Comments on: Theoretically Speaking…

By: Nathan Libbey

Nathan Libbey — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 18:42:24 +0000

I’d beg him to look at my site! I have nothing to lose, and Matt might just want some metal roofing and place a big juicy order for his mansion.

By: Sophie Wegat

Sophie Wegat — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 22:39:47 +0000

Would there be any benefit to you in having him look?

By: Miriam

Miriam — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 21:58:14 +0000

It’s a good question, Donna. My perusal of blogs has led me to the obvious conclusion that many people wouldn’t want Matt Cutts to have a clue what the URLs of their websites are. In fact, I’ve often got the distinct sense that some of the best known folks in our industry think being a ‘white hat’ SEO indicates that you are new to the job. I have mixed feelings about that attitude.

I’ve also concluded that most designers/SEOs who work with small businesses are white hat by default. Our clients aren’t asking us to take their money and attempt to game the search engines. They are praying we can help them understand what the basic ‘rules’ are so their site doesn’t ‘mess up’.

With my profile of clients and our own projects, Matt would be unlikely to find anything but a bunch of good content and some organic link building. And..he likes that kind of stuff. So, I guess I’d be okay with it, but would guess he’d have better things to do with his time.
Miriam

By: Sebastian

Sebastian — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 21:22:43 +0000

Well, when Matt sends me an email he has a domain already. Also, probably he has at least the sites I’ve listed in my Webmaster Central account. Next he fires up a “find Sebastian’s sites via crosslinks” tool and his list grows. Some digging in whois databases reveals more sites of mine. Then he loads my blog into a voodo tool identifying unique patterns in my writings and does a lookup in Google’s local copy of the Interweb. That should complete the list. So what can I lose? I just send him the passwords of all registrar accounts hoping that I get reviews of more than one site.

By: Nathania - Bold Interactive

Nathania - Bold Interactive — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 21:10:18 +0000

Matt Cutts can look at the source code of any site he wants. So that part doesn’t freak me out.

I would probably take any Google employee’s feedback with a grain of salt because who knows if they’re trying to throw you off or not?

Besides, Google (at least organically) should only be a percentage of where your traffic comes from.

By: Steven Bradley

Steven Bradley — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 20:54:46 +0000

Interesting question. I guess it depends on how much you trust that theoretical Matt Cutts.

I probably would let Matt give me feedback. After all if we’re talking about a legit white-hat site it’s really all out there anyway. How much would you really be risking. It’s not like your URL is hidden.

I think the potential gains would outweigh the potential problems

By: Jason Golod

Jason Golod — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 17:13:25 +0000

No. Nobody is looking out for #1 except for #1.

By: Pete W

Pete W — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 16:03:31 +0000

I’d be fine with that. As I think would most people. It’d be interesting to see a breakdown of who responds with what though…