Matt Cutts says spamming isn’t part of SEO

If you think spamming is part of search engine optimization, then think again.

Matt Cutts, Google’s principal engineer, recently spoke in the search engine’s Webmaster Help Channel. He emphasized the fact that SEO spam is wrong.

Cutts, who responded to a question from a user, said that white hat SEO is the best way to perform well in the rankings. While he acknowledged that some people use black hat SEO approaches, he was quick to say that these tactics can easily be tracked by the Google team. Once these tactics are identified, the site will perform poorly in the search rankings.

“There’s plenty, an enormous amount, of white hat, great quality stuff that you can do as a search engine optimizer,” explained Cutts. “You can do things like making sure your pages are crawlable and accessible so that people can find them just by clicking on links.”

To create an effective white hat SEO campaign, you have to consider all the elements of your site, including its URL, landing pages, links, and—of course—content.