Free search engine optimization tips for beginners
Jefferson Graham didn’t just write an article of free SEO tips -- he also brought his video camera along. The result is a five minute video interview with more easy, free search engine optimization tips. Again, this is targeted at beginner SEO and small business SEO instead of advanced marketers. You can watch the video below:
Fun trivia: This video was taped in the lobby of building 43 on the Googleplex campus. Also, I made sure to wear my “We ♥ webmasters” shirt from our webmaster portal team up in Kirkland. 
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Michael D Said,
June 29, 2008 @ 10:40 pm
Another great video by Jefferson Graham. Almost as good as the one he did in May about online reviews.
Matt Cutts Said,
June 29, 2008 @ 10:51 pm
Michael D, I agree that Graham does good stuff. Here’s his YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/user/talkingtech
Eric Lander Said,
June 29, 2008 @ 11:13 pm
The MS Paint usage in the video is awesome. The close-up of the tee shirt made me sick. Interestingly, the “san diego chiropractic” comment Matt makes in the video made me immediately think of you Michael
Eric Lander Said,
June 29, 2008 @ 11:14 pm
** Edit, the tee shirt didn’t make me sick. I honestly have no idea why I typed that, other than the fact that it’s 2:15AM.
Harith Said,
June 29, 2008 @ 11:17 pm
Matt,
Nice video!
Hopefully your next video would be taped in the cafeteria of Googleplex. Hmmmm... plenty of free food
And hopefully I shall see you soon wearing your new shirt:
We Love Ethical SEOs
Dave (original) Said,
June 29, 2008 @ 11:22 pm
Nice casual chat. However, if I didn’t know better (like 99% of Webmasters) I would come away with 2 things;
1) Blogs are given an advantage in Google just because they ARE blogs.
2) Links are links, so get em anyway you can.
I made mention of the same in http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/free-seo-tips/
An average Webmaster EVEN stated that Blogs are boosted in Google just because they ARE blogs.
I know it must be hard for a guy like you to dumb advice down a LOT, but until Google does so.....
Maurice Said,
June 30, 2008 @ 1:11 am
well ime not sure that for certain types of queries blog seem to work beter time sensative ones for example.
For example we work on Car related sites so we will be doing a short blog post today about last nights Top Gear and The Hampsters review of one of the makes of car swe are working on.
We also do work on a Soccer site and when there was a particular;y nasty acident in one high profile match we bloged about it and the trafic went through the roof.
MercuryThread Said,
June 30, 2008 @ 1:30 am
Nice vid. You got any t-shirts saying I Hate Webmasters - I need some for my technical department to show them how much I care...
Harith Said,
June 30, 2008 @ 2:00 am
Matt,
Btw, I can’t see on that video your “scruffy little goatee”!
May be we should blame it on Jefferson Graham’s video camera or the poor lightning in building 43. Who knows
HM2K Said,
June 30, 2008 @ 2:46 am
Oh you’re a happy chappy Matt
This stuff is great for users who seem to believe that SEO is all smoke and mirrors, yet I keep telling them that it’s pretty much just common sense.
Good work.
* Miss UNIVERSE Said,
June 30, 2008 @ 4:23 am
.
This readership probably does not need SEO 101 info
And it is unlikely the YouTubers could care less.
Most beginners would want to READ as opposed to LISTEN to those tips for the sake of greater recall and ease of review.
BTW:
Still did not get a question answered from a few weeks ago on the subject of paid links.
Does Google consider ALL paid links not on par with regular ones - or are there exceptions to the attitude about paid links where there are circumstances that they are judged to be equal in ‘voting’ power.
When is it acceptable to buy links without the NoFollow - regardless of the PR of the site selling them.
There are so many guesses on various blogs and forums, would be a good opportunity to clear things up for once and all since SEO posts are becoming so rare on this blog
Web Hosting Provider Said,
June 30, 2008 @ 5:11 am
Hello Matt,
This archives may be good for SEO beginners but still we learn more about webmasters & Google trends where you describes about our site traffic but My website doesn’t appear on Trends for Websites. Is there a way to include my site?
Thanks
Web Hosting Company
Jack Hardcastle Said,
June 30, 2008 @ 6:03 am
Matt, you’re a head-bobber.
Great intro video!
mrpurple Said,
June 30, 2008 @ 6:17 am
Hi Matt,
Surely you could have found a more comfortable place to sit than the floor, was that his idea?
Out of interest - Is there an UK equivalent of Matt Cutts? Or is all spam related aspects of Google solely based in the US? So if a spam report is submitted within the UK will it be dealt with across the Atlantic?
Chip Said,
June 30, 2008 @ 7:29 am
“Almost as good as the one he did in May about online reviews.”
Haha, ya, you did a good job answering his questions.
Matt Cutts Said,
June 30, 2008 @ 8:55 am
Harith, the interview happened to catch me on a day when my scruff was shorter, but it’s there. Besides, you’ve seen that women prefer a little stubble, right?
mrpurple, sitting on the floor was Jefferson’s idea. I think he wanted a little visual interest. And we do have people on the other side of the Atlantic who deal with webspam as well.
Rachael Hampton Said,
June 30, 2008 @ 9:19 am
Excellent tips under 5 mins. and with a smile.
Bravo !
SomeGuy Said,
June 30, 2008 @ 9:52 am
Hmm, couldn’t help but notice that you have changed the font from Lucida Sans Unicode to Verdana. I was so used to your old one.
