Is Matt Cutts Leaving the Google Web Content Scene?
Anyone having basic knowledge of SEO and website development is familiar with the name of Matt Cutts. A digital “friend” slash ultimate horror to many webmasters, Cutts has been the head of Google’s web spam team and a company employee for almost 14 years.
Matt Cutts surprised the online community in July 2014 with an announcement that held a little secret. A blog post informed the world about the break Cutts intended to take for a couple of months. In his blog post, Cutts wrote:
I talked about this as recently as last month and as early as 2006. And now, almost fifteen years later I’d like to be there for my wife more. I know she’d like me to be around more too, and not just physically present while my mind is still on work.
The leave was initially scheduled to last through October but Cutts presented another surprise in the end of the month. That’s when the world learned his leave was going to be extended into 2015. There has been no specific information about when Cutts will return and numerous people have reasonably began asking the question whether he’s going to come back and fight spam anymore at all.
Cutts later took part in an interview and his answers suggest that a new professional direction could possibly be on the horizon for him.
Brief History of Matt Cutts
Matt Cutts joined Google originally as a software engineer. He has become popular through the numerous blog posts and videos about the best anti-spam techniques, particularly the ones addressing the latest Google updates (the Panda and the Penguin that shocked the SEO world starting 2012).
Cutts is listed as one of the inventors of the Google search engines and web spam patented technology. Since then, he has often been the “bearer of bad news” that informed the SEO community about PageRank downgrades and penalties that have affected the search engine positioning of so many websites.
Cutts has literally made hundreds of videos to answer the most common and pressing questions about algorithm updates, Google’s anti-spam policies, content creation and other news that have affected professionals in the field. He has also participated in a number of public initiatives and he’s also been a Ted speaker.
Are We Bidding Matt Cutts Goodbye?
After announcing the extended leave, Matt Cutts has provided a bit of additional information that has made many think he won’t be coming back.
I loved the part of my job that dealt with keeping an eye on what important news was happening related to Google, but, it’s not clear that having me as a lightning rod for unhappy black hat SEOs, or something, is the best use of anybody’s time compared to working on other things making the world better for Google…so we’ll see.
This is a big change from his original statement. In the first announcement, Cutts made it sound like he wanted to dedicate more time to his family. The next time he addressed the situation, there was some additional information connected to his Google work.
Some more information was shared during a web chat show called This Week in Google. During the show (around 9 minutes and 50 seconds), Cutts said that everyone on the Google anti-spam team was doing exceptionally well since the start of his leave. The leave allowed team members to try new things and approach problems from a different angle.
Cutts also said that the Google team encourages members to rotate between different departments and it’s rare for one professional to remain on the same position for an excessively long period of time. During the interview, Cutts said that he has a big number of other interests (computer graphics and commodity hardware being two of those) and would love to get involved in such an alternative project.
To sum it up, it seems that Cutts has gotten tired of addressing the complaints of blackhat SEO professionals and bringing all of the bad news to such individuals. Though it’s a speculation, his comeback to the Google anti-spam team appears to be highly unlikely. If this prediction comes true, it will mark the end of a crucially important era that has changed the world of SEO and online content creation forever.
It’s also interesting to note that the news about the extended leave was presented at a time during which a major layoff was announced by Microsoft. The latest Microsoft layoff affected Bing Senior Product Manager Duane Forrester. Just like Cutts, Forrester was a very popular professional and a representative of the Bing team who often made key announcements and interacted with webmasters.
Forrester was a member of the Bing team for four years and his layoff indicates that two of the world’s most prominent search engines are facing the task of coming up with new visible personalities. Microsoft justified the layoff with corporate structure changes that affected several prominent Bing teams.
Don’t Panic and Know Where Your Towel Is
Yes, we just did a reference to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Webmaster forums and blogs have been buzzing with information and reactions about the extended leave. Some have been quite happy about Cutts being gone, others worry about the implications of having somebody else in the driver’s seat.
Google’s algorithm policies have been going in a consistent direction over the past few years and one professional change isn’t expected to have significant impact on the course of events. Sticking to quality content, avoiding spammy techniques and working on increasing audience engagement will certainly continue contributing to effective SEO.
There are some speculations about the latest Penguin update and whether it would have been rolled out differently under the guidance of Matt Cutts. It’s all a learning process, both for the Google anti-spam team and for optimization professionals. Only time will tell whether the Google policies about spammy practices are going to head in a completely different direction in the years to come.
Photo credit: www.ted.com
