Matt Cutts is back with answers and clarifications regarding some of SEO misconceptions and whatever Cutts speaks have to be discussed. After all, there cannot be a better person to understand SEO than the engineer, who is the web-spam team head at Google.
The first thing to be discussed is the question regarding rel=author tag. One of the users asked whether Google would evaluate the implementation of this tag. The query hinted about future use of the tag and posed an explicit question about the chances of penalty if it is used on pages without articles. Cuts affirmatively made clear that the websites where the tag is implemented for pages without articles will be penalised by the search engine. He ascertained that the use of rel=author of will be scrutinised and modifications are likely to be implemented as and when required.
He signified it as an actual great move towards the struggle against web-spam. He clarified the significance of this step. When contents will have defined authors, it will become a lot harder to executer spam techniques such as blackhat SEO. In t his way, anonymity will not have much influence regarding this and thus, spam tactics can be rendered obsolete. When authorship is established, it will become much easier to track what noteworthy voices say through the web. People are ought to benefit out of it too.
The second point for discussion is about the areas that are not understood and that are over emphasised in the SEO field. Cutts explained that the difference between data refresh and algorithm update is poorly or not understood by people. He also noted the perception among people regarding Google Panda. He made clear that the notion that it was implemented to make Google earn more is incorrect and its implementation rather causes short-termed decrease in revenues of the search engine. He highlighted that long-termed retention of users comes prior to increase or decrease in revenue.
When users are satisfied by the products and services of Google, they would use them repeatedly and that would be better revenue than temporary gains. Google is to offer satisfactory services that expected from it and not to make its users buy more advertisements.
According to Cutts, people stress on link building too much. He suggests that SEOs should emphasise on good contents and their marketing rather than appeasing search engines.