Google’s Matt Cutts: Holding A Patent Doesn’t Mean We Use That Patent In Search Quality

Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, posted a YouTube video talking about a recent SEO misconception that he would like the SEO and webmaster world to “put to rest.”

Matt said, just because Google has a search quality or ranking patent it does not mean that the patent was or is currently part of the algorithm.

Matt explained that there was a patent named ranking documents, which we covered in our story named Patent: How Google May Trick Search Spammers. He said that was one example of a patent Google holds that is currently not built into the ranking algorithm.

Mr. Cutts added that “it doesn’t mean they are necessarily using that patent.” Matt also seemed frustrated that SEOs and webmasters act on those patents and sometimes give up on their websites because of those patents.

In short, Matt wants to convey just because they have a patent or a patent application, it does not mean it is integrated into their algorithms.

Here is the video: