What types of directories are seen as sources of paid links?

What types of directories are seen as sources of paid links?

Fábio Ricotta from Brazil asks:

"Will Google consider Yahoo! Directory and BOTW as source of paid links? If no, why is this different from another site that sell links?"

Matt Answers the Question "Is Over Optimization Bad for a Website?"

Google’s Matt Cutts On "Over Optimization"

Matt Cutts, Head of Google's Webspam team has been producing daily videos answering questions from the world wide SEO community. Many of these videos having useful information for all levels of Search Engine Optimizers. I wanted to share Matt's most recent videos and point you to his other videos too.

The latest video is on "over optimization" where Matt answers the question "Is over optimization bad for a website?"

You can see all of the Webmaster Central team videos at YouTube, there is a wealth of information there, so eat it up.

A day in the life of webmaster support

Follow Googler Maile Ohye as she goes through her day at Webmaster Central, our one-stop shop for webmaster support and resources. Check out interviews with Googlers such as Matt Cutts, Michael Wyszomierski, Reid Yokoyama, Jonathan Simon and Evan Tang.

Matt Cutts Discusses Snippets

Google guru Matt Cutts discusses how best to optimize your site for Google. Matt Cutts joined Google as a software engineer in January 2000. He is currently the head of Google's Webspam team

Matt Cutts Discusses the Importance of alt Tags

Google guru Matt Cutts discusses how best to optimize your site for Google

Matt Cutts Discusses Webmaster Tools

Google guru Matt Cutts discusses how best to optimize your site for Google

Is Google putting more weight on brands in rankings?

On February 26, 2009, Google software engineer Matt Cutts collected questions on Google Moderator and answered many of them on video.

Monica from Madison, WI asked:

Can you verify that Google is putting more weight on "brands" in search engine rankings? If the answer is "Yes" -- what is Google's definition of a brand? Inspired by Aaron Wall's post: http://www.seobook.com/google-branding

Two questions about nofollow

On February 26, 2009, Google software engineer Matt Cutts collected questions on Google Moderator and answered many of them on video.

Vince Samios from the United Kingdom asked:

Do you feel that the widespread and blanket use of nofollow tags is devaluing Google's search algorithms? Examples such as Wikipedia, where ALL external links are nofollow. Does Wikipedia mean nothing to Google's algorithms?

jonaths from Brighton, UK asked:

Do Google take into account quality factors from nofollowed links when the links come from well established authority websites, such as Wikipedia?

Will Google provide a rank-checking service?

On February 26, 2009, Google software engineer Matt Cutts collected questions on Google Moderator and answered many of them on video.

Mark Lykle from Oslo, Norway asked:

When will Google create a software similar to Web Position so that SEOs, spam fighters and regular webmasters can check rankings etc. without violating the guidelines? Why not make a better product instead of going to war against these programs?

Should large corporations use rel=canonical?

On February 26, 2009, Google software engineer Matt Cutts collected questions on Google Moderator and answered many of them on video.

Terry Cox from Orlando, FL asked:

In regards to the new canonicalization tag, does it make sense for large corporations to consider placing that tag on every page due to marketing tracking codes and large levels of duplicate URLs like faceted pages and load balancing servers?

Is redirecting a large number of domains suspicious?

On February 26, 2009, Google software engineer Matt Cutts collected questions on Google Moderator and answered many of them on video.

cweave from Dallas, TX asked:

When permanently redirecting (301) a large number of domains (read: more than 10) to 1 domain does Google flag this as suspicious? What considerations does Google look at? For the purposes of this question let's assume this is a consolidation move.

Does the position of keywords in the URL affect ranking?

On February 26, 2009, Google software engineer Matt Cutts collected questions on Google Moderator and answered many of them on video.

Adeel from Manchester, UK asked:

Does the position of keywords in the URL have a significant impact:
example.com/keyword/London is better than example.com/London/keyword?

Will Google add guest accounts to Webmaster Tools?

On February 26, 2009, Google software engineer Matt Cutts collected questions on Google Moderator and answered many of them on video.

Ian M from the United Kingdom asked:

Is Google planning to create read-only "Guest accounts" for Webmaster Tools? Many clients (particularly in heavily regulated industries e.g. banks) are very reluctant to provide access to a third party.

Are Google SERPs moving to Ajax?

On February 26, 2009, Google software engineer Matt Cutts collected questions on Google Moderator and answered many of them on video.

Owen from London asked:

Can you confirm if the Google SERPs are moving to AJAX, http://tinyurl.com/be5shp, if so how do think it will affect analytics which rely on the keyword information being in the URL.

Matt Cutts Introduces Googles new Friend Connect in PubCon, 2009

Google introduced a new user friendly tool that adds social features to your site. To get started, choose a gadget from the social media library provided by Google and the Open Social developer community and simply paste the code to your existing website. This allows visitors to socialize on your website by logging into any of their existing Google, Yahoo, or MSN accounts. The goal is to enrich your site and deeply engage visitors.

Paid posts should not affect search engines

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/sponsored-conversations/

Matt Cutts reiterates here that allowing PageRank to flow through a paid link is a bad bad thing in the eyes of Google. If you are getting paid for links here is how you can avoid the penalty. Distributed by Tubemogul.

Matt Cutts Whitehat SEO tips for Bloggers

Matt Cutts Whitehat SEO tips for Bloggers
This is a video of the lecture given by Matt Cutts at the WordCamp 2007 conference in San Francisco, CA two weeks ago on the topic of Whitehat SEO tips for Bloggers.This was the last session filmed on July 21, 2007 from 5pm-6pm at the Swedish American Hall in San Fran.

Some SEO myths

Matt Cutts answers Google questions:

Some SEO myths:
1) sites on the same server,
2) IP or
3) including off-domain JavaScript - Launching sites with millions of pages: how should I do it best? - Google images: updates on the horizon, and current Google Images technology

More than one H1 on a page: good or bad?

On February 26, 2009, Google software engineer Matt Cutts collected questions on Google Moderator and answered many of them on video.

Erin from south of Boston asked: More than one H1 on a page: good or bad?

After watching this presentation please leave your answers in the comment area. That will help others to continue the conversation.