER Interactive Agency. We’re supposed to be accurately describing the image. We could continue to make it longer & keyword stuffed (SEER Interactive SEO Agency Search Engine Optimization Firm Ethical SEO Company PPC Agency PPC Company) and it would be more likely that Google would notice our spammy tactic.
Unless your client is comfortable with spammy lying tactics that will eventually be caught, play nice with Google.
3. Matt Is Not A Ninja & Neither Am I
Aside from the fact that ninjas are getting a bad name recently, saying you’re an SEO ninja is like a plumber telling me he’s a pitching ace. The skills do not transfer over or build confidence.
Titles are irrelevant if you deliver amazing results. My title could be intern, but if I’m helping a client grow by leaps & bounds year over year, they’re going to continue to want their project managed by Adam Melson, SEER Intern. The industry is full of experts, gurus, ninjas, wizards, zoo keepers & whatnots. Deliver great results and if you’re looking for a search firm, ask to see amazing results across several clients.
4. You Must Be This Tall To Play With Google
You need to be comfortable telling a client with a newer site that they most likely do not deserve to rank for the top industry keyword. Companies that can’t handle that information probably aren’t going to be fun to work with because they’ll have unreal expectations. If a year old site wants to rank well for the term Skateboards, setting expectations to outrank Element or Skateboards.com would be crazy.
Fly by night sites are increasingly less & less likely to succeed as Google is continually bettering their algorithm to let quality sites (that make them look good for delivering quality results) rank high.
5. Matt Is A Terrible Dancer
While I’m no better, I hate dancing for a client. There’s nothing worse than having to dance around why you didn’t get links, rankings, traffic, conversions for a client when you truly haven’t been able to deliver. As bad as it is, I think it’s good to get burned once (hopefully on a smaller issue) and then have the passion to never ever ever have it happen again. There are some simple steps we take here to try & prevent that from happening.
a. Communicate too often – I want to tell a client that they had a traffic high yesterday before they say anything to me. I also want to be the first person to let them know that we saw their best converting keyword fall from top rankings & while we don’t have a solution, we’re on it and well let them know what we’re seeing.
b. Say “I don’t know” – Telling a client incorrect information, even if it’s just partially incorrect, can have major negative impacts. There’s nothing to gain by making things up. “I don’t know, but I’ll look into it” gives you the opportunity to be extremely thorough & provide a helpful answer verses an off the cuff answer that could come back to damage your credibility.
c. Put out fires when they’re still sparks – Trying to cover up mistakes or setbacks in an SEO project is likely to get you fired very quickly from SEER. There’s nothing wrong with asking for help on a project when you’re overwhelmed, because it’s something that’s always in the best interest of the client. Mistakes are great to make because you learn, but then you get the fire to make it so it never happens again.
6. This Hand Doesn’t Spoon Feed Answers
If you got a smackdown in Google, it’s most likely because you did something they didn’t like. If you want to play pass the blame, sure, someone could have hacked your site & Google removed you from the index. Either way, you’re going to need answers fast.
a. There is no direct line to Matt Cutts or Google for SEO firms.
b. It’s likely others had a similar problem since Google scales. They’re probably not picking on you, but you fell into some a spammy update and now you need to fix it.
c. Check out Webmaster Forums. Lose your ego & be ready to post your website or else no one will be able to review it.
d. Check your webmaster tools to see if Google is letting you know in a vague message their grievance with your site.
e. Use spider simulators, check to make sure your redirects are still in place.
f. Read a post from SEER about ways to troubleshoot for SEO
7. Just Like Wayne Brady, Matt Cutts Will Choke…A Website
Google’s spam team has smacked down sites this year, several making it into the mainstream. The Panda Update hit low quality content farms while Google continues to work on negating the value of paid links.
If you buy links, be smart. If you’re not sure what is a quality link, SEER provided 25 ways to qualify great links a little while back. If you’re buying at just any old site that will give you the anchor text you need, be prepared for it to either not matter at all, or to get a rude awakening when Google is able to find out all the sites you’re buying from & negate that value.
Cutts & the spam team are most definitely back from their 2010 sabbatical, so if you’re scamming and spamming with cheap paid links, you’re either really smart or you’ve already prepped your clients that it’s a huge risk.
All pictures were pulled from different videos on http://www.youtube.com/user/GoogleWebmasterHelp. If you haven’t viewed these, they can definitely be a help for newbies or advanced search professionals alike. For more things like this, follow me at @adammm
Posted: 05.04.11
Laura Lippay:
Brilliant.
Adrian:
Really good post, well done. A good mix of humour and some excellent advice. Getting on to Matt Cutts’ radar can be no bad thing either.
Richard Williams:
Nice article! I’ve recently discovered the google webmaster help channel on youtube and it has really helped me fix some bad habits I had that probably weren’t doing me any SEO favours.
It’s all about lots of small wins with SEO for sure.
Richard
Hvepse Hvepsebo:
This is a very funny article :-) I’m a big fan of Matt Cutts, and the pictures you have used combined with your headlines are outstanding :-)
Great work!
Tim Biden:
That is the funniest blog post I’ve seen in a long time. Thanks for the wisdom that was laid out amongst all the laughs.
