Apparently, some things do get to the seemingly unflappable Matt Cutts. His most recent Webmaster Help video features the webspam extraordinaire in rare form. The target of his verbal assault? Shady SEO companies that hoodwink newbie webmasters into purchasing their services and software. Here’s the original question that set off Cutts’ tirade:

What has been the biggest surprise of 2012 for you and your spam team? –Danielroofer (aka Daniel Weadley), Camberley, Surrey, UK

A seemingly innocent query on the outside, but Cutts took it and ran. It appears he does have a sore spot – and this question gave him just the platform he needed to air his frustrations with the world. Luckily for us, seeing Matt mad is fun. Or funny. Don’t tell him I said that.

“They’re All a Bunch of Snake Oil Salesmen!”

Matt’s irritated at the sheer number of people who continue to be “snookered” (his words) by too-good-to-be-true SEO offers. These “snake oil salesmen” (again, his words) keep selling products that promise overnight #1 positions on Google. Problem is, people are still buying them. He wonders why people still fall for these scams in 2012. In ’06 or even ’08, maybe. But now?

Yea, bro’s mad.

He throws out the example of a Wall Street scam to illustrate the ridiculousness of this bad behavior. If someone comes to you with a foolproof way to pick winning stocks every time for the low, low price of $500, would you eagerly hand over your dough? Doubtful, and even though the SEO scam is almost identical to a stock pick rip-off, people still pay hand over fist in hopes of securing first position rankings in the SERPs.

Cutts warns against “black hat guys” – scammers who routinely repackage old stuff in order to sell it to unwitting webmasters as re-branded ebooks, link network subscriptions, courses, or an number of other sketchy programs designed to do nothing but take your money.

My favorite quote by far: “They’re named “dogfartjr” and “blackhatassassin” and the package that you’re thinking about buying is to spam forum software!?”

White Hat SEO: Better for Your Bottom Line

All joking aside, Matt’s perturbed because more often than not, webmasters are losing money to people who have failed and bombed their sites right out of the SERPs. According to Cutts, these scammers make products after they fail and say, “Oh! This time it’s for real! My sites tanked and I know why… Yup, I’ve figured out how to come back stronger than ever!”

Here’s the rub: Cutts ends by pointing out that it’s cheaper and easier to go white hat than to continue spending money trying to learn how to fly under the radar and manipulate future algo updates.

And guess what? He’s right on this one. Here on Site-Reference, we tend to go back and forth about whether Google has webmasters’ best intentions at heart, but this particular video carries a great message in my book.

Building a website is a long, arduous, frustrating process. When you’re new to it, it’s even harder. It’s lonely work too, so it’s natural to seek advice and comradely in forums and social groups online. However, the bad guys know this. They prey upon people who are desperate to succeed; people who would do anything to see the site they’ve spent hundreds of hours building finally make it online.

Don’t fall for this stuff. And if you’re a seasoned webmaster who knows better, make sure to call these bums out when you see this happening to some unsuspecting newbie in a public setting online.

Those of us who do know better can still fall for scams from time to time. However, the ones we get suckered into are much more subtle. They’re better-dressed, too – think great graphics, low-key sales pitches, great reviews. We can still get hoodwinked from time to time just like the new guys.

To keep yourself from getting sucked into all that noise, remember that anything you do to try to manipulate your rankings will always fail. Why? Simple – you’ll always be one update away from losing it all. Something you do now to artificially inflate your site in the SERPs may not work at all when another algo update rolls around three months from now.

On the other hand, if you build something above-board from the beginning, then you’ll essentially be creating something sustainable – a website that will stand up to Google’s changes and updates time after time without fail. And remember, if you build a community instead of a simple website, then you’re insulating yourself even further. Get your brand recognized widely enough and you’ll amass recurring traffic that won’t leave you dependent on Google at all.

No snake oil necessary.