Google’s Matt Cutts explains on the latest Webmaster Help Video that Yahoo, Best of the Web, other Web directories with an editorial process are not considered paid links. This is because they have guidelines that need to be met and will reject low quality submissions if they don’t meet the right criteria.

This is very helpful and makes sense because both BOTW and Yahoo Directory are actually useful to users as well as Google and the search engines. One thing that always gets me is how Cutts says that you don’t have to worry about going overboard on SEO to rank high, just provide great content. This in some ways is true. Great content should out-weigh Optimized sites, but in actuality it doesn’t always happen that way. I know Cutts really can’t say otherwise, but it just gets a little annoying that he keeps saying make great content and everything else will fall in place, when he knows full well that often that isn’t the case.

Here’s the video. I’d love to hear what you think of this and what you think about Yahoo Directory and Best of the Web.

At Google’s I/O conference Matt Cutts and the search quality team answered questions and shared insight on Google search, how Googlebot sees sites, and how sites should and shouldn’t be structured. It’s a long video but worth a watch. Post your comments below.

See more videos from the Google Developers I/O conference.

Google's Matt Cutts

Google’s Matt Cutts on the Google Webmaster Tools Help YouTube channel says that regardless of how you construct your site, either in a CSS-based layout or a Table-based layout, Google will be able to find and index your content.

Please keep this in mind that Cutts says in the video that regardless of which way your site is built Google will “try” and index it. Now with CSS-based layouts your code is cleaner and less cluttered. It’s been proven that the more cluttered your site is with extraneous code the hard it is for your Website to be indexed.

So when Cutts says it doesn’t matter and Google will “try,” don’t you think the more adventagous thing to do would be code in such a way that makes it easier for search engine robots to spider your site? I think so. What do you think? Watch the video and post your comments!

On their WebmasterHelp Channel, Google’s Matt Cutts explained a way to get links back to your site (linkbait) without nefarious, devious actions on your part. He gives an example of a site that combines Amazon’s Mechanical Turk and Twitter. It’s an interesting example of how one can linkbait without going to the darkside.

Watch the video below. I’d like to hear what you’re thoughts are on linkbaiting the Whitehat way, discuss in the comments.

Matt Cutts made a presentation at Wordcamp San Francisco entitled “Straight from Google. What you need to know.” He hasn’t posted the video of his presentation but his slides are available and very informative.

Check out his slides below:

Matt Cutts on the Google Webmaster Help YouTube Channel confirmed that where you have your server does impact your rankings in Google. If you have a server in France and your site is for banking. People searching for “banking” in France will see your site higher up than if they were in the United States looking for it.

This topic can lead to quite a tome, but I’m going to save you and write a nice short piece on what my thoughts are on both Organic and Pay Per Click (PPC) search engine optimization.

There is an internal strife within the SEO community between the Organic purists and the PPC get it done even if you have to pay for it group. Now there will always be a disagreement between those who think that paying to be at the top of Google is the best idea and those who think paying for a link is just plain silly. I fall right in the middle.

To Buy a Link or Not To By a Link

PPC has its merits. There is no other way to be at the top of Google. Usually the top two slots are for paid links. If you have the pocket book to fight for those links or if you just so happen to be in a less competitive keyword then this is for you. But PPC does involve money and in turn tha takes capital. So where does that leave the little guys. There in lies the inherent downside to PPC. If you don’t have a huge budget and you’re in a somewhat competitive keyword area you really don’t even have a chance.

To be free and pure and full of goodness

Now you might be saying that Organic SEO is the way to go if you don’t have a big budget. This is true and false. If you just so happen to know what your doing it can save a whole lot of money, but if you need to hire someone to optimize your site it can be just as expensive as PPC if not more.

But don’t dispair. Studies show that though PPC gets you where you want for a price. The organic listings hold more trust and their for in my opinion are more important.

With that last statement in mind, the real perfect recipe is a combination of both PPC and Organic. If done the right way you’ll see the results.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on which is better: PPC or Organic. Post your thoughts in the comments.

Very interesting video from Google’s Matt Cutts:

Google’s Analytics team has put together a great video to help people fully understand the power of their analytics program. It’s worth checking out. I’d like to hear what you think and how you use analytics for your Website. Post them below.

The Google Adwords team on their blog posted a helpful video on how they rank and price ads. Watch it below. I’d like to hear your feedback and thoughts. Please comment. Thanks!