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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