Google on Backlinks

[Terry Kyle]

These are some of the most revealing videos from Matt Cutts (Google Search Quality Team) on SEO, backlinks and linkbuilding (many more over at http://www.youtube.com/GoogleWebmasterHelp but I feel that these are the 'Greatest Hits' for us from a backlinking perspective).

While Matt occasionally 'misleads', there are some powerful insights - particularly on White Hat SEO - to be gained if you read between the lines:

More of Matt's videos are available here:

http://www.youtube.com/GoogleWebmasterHelp

but I believe that these are the best of the currently available selection for our purposes right now.

[big_t]

Very interesting videos Terry. There are definitely some useful bits of info in there. Thanks

I dunno what's more interesting, the information or seeing all the different haircut and facial hair stages of Mr. Cutts.

[bizlinks]

Terry, you 'hit it on the head' when you semi-hinted that you need to read between the lines.
What a tremendous set of videos here. Especially when Mr Cutts talks about Google liking blogs, videos on the blogs, and linking to authoritative content.
Thanks for this resource, didn't know these videos were available.
bizlinks

[tucker13]

Terry,

Thank you for the videos

Now, for the few of us that may be missing a few great points by not been able to read between the lines properly what would be the list of the most important points from these videos? I get the main points but afraid I may be missing some good points and hope someone can share what they think is the most important info to get from the videos.

Thank you guys

[Brent Jacoby]

Here is a really good one that was posted a few days ago and a few more about backlinking.

[emcknutt]

Great collection of videos guys and I guess this a female thing but what I found interesting was seeing all those hairstyles on one page! Joking apart it is interesting listening as you say Terry, to what he sometimes doesn't say.

[amplewdp]

I wouldn't say he 'misleads', he is doing his job and I would say he his doing a damn fine job. He just had to be careful with what he says but anyway Terry, thanks a bunch for compiling these video.

[kkchoon]

I wouldn't say he 'misleads', he is doing his job and I would say he his doing a damn fine job. He just had to be careful with what he says but anyway Terry, thanks a bunch for compiling these video.

Yes, I do agree he is not trying to mislead, but he did try to hide some information and truth from Link Builder!

These are some of the most revealing videos from Matt Cutts (Google Search Quality Team) on SEO, backlinks and linkbuilding (many more over at http://www.youtube.com/GoogleWebmasterHelp but I feel that these are the 'Greatest Hits' for us from a backlinking perspective).

While Matt occasionally 'misleads', there are some powerful insights to be gained if you read between the lines:

One of your experiment is about OBLs dividing the link juice, if your experiment is right (which I believe so), we can start adding more links to each profile for maximum effort!

BTW, quintura used to be the best tool to discover new keyword ideas, I guess Google's wonder wheel replaced it!

Thanks for the videos and tips Terry! You save us a lot of time!

Kok Choon

[MRJoel]

This is my first time to post here and, being a 'newbie' I hope I'm not stepping over the line by offering this summary. There is just sooooo much info out there, to gather together and sift through, for us new people. Since I just distilled down the videos for my own research, I thought it might help other newbies. (Any corrections or additions, as always, are certainly welcome). Well, here goes;

Matt Cutt's Video's
Note: Most of what is said in these video's is about things that don't matter too much to page rank. The main emphasis is on; relevancy and the amount and quality of the links. After that there are a few small factors that may effect page rank but, not much to worry about.

The 0, +, and - (before the >) indicate the possible effect each has on page ranking.

+ > Getting Ranked - Start with a small / unique niche and build reputation. Have compelling / unique content.

On Page SEO
+ > Dashes vs. Underscores - Dashes in your URL are better
0 > URL Shorteners & 301 Redirect - These are fine. They will flow page rank without any penalty.
- > 301 Redirects - These are okay but, a heavy amount can discount the value of the page / links.
- > Links in Footers vs. in Page Text - Footers can have less weight because, the text is more relevant
0 > Link Position on Your Page - 'Where it is' doesn't matter - Google will find it, if it is relevant
+ > Tags and Categories: (Blogs)
..... Tags - These do little, if you have your keywords a few times in your article
..... Categories - These help a-bit to direct the visitors and so, the value of your posts will tend to be better
+ > Meta Description - A Snippet of Your Page Used vs. Meta Description - Depends on which has more relevance (using different ones per page is best)
+ > Highest Ranked Page - Altho your first page may be your 'main' page - if the internal pages have more value they may rank higher.
..... Link your pages together; point each one to all the others. This way a higher ranked page will pass its rank to the others
0 > Depth of Page - Where the page is in the directory doesn't effect the page rank
+ > Page Load Time - If all things are equal, a faster page speed would rank above a slower page speed - but not greatly
0 > Size of Site - This has no effect - just the links and their quality.
..... Of course more pages gives you more link possibilities and so more potential for ranking.
..... If you have some pages ranking high (lot's of links / interest) then Google may also take a closer look at your other pages but, adding pages (without anyone interested in them) does little to nothing to the ranking.
- > DoFollow on Your Site - If it collects a lot of crap (spam) then your site will gain a crap ranking
+ > Country Relation - If this is important to your site then, it does need to be noted (at least in Google webmaster tools)
+ > Geological Location of Webserver - Google starts with that then the dot extension - and will give that relevance weight
+ > 'Types' of Site and Ranking - Again relevancy is what is important but, a specific type can rank higher - because of its relevancy.
+ > "Get Links!" - They said it!

Off Page SEO
0 > Backlinks to Your Page - Even if they are from crappy people (spam), they do not effect you negatively - your can't control who links to you
+ > NoFollow Links - Links on these pages are not relevant except that they can draw actual users if the content is valuable
- > Comments on a Ranked Page - These devalue as the number increases - the rank gets divided between them. This means that a high ranked site with low volume to comments is best ..
- > Private Pages / Profiles - Google can't index these because they can't get to them
- > Blog Commenting as Spam - NoFollow created in 2005 (by Google?) to combat this.
- > Link Directories Value - Depends upon how closely the admin monitors - bunch of crap = crappy directory / low ranking
- > Paid Links - These actually tend to have less value because they don't care how good your link / site is.

Being Very "White-Hat" About All Of This
Relevancy is the key to everything. A relevant page, or comment about a page will not only attract visitors naturally but, this also causes the SE's to rank your page higher.

If you can actually produce something that is of great interest to people (even a small number of people) then you can honestly shout it across the Internet and, the relevance will drive visitors to your site. From there 'quality' backlink creation will be easier to develop and, will get you a greater amount of security in your rankings.

You may - underneath it all - still be 'spamming' but, it will be the 'spam' that people are interested in i.e., relevant content!

Hope this helps - MRJoel

[amitseo]

Hello

Thanks for sharing with us.

Regards
website seo

[wilson]

Great infomation Terry.

@kkchoon, you're right Terry save us a lot of time search those info out there.

[idevelop]

Thanks for the link Terry, I have seen a few of Matt's videos before but never went to his channel. I have now subscribed to it.
I sat and watched 20 videos yesterday and had a lot of questions answered. Sometime we seem to be running around trying to find the "special sauce" when many times it is sitting in front of us. much appreciated.

[ArticlePlayground]

the best seo is just writing naturally for search engine and human visitors, so that you can build residual traffic organically

[oyim2000]

Thanks Terry for sharing. Lots of informations in the videos. I will have to devote one full days on it.

[jeremynet]

Thanks Terry! You saved us a lot of time.

[AJMorgans]

Good shares. Matt Cutt's knows his job and he presents the truth to us. Maybe not all of it!!! but 100% of the time, it's all there.