Matt Cutts Impersonators Give Bad SEO Advice

Impersonators online has been a problem for so long that it's hard to remember which came first, the web or the impersonators. Normally, there's not much you can do about it and most people can make the difference most of the time.

But when you're one of the best known public figures of a company as big as Google, impersonators can be quite a problem, especially when they claim to represent the opinion of the company. 

Impersonators online has been a problem for so long that it's hard to remember which came first, the web or the impersonators.

Normally, there's not much you can do about it and most people can make the difference most of the time.

But when you're one of the best known public figures of a company as big as Google, impersonators can be quite a problem, especially when they claim to represent the opinion of the company.

Matt Cutts says that, as anyone else in his position, he has encountered impersonators online but that, until recently, it hasn't been much of a problem. 

"In the last month, I’ve seen at least three nasty comments written by 'fake Matt Cutts' impersonators," he recounted.

"The first fake-Matt comment I remember was over Marketing Pilgrim around November 14th, 2011. When Frank Reed checked out the fake comment, it came from 74.120.13.132, which is an exit router for Tor. That means someone went to some trouble to hide their tracks," he added.

In one of the comments, the fake Matt Cutts claimed that sites that use AdWords get better ranking, simply because Google has more data on them and they are, therefore, more trustworthy. 

That is, of course, completely false and something Google would very much like to prevent people from believing. 

As such, Matt Cutts took the decision to start verifying his comments. If you spot a comment attributed to him but which seems a bit off, you can simply use Twitter to confirm that it was Cutts and no one else.

"The web isn’t built to prevent impersonation. On many places around the web, anyone can leave a comment with someone else’s name. So if you see a comment that claims to be from me, but makes crazy claims (e.g. that we preference AdWords advertisers in our search results), let me know. I’m happy to verify whether I wrote a comment, e.g. with a tweet," he said.