Google's Matt Cutts: Geo-Location Is Not Spam

Oct 10, 2013 - 8:38 am 7 by

Google Geo SitemapsIn a recent video by Google's Matt Cutts, he said that geo-location is not spam. Cloaking and showing GoogleBot content that you wouldn't show users, is spam. But showing geo-location based content to users, while showing that content to GoogleBot, is not spam.

Here is the video:

This is not new, we've covered it a few times here.

In short, if you are going to geo your content, make sure to serve GoogleBot the content you would serve any user who is based in the United States. Serve GoogleBot based on the location of the IP address it is coming from.

Forum discussion at Google+ and Twitter.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 3, 2026

Feb 3, 2026 - 10:00 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google: Search Algorithms, Spam Detections & Policies Don't Fundamentally Change With AI Search

Feb 3, 2026 - 7:51 am
Bing Search

Bing Multi-Turn Search Rolls Out Worldwide

Feb 3, 2026 - 7:41 am
Other Search Engines

ChatGPT With Top Stories & More Visual Knowledge Panels

Feb 3, 2026 - 7:31 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google's Top Crawling Challenges In 2025

Feb 3, 2026 - 7:21 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google: Don't Spend Too Much Time On Redirects Analysis For SEO

Feb 3, 2026 - 7:11 am
 
Previous Story: Google Maps Drives In More Predictive Search