Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search spam, can always be relied on for dropping gems of wisdom via his Twitter account, his YouTube channel, or his blog. Anyone who has been following my posts on Ahrefs knows I’m always watching him like a hawk and ready to report on all the useful information he has to share.

Well Matt has said a lot over the past few months, so much that he’s hard to keep up with if you’re not checking every day. This can be overwhelming even for me, so I can imagine what it must be like for the average web professional out there. That’s why I put together this post.

This post compiles and analyzes the most recent things Matt Cutts has said specifically about link building. When link building is done right it can have a powerful effect on your organic traffic for years to come. When link building is done wrong it can practically wipe your site off the face of Google.

So how do you stay on Google’s good side? Following some of Matt Cutt’s advice is a good place to start. Here are some important things to keep in mind when trying to stay within Google’s strict guidelines.

No Harm Done When Using A 301 Redirect

Sometimes after publishing a new page on your website you have to change the URL for whatever reason. Maybe you’re moving to a new domain, merging two sites together, or you simply don’t like how the text looks in search results. Well what if there are already a number of links built to that page and it’s bringing in a significant amount of traffic? In order to minimize the damage caused by changing the URL you can use a 301 redirect.

Using a server-side 301 redirect will automatically direct people from the old URL to the new URL, and best of all you won’t lose any of the link juice you’ve gained from inbound links pointing to the old URL. Matt Cutts explained early last year that using a 301 redirect won’t hurt you.

Unnatural Link Building Is Extremely Dangerous

Buying, trading, bribing, or otherwise gaining inbound links in an unnatural way will do severe damage to your site if you’re caught. Google’s Penguin update was developed to penalize this kind of thing, but sometimes it doesn’t catch everyone. That’s why Google doesn’t rely on Penguin alone, they are also known to manually crawl sites and take action when necessary.

Last year Google crushed a number of link networks that sold links to users looking for a boost in rankings. Not only does that suck for the link networks, but Matt Cutts has said time and again anyone buying links from these kinds of networks are also penalized.

Matt Cutts also recently let everyone know that Google is cracking down on bloggers being bribed for links and penalizing all parties involved. If you’ve been following SEO news lately you’ve probably heard about hip hop lyric site Rap Genius being banished to Google purgatory for running an unnatural link building scheme.

Don’t buy links, don’t sell links, don’t bribe others for links, and don’t accept bribes for links. Keep your link building efforts as natural as possible in order to stay on Google’s good side.

Use The Disavow Tool Whenever You Want, But It Won’t Make All Your Troubles Go Away

Sometimes, even when you’re trying to keep your link building efforts completely natural, you still might get linked to by a low quality site. Either that, or you knowingly participated in some unnatural link building and want to minimize the damage. Don’t worry, it happens!

That’s why Google introduced the disavow tool to disassociate your site from other low quality sites that are linking to you. If you use a backlink checking tool and can identify these links before Google does, even better. Matt Cutts says you don’t have to wait for a manual action in order to use the disavow tool, go ahead and use it whenever you want.

However, Matt has also reminded us that it won’t make all your troubles go away instantly. He says ideally you should try to get those links removed by other means, such as contacting the webmaster, before using the disavow tool. When using the disavow tool becomes necessary he recommends taking massive action against the low quality wites, rather than just picking a few links to get rid of.

The more work you put in to removing bad backlinks the more Google will appreciate it if you have been hit with a manual action and have to submit a reconsideration request. Webmasters who put the most work in have the best chance of recovering.

Guest Blogging Should Be Done In Moderation

A lot of site owners see guest blogging as the holy grail of natural link building, and that’s exactly the problem with it right now. It has become too popular, and Google tends to take notice of anything you do too much of. Matt Cutts has said guest blogging is the kind of thing you should only be doing in moderation.

With that said, definitely don’t avoid the opportunity to guest blog when it comes up. Matt Cutts isn’t saying “don’t do it”, just don’t rely on it as your only link building tactic. You have to keep your inbound link profile as diverse as possible to stay on Google’s good side.

When it comes to guest blogging there are some things to keep in mind. Make sure the blog you’re posting on is a high quality site in your niche. Make sure the content you’re posting is 100% original and valuable to readers. Also make sure you’re using natural-looking anchor text when linking back to your site. Guest blogging every once in a while, with all of this in mind, shouldn’t be harmful at all.

Not Sure If You’ve Been Hit With A Link Building Penalty? Check Google Webmaster Tools

Are you trying to do everything right but your rankings and/or traffic still seem to be dropping? If you’re not sure what’s going on, check Google Webmaster Tools. Google frequently sends messages to webmasters alerting them if they’re violating Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. Usually they send a warning and give you a chance to correct the problem. If you don’t do anything to correct the problem they will then send you a message saying they took a manual action and penalized your site.

If you’re on Google bad side they won’t leave you in the dark, they’re considerate enough to send you a message letting you know as well as give you some advice on how to get back on their good side Matt Cutts has said Google is working on providing more information in the webmaster messages, such as giving examples of bad links you need to get rid of. He said they can’t possible provide all the bad URLs that are linking to you, but they will at least give you some examples that you can use as a starting point for identifying other bad links.

Conclusion

Well, there you have it. That’s about a year’s worth of Matt Cutts’ best link building advice in a nutshell. I really hope it helps with your link building efforts going forward! If you need any clarification about any of these things please leave a comment and I’d be happy to help. Also, if you feel like I missed anything please leave a comment letting me, and other readers know. Thank you for reading.