Video Interview with Matt Cutts: Widgetbait is Sooooo 2008

Aug 24, 2009 by Rebecca Kelley | Video

I sat down with the (now bald) face of Google, Matt Cutts, to revisit the widgetbait madness of 2008 and see if anything’s changed in how Google’s been handling widgets. Surprisingly, Matt says that the use of widgets to build links and distribute content has died down considerably, probably because Google has adopted a pretty straightforward stance of what’s appropriate and what’s not when it comes to creating widgets.

Watch the video below:

Matt Cutts Talks About Widgetbait Guidelines from 10e20 on Vimeo.

I was surprised to hear that, as a whole, social media is pretty straightforward when it comes to building links and doesn’t seem to give Google too much of a headache. It makes sense when you think about it — social media is user-powered and Google always emphasizes that you should provide a positive and solid user experience. If your users are sharing your content social and linking to you via social media, that’s pretty much as editorial as it gets, right?

Bookmark this post:

This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.

345914 Responses2009-08-24+20%3A12%3A45Rebecca+Kelley to “Video Interview with Matt Cutts: Widgetbait is Sooooo 2008”

Rhea Drysdale on August 24th, 2009 9:01 pm

Really enjoyed the interview! Keep 'em coming Rebecca.
Victor on August 24th, 2009 10:15 pm

Wow. Nice catch Rebecca! Always good to hear what Google is up to.
Michael_Martin on August 24th, 2009 10:58 pm

Its good to know whats bogus and outdated as I wait for my money to flood in from a nice Nigerian prince.
Roxanne on August 25th, 2009 2:16 am

Wow. Nice interview. Lots of information.
Dave Dugdale on August 25th, 2009 3:04 am

Thanks for asking that question. I have been working on lots of widgets lately, but it sounds like I need to shift a little bit off that.
Frank Marcel on August 25th, 2009 11:44 am

Good information! Thanks.

But I'd like to remind you folks that Google also says they're amazing at finding (and penalizing) bought links, indentifying dupe content (and giving rankings to the original) and other stuff that we see around SERPs very often.

So, it's not like giving up widgets (@Dave Dugdale) just because Matt says they are good at identifying useless-keyword-stuffed-perfect-anchor-links widgets. It still might be worth the effort.

Anyone?

Thanks once again, Rebecca!
Gab Goldenberg on August 25th, 2009 7:03 pm

@Martin I keep telling you I'm Canadian.
Gab Goldenberg on August 25th, 2009 7:04 pm

(Err, @Michael, rather… my bad)
SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 25, 2009 on August 25th, 2009 4:58 pm

[...] Video Interview with Matt Cutts: Widgetbait is Sooooo 2008, 10e20 [...]
eleyrogers on August 26th, 2009 12:23 pm

Great… Nice video Rebecca! it really a nice video,i alway want to know what Google doing.
Dave Dugdale on August 28th, 2009 1:56 pm

Frank,

Yes you are most likely right since I still see that widget bait still works well in some verticals.
Reggie Davis on August 28th, 2009 3:05 pm

Thanks Rebecca, this is good to know. It's nice to hear Mr. Cutts speak on issues like this so we can all be made aware of changes.

government grants for women to start a business
government grants for women
Frank Marcel on August 28th, 2009 8:00 pm

Thanks for sharing, Dave!

Sure it is the same as with content – create great, original, interesting, compelling, "etc'ing" content/widget and it will work out fine!
Ultimate Acai Max on November 18th, 2009 8:02 am

I'd like to remind you folks that Google also says they're amazing at finding bought links.

http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=219...