Ian Miller:
Great article. SEER are raspidly becoming one of the best agency blogs in the business with intelligent, actionable posts, please keep it up :)
Seo Colombia:
Grat post. You have make a great compilation about what really matters in Seo, but everyone of us must keep on learning about that. SEO is changing over and over but the basics are the same.
Carla Marshall:
Haha, fantastic esp #1
Dan John:
Great post! Nice summary of some of Matt’s thoughts and videos over the last few months :-D
Jerry Lu:
Great article Adam! Great tips, and VERY creative! Absolutely loved it!
Stu Draper:
Matt Cutts will get a kick out of this post. Hillarious. I wish I had been so creative!
Adam Melson:
Laura & Adrian – glad you enjoyed it. Richard – it’s most definitely about the small wins. A handful of links, a few content changes, optimizing using webmaster tools feedback, reviewing & taking action on competitor strategies, all the small items ad up to big wins.
Rae Alton:
I’ve got another one for you:
http://img.youtube.com/vi/4SAPUx4Beh8/0.jpg
“Your spammy sites are invisible buttocks… and I will spank them.”
John Patrick:
Great summary and it made my smile too :)
Brian:
Very clever. I laughed out loud a few times.. Nice job :)
Adam Melson:
John & Brian – happy to make people smile & laugh some while talking about SEO. Definitely a passion for everyone at SEER. Hope there are some good takeaways here too.
Jon Henshaw:
Holy crap that’s funny! I kept thinking of other headings/captions I would have written for the pictures ;)
Chris:
Great article, I like the ninja pose. It really is all about the little things, my checklist for clients starts with 6 key points but breaks down to over 30 subtopics as we work through a site. It really is amazing how many things you can do to improve SEO, before you spend a penny on advertising. Of course paid ads are a useful tool as well but I agree one has to be careful just what one pays for.
Lee Smith-Bryan:
Absolute quality post. Loved it.
Peter:
Awesome. Bend it like Matt Cutts
Guest:
This made me laugh alot as I always state Matt uses so many hand expressions.
Kamakshi Sri:
Adam, You are damn good an interpreter, even Matt Cutts can’t find it otherwise than a good combo of humor and intelligence. What made you think the titles for those snaps. They seem so much in harmony with each other.
The best part is that I am a follower of Matt Cutts and Matt himself has tweeted this. So, its there where you wanted it to reach. And you must be beware Of Matt coz “Just Like Wayne Brady, Matt Cutts Will Choke A Website”
Thanx for sharing man.
Yaniv Navot:
Brilliant stuff. Matt Cutts can be so theatrical sometimes.
Adrian Drysdale:
Right on, hahaha waiting for Matt Cutts to write a response!
Moggu:
Ha-ha,thanks for smile. :)
Michael Cropper:
Ha ha ha great images and captions! :-D
Pure Performance:
My kidney’s hurt from laughing.
Excellent Article.
Jake Empirecovers.com:
hilarious- i liked the Matt will choke a …website- very creative
Web Hosting:
LoL, great article, just found it, great way to close a long day. hahaha
genkinkainfo:
Funny yet well composed post!! Thumb Up!!
James Svoboda:
LOL. Perfect captions for these pics!
Larsinho:
Great! Thanks. :)
Srikanth AD:
It would be “cool” if Matt Cutts did a contrast blog post with Wil Reynold’s pictures on his blog :)
(big fan of SEER)
Misae:
I especially feel for point 4. Which doesn’t apply to a pure link bait article like this – a creative communications comedy classic!
Jack Humphrey:
Funny – and he was describing all those things in each video just like you said. A lot of people are too short to play with Google.
Nasif:
Haha !!! Imao
web optimization consultant:
thankyou we can learn alot from this post not just on what you said but how you did it very informative and humorous.cheers
Stephen Guise:
Nice use of pictures. Haha, sometimes I feel like Google controls my destiny. This is one area where I plan to stay inside the lines. :-D
Colin:
Had to laugh reading that. Very funny!
Robert:
Hahahaha… classic. Of course being creative won’t hurt your SEO efforts either ;)
Thanks for a good laugh, I particularly enjoyed “you must to be this tall” point.
Samantha Goldberg:
Completely unexpected and very amusing, enjoyed that, thank you!
Gyi Tsakalakis:
Nice. But Matt is an excellent dancer…
Syed:
If pictures say a thousand words….this post was 7,000 words. Great post – made my day
Adam:
I wonder how many different colour polo shirts Matt actually has ! lol
Brad Crooks:
hey Adam…. if you ever want to do a similar article around pictures of Wil, I’ve got a lot of them.
Joel Bangahon:
very informative indeed! In my first blogging attempt and learn the basic SEO, i must admit that i do spam keywords on ALT tag. Now that the Panda update update is up, i will be very careful this time. I will implement white hat SEO in my new blog and i will provide quality content for all my readers.
SEO Cali:
Excellent article. Follow the guidance of an expert is the best way to do our work SEO and achieve good results. Webmaster tools are valuable Matt Cutts advised to do so.
Best Blogging Tips:
I don’t trust matt cutts anymore cause they never say anything useful.