Google Webmaster Live Chat: Answers to all Your SEO Questions

Marjory Meechan - October 23, 2008

This Wednesday, Google hosted another Google Live Chat to reach out to webmasters and answer some of our most pressing questions. Many Googlers including Adam Lasnik, Matt Cutts, and others got together and addressed questions that were submitted by webmasters from all over the world.

One question that particularly interested me was whether or not Google was planning on devaluing links from directories. Recently, they removed the suggestion that webmasters submit their sites to directories which led to some speculation in the SEO community that this would happen. Matt Cutts assured us that Google has no immediate plans to devalue links from directories. However, he did suggest that not all directories are created equal and that links from article sites or directories that are purely designed to add link value to your site would have less value for helping pages of your site rank better.

However, my favorite question was: “What do I do if my boss is obsessed about Page Rank even though traffic to our site is increasing?”. All the Googlers really liked that question and their response was to laugh uproariously and say: “Send him on a long vacation without computers”. But seriously, as the Googlers went on to point out, Page Rank is just one of over 200 factors and if a PageRank 5 page is more relevant to a query than a PageRank 7 page, the PageRank 5 page will be positioned higher. They pointed out that traffic and conversions are what matter and if your site is successful at that, it’s a success.

This was just a small sample of the kind of insight that was passed on to a very curious audience and we all enjoyed it very much. I keep in touch by monitoring Google’s Webmaster Central blog where these events are publicized but if you missed this Live Chat, it’s ok. They will be publishing the list of questions and answers in the next few days. This is my third Google Webmaster Live Chat and I heartily recommend that anyone interested in knowing more about how Google works tune in to any of Google’s Webmaster Central live chats.