Most online merchants and SEO professionals know about the SEO-scandal involving major retailer JC Penny that recently took place. For those that don’t, JC Penny’s SEO methods came under fire this month when it was revealed that some black hat tactics were reportedly used to bolster the company’s rankings for crucial keywords.
Initially, it wasn’t clear whether the link scheme, which involved “doorway pages,” i.e. sites that contained no content other than links to online JC Penny catalog and product pages, was the result of a purposeful effort on the part of the company or an outside source, or if it was an accident.
According to Search Engine Land JC Penny told the New York Times that they were unaware of the link spamming practices but were aware of the issue and that they had fired Search Dex, their SEO firm.
Using Open Site Explorer, a free link popularity checker, Doug Pierce, in conjunction with the New York Times, investigated what Pierce describes as: “the biggest SEO manipulation by Google of a public company yet uncovered.”
While JCP maintains their innocence, and a statement on Search Dex’s website also claims that their firm has “neither participated in, nor endorsed the linking schemes mentioned in the New York Times Article.” Google has removed many of their first page search results, and has been very public about the entire incident, which means that even if JCP takes the appropriate steps to remove the links (as they are reportedly doing) their reputation, at least in the world of Internet marketing, will be forever tarnished.
Unscrupulous tactics designed to increase page rank have existed for years, and many black hat tactics are actually derived from linkbuilding and SEO methods, that, in the past, were seen as acceptable. Link spamming, for example, which involves “doorway pages” that exist solely for the purpose of linking, can skew the results of Google’s carefully calibrated algorithms, which are designed to display the most relevant search results. While this method may have flown under the radar in the past, nowadays, it is taken very seriously by the search engines. When search engines take notice, particularly Google, the penalties imposed can be stiff; JC Penny has had to learn first-hand.
For an ecommerce business owner, the prospect of losing search engine rankings and getting penalized by Google can be a frightening one, particularly if the owner finds themselves responsible for answering for linkbuilding and SEO tactics performed by a third party individual or company on behalf of their business.
The most important thing that online business owners can do is to maintain control. Knowing what is going on with all aspects of your ecommerce website at all times is crucial. Don’t assume that the SEO firm or consultant that you hired is above reproach. Question their methods and methodologies, and avoid taking a “hands-off” approach, no matter how tempting this may be for busy business owners. If you don’t know very much about SEO, take the time to research both black hat and white hat practices and strategies before hiring anyone to perform work on your site.
You can and should also require your SEO company or consultant to provide reports of all activities performed on your site during each billing period, and find out whether the work was done in-house or outsourced to another company or individual.
Above all, remember that regardless of who does the SEO work on a site; the site owner is ultimately responsible for reaping the benefits, or suffering the consequences.