Meeting Matt Cutts at Google Belgium (Brussels)

Today, Friday 28 May 28, I participated at a TechTalk organized by Google Belgium featuring Matt Cutts. I must confess that – as a SEO consultant – I felt like a child before meeting Father Christmas. Gregory Janssens –  another Brussels-based SEO expert, as well as other professionals, both from the private sector – SEO agencies, media, etc.. – and from the public sector – the European institutions in particular – were also present.

I will not comment on the content of this conference, where I didn’t learn so much about SEO.  I would rather concentrate on aspects a bit more anecdotal, such as Google offices in Brussels or meeting with Matt Cutts.

About Google Belgium

For your information, the Google Belgium’s offices are located at Chaussee d’Etterbeek, 180, near Parc Leopold, at the heart of the EU quarter. This is not trivial, as one of the reasons of Google being present Belgium is that Google Inc. is not only interested to develop is business over here. Google Inc. also wants to better to better understand the European institutions to eventually lobby the EU policy-making process.

Indeed, this is hardly a secret that the Google Inc.’s privacy policy is not so much appreciated by the EU institutions. Google’s office in Brussels is therefore also dedicated to better inform EU decision-markers and EU of Google’s intentions. By the way, I strongly recommend you to read the Google Europe Policy Blog which aims at explaining Google’s view on EU policies. It is a quite interesting way to mix public relations, public affairs and web 2.0.

Matt cutts and myself at Google Belgium

About Matt Cutts

As an engineer, Matt Cutts works for the Search Quality group at Google Inc., specializing in SEO issues. He is well known in the SEO community for enforcing the Google Webmaster Guidelines and advising the public on how to get better website visibility on the SERPs.

As far as I am concerned, I was impressed by passion and ease in communicating complex SEO issues and especially its high availability. He answered all the questions from the public. More than that, he agreed to be photographed with Gregory and myself. He even accepted to answer a personal question about the way spam report works. The video will soon be published. What a day!

Question asked to Matt Cutts

Edit: Below is the famous video featuring Matt Cutts with myself asking the following question: How long does it take for a spam report to be taken into account by Google?

Conclusion: Be online, be visible, be influent online!

In any case, it conforts me that EU lobbyists must really integrate in their strategy eMarketing tools such as Web Analytics, SEO, SEM or SMO. Nowadays, these tools are becoming more and more essential to influence key EU decision-makers and stakeholders.