With Matt Cutts On Leave; Who Will Be Google's Punching Bag?

Jul 22, 2014 - 9:06 am 27 by
Filed Under Misc Google

cat punching bagWith Google's Matt Cutts taking an extended vacation, I wanted to know, who at Google will take the blame for new algorithms being released.

Typically when big updates are announced, the webmaster/SEO community points fingers at Matt Cutts. But with him offline and not working for the next four months or so, and with the promise that algorithms will still be released during his leave, who at Google will webmasters blame?

I asked that question on Friday afternoon in a Google+ webmaster hangout when Google's Michael Wyszomierski (aka Wysz) and John Mueller in the hangout. The question starts at 53 minutes and 25 seconds in:

I have no doubt in my mind this topic came up when Matt Cutts was addressing the 'troops' about his departure. It is funny Wysz used the term "punching bag" and said they didn't say that, but I bet they did or something similar to it.

I found it interesting that John Mueller took the big hit with announcing author images being removed from the search results. It makes sense that he would be the person to take the future blame but it does look like Google is going trying to spread the blame across the whole team, when possible. I do think John's personality can handle it more than others at Google but would it be fair on John?

A WebmasterWorld thread has been discussing this for the past week or so. In fact, they ask if John Mueller will be the new head of webspam. I highly doubt that John will take on that position but I can see him taking brunt of the blame for future algorithms by him announcing it.

I guess time will tell.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Image credit to cheezburger.com

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Follow

Search Video Recaps

 
Google Core Update Rumbling, Manual Actions FAQs, Core Web Vitals Updates, AI, Bing, Ads & More - YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 18, 2024

Mar 18, 2024 - 4:00 pm
Google Updates

Google Urges Patience As The March 2024 Core Update Continues To Rollout

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:51 am
Google

Official: Google Replaces Perspective Filter With Forums Filter

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:41 am
Google Maps

Google Business Profiles Now Offers Additional Review After Appeal Is Denied

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:31 am
Google Maps

EU Searchers Complaining About Google Maps Features Changes Related To DMA

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:21 am
Google

Google Showing Fewer Sitelinks Within Search

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:11 am
Previous Story: Don't Toy With Google In Google Webmaster Support