Who is Matt Cutts?

Matthew Cutts, better known by the nickname Matt Cutts, is an American engineer famous for serving as the head of Google’s webspam team for several years. Born in the 70s, Cutts graduated in computer science and mathematics from the University of Kentucky and received a Master of Science from the University of North Carolina. In 2000, he joined the ranks of Google.

A brilliant career at Google

His rise was meteoric within Google, which at the time was only in its infancy. Cutts started as a software engineer before joining the group’s Search Quality team, and participated in the invention of many of Google’s patented technologies, particularly regarding spam. He is also behind the SafeSearch filter, which allows sensitive content to be hidden on the search engine.

Matt Cutts quickly transitioned to become the head of Google’s webspam team, a position he held until 2016. Throughout his career, this pillar of the American giant contributed significantly to improving the Google search engine.

Matt Cutts’ fight against algorithm manipulation

Matt Cutts dedicated his time to the fight against Black Hat SEO techniques. His contribution to the evolution of the algorithm helped clean up the SERP results by highlighting pages that are more relevant to the user.

Cutts, the messenger of the Panda and Penguin updates

A few years ago, Matt Cutts’ name emerged in the SEO sphere, particularly during the announcements of major algorithm modifications: Google Panda and Google Penguin. These updates massively affected low-quality content and sites receiving artificial external links.

After the deployment of these two new filters, the former webspam team leader communicated during various updates to explain (at least partially) the different consequences for SEO to alarmed search marketers.

Matt Cutts and his involvement in SEO

If Matt Cutts is so well-known in the field of SEO, it is also because of his role with webmasters and search marketers. As someone who participated in the creation of SEO best practices and core principles, he helped clarify certain facets of the algorithm.

His advice to webmasters

Particularly active on Google’s official blog or the Google Search Central YouTube channel, Matt Cutts used to answer user questions via video. He notably gave various indications on the technical aspects of sites for SEO, backlinks, and proper content production methods.

Each of his interventions was carefully analyzed by many SEO players in the hope of deciphering the search engine’s highly secret algorithm… While his advice often remained on the surface, he was sometimes a significant help to search marketers lost among the algorithmic upheavals.

A sometimes ambiguous character

Behind his SEO recommendations, his statements were often blunt and vague, sowing a wind of panic among web marketers. Through tweets, Matt Cutts used to communicate about algorithmic updates at the exact moment of their deployment, or even unexpectedly announce heavy sanctions via social media.

Many believed that Matt Cutts was Google’s spokesperson, attempting to blur the lines or manipulate search marketers through vague advice, leaving them uncertain about which practices were tolerated and which were penalized.

What were Google’s objectives when implementing Penguin?

External links are an integral part of Google’s algorithm for ranking websites on its search engine pages. The problem? Abusive netlinking strategies emerged, distorting the hierarchy of sites at the top of the results in the process.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, so Google sent its army of penguins to clean up the SERPs.

Google Penguin: What is it?

Google Penguin is an algorithmic filter primarily capable of identifying fake external links intended to manipulate search results. Google’s goal has always been clear: to offer the best possible experience to its users while facilitating access to quality information. This new facet of the algorithm follows that path by penalizing sites that use spammy or Black Hat techniques.

An algorithm deployment in 7 phases:

April 2012: Matt Cutts confirms the rollout of version 1. Impact of 3 to 5%.
May 2012: Penguin 1.1 update.
October 2012: Penguin 1.2 and launch of the Disavow Tool.
May 2013: Penguin 2.0. More than 2% of queries affected.
October 2013: Version 2.1, approximately 1% of queries hit.
October 2014: Improvement with Penguin 3.0.
September 2016: Final integration into the real-time algorithm.

The Attack of the Penguins: Consequences for Organic Search (SEO)

During this period, SEO underwent unparalleled changes. Many netlinking techniques are now severely punished, and a long road lies ahead for affected sites to recover from penalties; SEO professionals must rethink their strategies as a matter of urgency.

Netlinking practices penalized by Penguin

1. Abusive links: Private Blog Networks (PBNs), low-quality directories, and “Spamco” (blog comment spam) are now being tracked.

2. Over-optimized anchors: The abuse of exact-match keywords in links pointing to your site is detected as artificial.

3. Thematic inconsistency: Receiving links from sites that have nothing to do with your topic is considered suspicious.

Heavy consequences for affected sites

Impacted sites saw their visibility collapse. To recover from a penalty, it is essential to clean up your link profile via Search Console and, in the case of a manual action, submit a rigorous reconsideration request.

Netlinking, a true pillar of SEO

What is netlinking?

Netlinking, or link building, is an organic search (SEO) technique aimed at demonstrating a website’s popularity to search engines through the number of external links pointing to it. To boost a site’s authority, one must acquire more quality external links. This is an indispensable SEO strategy for improving a site’s positioning in search engine results.

External links, an essential ranking factor

SEO professionals have always sought to understand the secrets of Google’s algorithm. Regarding backlinks, or external links, Larry Page and Sergey Brin had already provided a significant lead by revealing the fundamental importance of link structures and anchor texts in Google’s ranking system.

The paper “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine,” written by the two founders in 1998, details that external links are one of the components allowing Google to display the most relevant search results for the user: this technology is called “PageRank.”

PageRank is a crucial component of Google’s algorithm

While it is no longer possible to access this specific data point, it was once widely exploited by SEOs. This facet of the Google algorithm analyzes the structure of external links and their anchor text to define the popularity of the page they refer to.

To summarize, the more a page receives links from sites whose pages have a high PageRank, the more relevant and promoted that page is intended to be. This was precious data for SEO experts, as it allowed them to identify strategic sites at a glance based on their score.

The different methods of netlinking

Over the years, various link-building techniques have emerged. To obtain external links, it is possible to follow Google’s recommendations—namely, creating attractive, high-value content likely to be shared naturally via a link: this is known as “link baiting.”

Another method consists of directly purchasing external links from a netlinking platform across various media outlets to improve a site’s ranking.

A major problem for Google: External link spam

Google’s algorithms, however, take a very dim view of “artificial” links. Netlinking strategies saw various abuses: over-optimized link anchors, private blog networks (PBNs), mass spam in forum comments, directories, or even via press releases were exploited for many years.

The PageRank system was thus put to the test: how could Google rank the most relevant pages on the SERP despite abusive netlinking techniques?

The arrival of a penalty named Penguin…

The implementation of the Google Penguin algorithmic filter dealt another heavy blow; less than a year after the rollout of Google Panda, the SERPs were once again turned upside down. The target this time: dishonest netlinking techniques and external link spam.

Objectives of this new algorithmic filter

Google Penguin’s mission is to penalize sites featuring abusive and Black Hat netlinking strategies, targeting fake and over-optimized external links. The goal was to sift through artificially boosted websites to present users with more relevant and high-quality search results.

Spammy netlinking techniques have since become obsolete, and many website owners are suffering the consequences…