I’m Not Spamming Matt Cutts Videos

If you’re a fan of the Google Webmater Help Youtube Channel you’ve probably noticed that Matt Cutts has been answering a lot of questions from “Ryan in Dearborn, MI.” To those of you wondering, yes I am that Ryan.

I don’t know Matt at all. I’ve never met him and probably never will – but after watching his first round of videos I realized that “spamming” the questions could be pretty useful. Actually, spamming isn’t the word. Perhaps “seeding” is more appropriate.

I submitted about 10 questions to the latest grab bag, and so far Matt has answered 3 of them. (He’s actually answered about 5 or 6, but just chose a version submitted by somebody else.)

So what was the opportunity I saw? It wasn’t to get Matt to teach me about SEO (my goal is always to experiment and learn based on data) and it wasn’t simply to get my name out there either. I work at an agency, so there’s really no value in me building up a personal brand.

The reason I asked several of my questions was so that I can have somewhere to point people to when they start spouting off about some of the crazy myths they believe about SEO but haven’t put any effort or time into actually testing.

Remember when Matt talked about how load speed could be a factor in ranking and tons of SEOs obsessed about making their pages faster instead of more relevant? That’s why I’m glad he answered a speed question.

One of the biggest problems in our industry is that so many SEOs out there simply don’t test or do research. They lurk in forums and blogs reading all kinds of unsubstantiated theories hoping to find that hidden secret that will vault them to the top of Google without having to actually build a more relevant site. It’s these people that need to watch the Cutts videos.

That’s why I asked questions about putting ® and © symbols into Title tags and text:

That’s also why I asked some snarky questions too – and it looks like even Matt couldn’t resist taking some subtle jabs at the SEO community:

While the stated goal of webmaster help is to help webmasters, it’s my view that it can also help to correct SEOs about many of the myths that they’re still spreading.

March 10th, 2010