JC Penney may have been behind one of the biggest SEO snafus of the Internet, but it's certainly not alone in making search engine optimization errors.
As I wrote in late 2012 (See: Gaming SEO – & Failing), JC Penney gamed search terms like "skinny jeans," "home decor," "comforter sets," and "furniture" during the holiday season. Its contractor, SearchDex, also placed thousands of links across the web, often on sites unrelated to the search terms. Google responded, sending JC Penney's search results plummeting instead of ranking close to the top.
Google, after all, shows no mercy. Not even to itself. In early 2012, Google penalized the page rank for Chrome. No, that's not a typo: Google actually penalized itself. A paid link policy infringement was to blame, according to TechCrunch, which pointed out that Google sought the help of a company called Unruly Media "to drive views of a promo video for Chrome." You can tell this isn't going to end well.
As TechCrunch explained: "One blogger linked directly [to] the Chrome download page without using a nofollow attribute or intermediary to prevent giving link juice to the page. This violates Google's paid link policy." So what happened? Get ready for this. Google used to rank Chrome second when someone from TechCrunch searched for the keyword "browser." After the penalty, it dropped to No. 50, which put it on the third page of results.
"Google was trying to buy video ads about Chrome, and these sponsored posts were an inadvertent result of that. Google did not authorize this campaign," said Matt Cutts, an engineer at Google, in a post on Google+.
Reaction to Chrome's demotion varied. Some in the tech world sided with Google and lashed out at Unruly, while others mocked Google for penalizing its own product.
Google is not afraid to attack when it feels threatened. It's like the opposite of Switzerland. Google penalized another Fortune 500 company for inappropriate SEO practices when it went after Forbes in February 2011. The publishing company received an email, later posted on Search Engine Roundtable's website, which singled out "possibly artificial or unnatural links on your site pointing to other sites that could be intended to manipulate page rank."
Forbes didn't think it was guilty and posted what appeared to be a rather confused message on a forum asking if anyone knew what Google was talking about.
In response, TechCrunch reviewed Forbes' site and found one page that featured a laundry list of SEO keywords and descriptions. One example: "Create a website -- SquareSpace is the easiest way to create a website," which had the first three words hyperlinked to SquareSpace. Forbes removed the links in question.
What's ironic here is that four years earlier, Forbes published "Google Purges the Payola," which reported that the websites of the Washington Post, TechCrunch, Engadget, and Forbes had all been docked page rank. The reason? "The popular sites whose page rank dropped likely all sold links to earn extra revenue."
In essence, Forbes seems to have been punished for the same infraction multiple times. Perhaps history does repeat itself.
What can we learn from these case studies? Google will never actually be able to root out paid links, although content has become increasingly more important from an SEO perspective, Danny Sullivan, a search industry expert and blogger for Search Engine Land told Forbes. The sheer scale will prevent Google from filtering all paid links from search engine results, he said.
Seeking High Return on Investment
Brands want to place high in search results but must heed the rules that govern SEO behavior.
We've seen several instances where marketing companies have committed major violations, proof that keeping tabs on a digital campaign is extremely important. After all, it's your brand that's ultimately affected if a marketing agency or publisher steers you in the wrong direction. So be mindful of their actions and communicate with them often.
— Dan Cypra is an Internet gambling industry expert and writes for several of the leading poker news sites on the Web.
Unless there's a public relations nightmare if consumers react negatively to news that companies are manipulating search results. Does anyone know whether JCP or other companies were hit hard by the public once this news hit?
@Mitch -- Don't forget to take the reputation hit into account, too... but if after all the factors are taken into account, I can't see how one could say that the company has lost anything otherwise.
dcawrey - I am amazed that Google would use an outside firm to help hype up Chrome. Don't they know what to do from a marketing standpoint? The own the freaking search engine. And then they penalize themselves.
A classic example of the left hand not knowing what the right is doing.
smkinoshita - I'd like to look at what all that manipulation cost them directly in marketing costs, and how much damage Google's subsequent penalties did to them, against the direct sales from the gaming, before I'd say one way or the other if they were getting anything from it.
So a company wins if it makes more money through search manipulation than it loses through Google penalties and paying the search consultant? Makes sense.
shehan - Can Google financially afford to have teams of workers to communicate with customers -- particularly when those customers are publishers or search users who are not actually paying Google anything?
I am amazed that Google would use an outside firm to help hype up Chrome. Don't they know what to do from a marketing standpoint? The own the freaking search engine. And then they penalize themselves. Well, if they did not do that they would have been skewered by TechCrunch and the rest of the media for not being fair.
But the reality is that they can place ads as much as they want and just take a marketing charge for doing so. Tell me if that sounds fair or not. They know the system so well, they have to be getting a good deal out of it.
@Paul Whyte: I'd like to look at what all that manipulation cost them directly in marketing costs, and how much damage Google's subsequent penalties did to them, against the direct sales from the gaming, before I'd say one way or the other if they were getting anything from it.
We're only getting a portion of the story. Still, I think it'd be wise for any business to take a big-picture view of their SEO practices looking at what can be gained vs. what could be lost if things go bad.
"If everybody starts playing with the SEO algorithm nobody will get anything, including the consumers."
Many have done that and they have reap unfair advantages and rewards. The likes of J.C. Penny are the few that have been caight out. So I don't think it isnecessarily true that those playing with the SEO aglorithm are getting nothing from it.
I agree. If you have good content Google will most likely rank that at the top, you do not have to do anything. If everybody starts playing with the SEO algorithm nobody will get anything, including the consumers.
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If you want to game SEO, think again. I recently wrote about the growing importance of content and the constant SEO crackdown coming from major search engines like Google. Organic growth, viral links, and a natural progression are revered in today's SEO world. (See: The Changing Face of SEO.)
Link building, link buying, and focusing obsessively on keywords were once ways to build your presence in the online world. Nowadays, Google and other search engines have wised up and the effectiveness of traditional SEO strategies has deteriorated. Today, interesting content is king.
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