Search Engine Land
  • SEO
    • > All SEO
    • > What Is SEO?
    • > SEO Periodic Table
    • > Google: SEO
    • > Bing SEO
    • > Google Algorithm Updates
  • PPC
    • > All PPC
    • > What is PPC?
    • > Google Ads
    • > Microsoft Ads
    • > The Periodic Tables of PPC
  • Focuses
    • > Local
    • > Commerce
    • > Shopify SEO Guide
    • > Content
    • > Email Marketing Periodic Table
    • > Social Media Marketing
    • > Analytics
    • > Search Engine Land Awards
    • > All Focuses
  • SMX
  • Webinars
  • Intelligence Reports
  • White Papers
  • About
    • > About Search Engine Land
    • > Newsletter
    • > Third Door Media
    • > Advertise

Processing...Please wait.

Search Engine Land » Amazon » Amazon Alexa » Google’s Matt Cutts Riffs On J.C. Penney, Panda Update & Other SEO Topics In Live Webchat

Google’s Matt Cutts Riffs On J.C. Penney, Panda Update & Other SEO Topics In Live Webchat

Google’s Matt Cutts confirmed this morning that Google has lifted J.C. Penney’s SEO penalty, that the Panda update will continue to rollout internationally and offered numerous SEO- and search-related tips in a live webchat on the Google Webmaster Central YouTube Channel. More than a thousand viewers tuned in but, for those who weren’t able to […]

Matt McGee on May 25, 2011 at 3:49 pm

matt-cutts-live

Google’s Matt Cutts confirmed this morning that Google has lifted J.C. Penney’s SEO penalty, that the Panda update will continue to rollout internationally and offered numerous SEO- and search-related tips in a live webchat on the Google Webmaster Central YouTube Channel.

More than a thousand viewers tuned in but, for those who weren’t able to stay for the full 90 minutes, or who missed it entirely, here’s a recap of some of the more important topics..

J.C. Penney Penalty Lifted

Responding to several questions about J.C. Penney, Cutts confirmed our report earlier this week that the penalty was lifted after 90 days.

“We saw a valid reconsideration request” from JCP, Cutts said, and explained that, after reviewing the request, Google found that the company “did quite a bit of work to cleanup what had been going on. You don’t want to be vindictive or punitive, so after three months the penalty was lifted.” He later added, “I think the penalty was tough and the appropriate length.”

In my article earlier this week, I mentioned that many of JCP’s old pages/URLs have returned to high spots in Google’s search results. But those URLs are actually blocked by Penney’s robots.txt file, and they redirect to the company’s home page.

Cutts said those are “probably old pages that haven’t been recrawled,” and said they’ll “naturally drop down” as the URLs are recrawled.

Google’s Panda Update: International Rollout?

Cutts said the Panda update will eventually roll out internationally, but he’s not sure how soon it’ll happen. Right now, Panda has rolled out beyond the U.S., but still only impacts English-language queries worldwide.

“There were some characteristics that were more applicable to English-language sites,” Cutts said. The original question came from a viewer in Poland, and Cutts explained that “the link structure of websites in Poland is a lot different” from the link structure of sites in other countries.

When will Google be ready to expand Panda beyond English queries? “Probably not in the next couple weeks. Maybe in the next couple months,” Cutts said.

He also clarified that there have been no manual exceptions, and “I don’t expect us to have any manual exceptions to Panda.” That and much more are in this clip that Barry Schwartz has uploaded to the Rustybrick YouTube account.

Google Analytics / Webmaster Tools Integration

In responding to a question asking when Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools will be tied together more consistently, Cutts explained that “Analytics is different team, in a different location, and they’re different tools. Analytics also came in via acquisition, from Urchin, so they’re in different ‘silos.'”

Google is aware of the many requests for better integration between Analytics and Webmaster Tools.

“The teams have been trying to make their data work better together,” he explained, “but these are different groups so there’s lots of overhead in trying to combine them into one spot — versus just focusing on adding useful features to each one.”

