The keyword “dresses” receives about 11 million searches a month and for retailers, securing top organic ranking is worth a lot of money, but as JCPenney discovered, using black hat methods can result in drastic penalties from Google.
Last week it was revealed and later reported in a New York Times article that JCPenney’s SEO firm was using anchor text based paid links, which are against Google’s terms of service. Below is an excerpt from the article:
Someone paid to have thousands of links placed on hundreds of sites scattered around the Web, all of which lead directly to JCPenney.com. Who is that someone? A spokeswoman for J. C. Penney, Darcie Brossart, says it was not Penney.
“J. C. Penney did not authorize, and we were not involved with or aware of, the posting of the links that you sent to us, as it is against our natural search policies,” Ms. Brossart wrote in an e-mail. She added, “We are working to have the links taken down.”
Regardless of who posted and engaged in paid linking, shortly after JCPenney’s linking strategy came to light their previously top ranking for keywords like skinny jeans, home decor, comforter sets, and furniture were severely penalized by Google.
At 7 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, J. C. Penney was still the No. 1 result for “Samsonite carry on luggage.” Two hours later, it was at No. 71.
At 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Penney was No. 1 in searches for “living room furniture.” By 9 p.m., it had sunk to No. 68.
While search engine optimization may be a confusing industry to understand, don’t let your SEO company run free. Ask questions, investigate, and confront them about their policy on adhering to Google’s terms of service. Black hat methods can provide quick results, but the consequences are monumental.
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