SEO Must-Read: Google answers SEO questions

[PhilipSEO]

Don't miss these responses from the horse's mouth:
Google Experts Answer your SEO Questions

A variety of SEO issues are addressed authoritatively here. SEO pros will have heard most of these things, but there are snippets of new stuff there. For example, I didn't know that sponsored links might be blended with organic results via personalized search.

Enjoy!

[ericshef]

Thanks fornthe link some good info there.

[Tom Goodwin]

Certainly it pays to read/hear what the Google folks say, but I think it would be shortsighted to take everything they say as the SEO gospel. Just by saying that ABC is true, Google can get lots of webmasters to do their bidding even if ABC is not true.

Originally Posted by PhilipSEO

Don't miss these responses from the horse's mouth:
Google Experts Answer your SEO Questions

A variety of SEO issues are addressed authoritatively here. SEO pros will have heard most of these things, but there are snippets of new stuff there. For example, I didn't know that sponsored links might be blended with organic results via personalized search.

Enjoy!

[PhilipSEO]

Originally Posted by Tom Goodwin

Certainly it pays to read/hear what the Google folks say, but I think it would be shortsighted to take everything they say as the SEO gospel. Just by saying that ABC is true, Google can get lots of webmasters to do their bidding even if ABC is not true.

I don't disagree with this, and surely there are some elements of BS in the resource that I posted. But I figure that we pros must read everything from Google that's pertinent to our profession (and sort it out as we know how), while non-SEOs are best advised to either follow Google's guidelines or hire a pro.

Promised example of BS:

Q 17. My site is all about movie reviews and now I am planning to expand it into food recipes. Should I use a sub-domain (food.example.com) or a sub-directory (example.com/food) for the new topic.

Zareen Kazim: When it comes to Google, there aren’t major difference between the two, so when you’re making that decision, do what works for you and your user. If you use Webmaster Tools (which we hope you do ), you’ll automatically be verified for deeper sub directories of any sites you’ve verified, but sub domains will need to be verified separately.

Notice the contradiction here: no major difference, yet you have to verify the subdirectories separately. The truth is, Google treats subdirectories as wholly separate sites for ranking purposes.