Matt Cutts of Google Discussing SEO: Session 1

Contributed by MickeyMouse August 1, 2006  
Tagged: Google

When one of google’s software engineers discusses the world of Search Engine Optimization, everybody should listen. These are my notes from his first SEO video session. Here he discusses sitemaps, increasing visibility, DMOZ snipplets, and strong versus bold tags.

Matt Cutts is one of the public faces of google. He has been one of the ways that we as webmasters have finally started to get an idea on why some sites get ranked higher than others.

His first video session is on google video, of course. I will try to summarize the questions and answers to record here as a reference.

Do sitemap updates depend on pageviews of a site?

No. Pageviews are not a factor. Different pieces of sitemaps will be updated at different times.

General recommendations for increasing visibility on google.

1. Make your site crawlable. You must be able to get through entire site with text browser. You should create and submit sitemaps as well.
2. Have good interesting linkable content.
3. Develop external links.
4. Viral content
5. Social Networking sites
6. Be unique.

When does Google use the DMOZ snippet when there is already a valid META description on the page?

From the snippet team… it is query dependent. If the DMOZ snipplet is more relevant to the user’s search, it will be returned. If your site’s description is more relevant, it will be returned.

If you never want DMOZ entries returned, you can use the following meta tag:

Does Google favor Bold over Strong tags?

Yes, they favor bold over strong but “it’s so slight I wouldn’t really worry about it.” Using italics or bold should be used with the viewer in mind and not for SEO reasons.