Google +1 Button & Search Rankings

Cutts confirmed what Google said when the +1 button launched: Google will use +1 activity to influence its search results.

“It’s definitely a signal we’re paying a lot of attention to,” Cutts said. “It has tons of potential. It looks very promising.”

Google is expected to offer the +1 button for website owners in the near future.

Random SEO Topics & Questions

Cutts also answered a number of other SEO- and search-related questions. I’ll try to wrap up a bunch of them below.

Blocked sites in Webmaster Tools? Cutts said Google is “probably not going to add ‘number of times blocked’ to Webmaster Tools because it’s not actionable.”

Rel=canonical abuse? Cutts says there’s been talk about adding a feature to Webmaster Tools about the rel=canonical tag because, in some cases, hackers use the tag to sabotage/hijack a website’s visibility and traffic. The tool might be an alert that “your canonical page has changed,” Cutts said. But he also said “the number of hackers using rel=canonical is very, very small right now. It’s a very soft way to try to get you removed from search results.”

IP address as a ranking factor? “Yes, we do use your server’s IP address to try to determine if your site is relative to a particular country,” Cutts said. “If you’re really relevant to France, it might help to have a French IP [address]. It’s not a stopper — it’s not that you can’t rank in France without a French IP, but it can help.”

Using rel=nofollow on internal links? Cutts echoed previous advice when he told viewers, “Don’t bother using [rel=nofollow] on internal links, even on [links to] the copyright and privacy policy. But feel free to use it on external links that you don’t necessarily trust.” Why? Because “where you link to can affect your reputation as a website,” Cutts said.

(Note: All above quotes are as close as possible to what was said given my note-taking ability. If Google makes the full video available, we’ll add a link to it so you can listen to anything you missed.)


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


New on Search Engine Land

    The latest jobs in search marketing
    3 content marketing strategies to support SEO success
    Google Analytics 4 guide for PPC
    SEO reporting to impress: How to successfully report your SEO process, efforts and result
    9 ways to become an SEO problem-solver

About The Author

Matt McGee
Matt McGee joined Third Door Media as a writer/reporter/editor in September 2008. He served as Editor-In-Chief from January 2013 until his departure in July 2017. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee.

Related Topics

Amazon AlexaGoogle Algorithm UpdatesGoogle AnalyticsSEO

Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.

Processing...Please wait.

See terms.

ATTEND OUR EVENTS The SMX Conference logo.

Learn actionable search marketing tactics that can help you drive more traffic, leads, and revenue.

March 8-9, 2022: Master Classes (virtual)

June 14-15, 2022: SMX Advanced (virtual)

November 15-16, 2022: SMX Next (virtual)

Learn More About Our SMX Events

The MarTech Conference logo.

Discover time-saving technologies and actionable tactics that can help you overcome crucial marketing challenges.

Start Discovering Now: Spring (virtual)

September 28-29, 2022: Fall (virtual)

Learn More About Our MarTech Events
Webinars

Benchmark Your Social Media Performance For a Competitive Edge

Take a Crawl, Walk, Run Approach to Multi-Channel ABM

Content Comes First: Transform Your Operations With DAM

See More Webinars
Intelligence Reports

Enterprise SEO Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Identity Resolution Platforms

Email Marketing Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Sales Enablement Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Digital Experience Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Call Analytics Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

See More Intelligence Reports
White Papers

How to use AI to make your PR more human

The State of Influencer Pricing

How to Measure Influencer Performance

Reputation Management For Healthcare Organizations

Unlock the App Marketing Potential of QR Codes

See More Whitepapers

Receive daily search news and analysis.

Processing...Please wait.

Topics

  • SEO
  • PPC

Our Events

  • Search Marketing Expo - SMX
  • MarTech

About

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Marketing Opportunities
  • Staff

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • RSS
  • Youtube

© 2022 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.