Phil Said,
June 30, 2008 @ 10:24 am
Hi Matt,
This video is very interesting. I wish I could have learned about SEO before I started selling text links ads on my website. The PR of my site went from 6 to 4 two months ago. I removed the paid links one month ago but it’s still penalized as I write this.
I sent a reconsideration request via the Google Webmaster Tools and I pray for Google to give us our PR back because this is really hurting our business and our lives.
Anyway, thanks for your great blog and your advice! This video was insightful.
Kevin Said,
June 30, 2008 @ 10:55 am
Graham rocks !!
Matt Cutts Said,
June 30, 2008 @ 4:32 pm
SomeGuy, I was playing around with http://www.yvoschaap.com/wpthemegen/ a little bit this weekend and wanted to mix it up a little bit. Thanks for noticing!
John Said,
June 30, 2008 @ 6:38 pm
That is a really great video and simple explanation for basic SEO and optimizing your website, I think it is a must watch for newbies and Im going to post it on my blog. Thanks.
Peter (IMC) Said,
June 30, 2008 @ 9:22 pm
Nice but one comment on the question “It can take 3 to 6 months to get your site found on Google, is that truth or fiction?”
I think the question was more related to how long it takes before a site starts showing up in the first page for the most important keywords, and not related to how long Google needs to find a website. Those are 2 different things, Matt..
Shashikant Said,
June 30, 2008 @ 10:16 pm
Hey nice and simple vedio about SEO ..really useful thanks hope we see some more soon
Dave (original) Said,
June 30, 2008 @ 10:52 pm
How long is a piece of string? How high is up?
belajar seo Said,
June 30, 2008 @ 11:06 pm
again, nice tips from you. Hopefully you can post a video on how to do do onpage optimization
Amit Verma Said,
June 30, 2008 @ 11:23 pm
Hey Matt,
I like your T-shirt content...
So, Google love Webmasters??
The Greatest Ineternet Salesman Said,
July 1, 2008 @ 1:30 am
Hi Matt, nice interview, We plan on posting it on our site if you don’t mind. Also, I posted a link to thread on our site where we posted officially published facts about google ranking, some of which are taken from your blog. If you can lead us to some other facts we would be very thankful and post it on the same thread.
Good luck!
Thomas Said,
July 1, 2008 @ 3:06 am
Matt, how did you manage to get into that good shape! I guess you really know how to optimize in various fields of interest.
And, btw, awesome interview!
Jon Colegate Said,
July 1, 2008 @ 7:26 am
Matt, I’ve been asked by our local business support agency (sheffield, uk) to run a few seminars on SEO and i reckon i will play the video at some point. I’ll be advocating that if people treat SEO like any other business networking exercise, they will be ok. Also I get asked all the time about some of the common myths of seo, the biggest being paying Google for rankings - now i can just direct them at the video - thanks!
Alex Said,
July 1, 2008 @ 7:48 am
When I read these sort of posts on blogs supported by Google staff I ask myself: does Google recognize SEO industry and experts or not? It seems they do not know themselves...
Mary Fletcher Jones Said,
July 3, 2008 @ 6:23 am
I enjoyed this video! I embedded it on our website, because for our clients (small business owners and nonprofit managers), it’s a perfectly easy-to-understand explanation of SEO. I’ve tried to explain it but I couldn’t say it better myself!
Karthick Said,
July 4, 2008 @ 2:43 am
Fantastic stuff Matt. You seemed extra purpy (is that a word? I mean happy) in the interview. Great to hear you talk and Graham too.
And thanks a lot for the tips!
panzermike Said,
July 4, 2008 @ 11:06 am
Hi Matt:
I learned pretty much all I know about SEO from your blog and videos. Since it is pretty hard to do link bait for my site, a personal injury lawyer in Los Angeles, I worked hard at writing articles that were relevant to consumers.
I also did tons of deeplinking. I was noticing lately that my deeplinked pages have lost most of their rankings, but people who pay findlaw for backlinks and firm sites are ranking higher.
Can you offer any suggestions to help me get my deeplinked pages back up, or at least let me know if my pages are crawl able per your online Google video.
P.S. I no longer pay webmasters after I hired one who got me into trouble with Google Maps, and I solely rely on you now.
Stewart Said,
July 7, 2008 @ 3:32 pm
Good advice, I have read this before and followed such advice. There is one thing though. Some of us are not search engine experts. I, for example, am a disabled chap living in a remote community in the highlands of Scotland. I had a dream of being able to build a site and make a modest living from home. The site was built by friends son, its an affiliate hotel site but I have written a lot of page text myself and learned how to do graphics. After 5 months and a lot of waiting, plus doing lots of linking and emailing to travel sites, etc, my site is nowhere to be found on google. I realise I may be doing something wrong but I’d judt like to say I wish there was more help for those of us who are not so clued up on how these things work. It can be very demoralising for the little guy. By the way, you have a very good and interesting blog, an enjoyable read. Thankyou.
panzermike Said,
July 18, 2008 @ 9:36 pm
Matt: Are you sure pay per click sites don’t get an algorithmic benefit from the extra traffic they get when Google consider the 100 plus part test?
Martin Said,
July 19, 2008 @ 4:30 pm
Estaría bien que hubiera videos como este en idioma español. Suelo leer este blog con el traductor automático de Google al español pero desgraciadamente todavía no puedo hacer lo mismo con los videos.
Traducción automática de herramientas del idioama de Google:
It would be nice to have videos like this in Spanish language. I often read this blog with automatic translator of Google to Spanish but unfortunately I can not still do the same with videos.
Automatic tool idioama of Google: