If you make a living off the internet or do any Search Engine Optimization (SEO) work, then you probably have seen the Google Webmaster Youtube Q&A's with Matt Cutts, Google's well-known webspam guru. I have even written posts on this blog, Domain Spam and Why Domain Parking Sucks, which included these Matt Cutts videos.
A lot of the Matt Cutts videos can be quite useful and helpful for people to understand how Google thinks and goes about dealing with unscrupulous link-building tactics and webspam. It also helps webmasters and web entrepreneurs figure out what you should and definitely should not do to rank websites on Google's search engine using SEO.
However, quite often these Matt Cutts videos can be confusing and not give a clear answer to the question that was asked. Many times when I watch these videos and Matt Cutts provides answers which are not straightforward and difficult to understand, especially for those unfamiliar with web and site terminology or who don't have that much technological ability. This recent video is a great example and here is the question;
Ranking being so valuable, how does a true biz owner that offers a legitimate business and has a vast number of customers supposed to gain the traffic “deserved” over those that specialize in creating traffic? Is it supposed to be this hard for us?
Not sure what Matt Cutts was trying to say as it what he says is unclear and vague. Maybe he was just trying to say that it isn't possible to compete, which is disheartening to hear honestly. He says, “Just make sure your website doesn't suck” at one point which isn't really helpful to the guy who asked this question.
Click Consult, a premier Internet Marketing & Web Development agency in the UK (that's what it says on it's website at least), has started a new website called The Short Cutts to help make these Matt Cutts videos easier-to-understand. Essentially The Short Cutts helps you cut through the word clutter that Matt Cutts sometimes provides in his videos and gives clear, direct, and simple answers to the questions asked.
The Short Cutts has a search bar so you can sort through the all the videos that Matt Cutts has done via Google's Webmaster Help Youtube channel. They are quite a large number of videos and Matt Cutts usually shoots several new segments each week. (Not sure how he has time to do it, but it's cool that he does in my opinion.) If you are interested in seeing what Click Consult and the editors of The Short Cutts think, click on a video, then click on “Join the discussion” for what the short and simple answer. For the above video The Short Cutts answer was;
Focus your content and improve your site
I guess that is basically what Matt Cutts was trying so say and I would agree with that statement. However, he is still confusing and I see lots of great content and great sites that don't rank well on Google all the time. (Like this blog and Singing Dogs!)
So… I guess I would still recommend watching the Matt Cutts videos from beginning to end yourself and not always taking a short cut. You will most likely still end up confused anyway. 🙂
Catch me on Twitter @AdamYamada … if you can!
Hi Adam
Glad you liked The Short Cutts 🙂 We’ve done our best to shorten the answers down so they’re short but still actually useful and do plan to re-do some of them as they’re not as clear as they could be. If you have ideas for features we’d love to hear them.
Btw, any reason why the link is nofollowed? Have to ask…
Thanks
Jon
I don’t agree with everything that The Short Cutts says about Matt Cutts videos Jonathan. Also I am not familiar with Click Consult. Thanks for commenting.