Much of what I cover here are the statements made by Google. Some in the community have issues with how Googlers respond to SEO related questions. Some have issues with how those statements are interpreted. And some have issues with how one interprets them in a 70 character title as well. All fair.
Rand Fishkin, in his weekly whiteboard Friday, actually dissected some of those statements from Google in a 7-8 minute video. I wanted to share it with you:
It is a touchy topic for both because you have one school of SEOs who go with what Google says, you have another school of SEOs that doubt everything Google says. Then you have those that lean each way and those who are somewhere in-between.
Personally, I don't think Googlers lie. I don't think Rand feels that way either.
I think how Rand laid it out, for the most part, is somewhat right. Of course, the issue is, Googlers in this position are put in tough spots where they are asked questions and sometimes they do not understand the question or the answer is misunderstood or their response is fuzzy because there is no clear way to answer it.
I literally go through this every day when I cover their statements. I do try to explain what I think they mean, which sometimes gets me in trouble. But I don't think there is anyone out there who has more experience reading Google's statements as I do. Am I right? Probably not all the time, but I do try.
Either way, watch Rand's video. It directly addresses much of our coverage here, since we report on Google's statements.
Forum discussion at Twitter.