On February 12th, The New York Times Technology Section released this story describing how J.C. Penney tried to "game the system" with its Google organic search results: Search Optimization and Its Dirty Little Secrets.
Key Highlights from The New York Times Article
* The New York Times investigated how J.C. Penney consistently outranked other competitors for popular retail search terms / keywords in Google organic searches.
* Allegedly, J.C. Penney purchased inbound links for these keywords and these incoming links were hidden in hundreds of web pages (potentially thousands) around The Internet. All of these web pages possessed low PageRank. But, with so many inbound links coming into J.C. Penney's web site, their Google Search Rankings still increased.
* This hidden linking scheme / "link farm" is known in the search engine optimization (SEO) world as "black hat SEO." It's not a illegal but Google makes it clear in specific policies that this type of linking strategy "cheats" the Google Search Algorithm.
* After Google learned and validated the tainted linking strategy, it took "manual action" against J.C. Penney (e.g., it is punishing the firm by burying the results of search queries formerly benefiting the company). In other words, its organic search ranking results now land anywhere from the 60s to 80s for certain keywords / keyword phrases versus one placing in page-one results.
BONUS #1: Here's the best article I've read explaining what happened and the implications for companies' SEO initiatives. Vanessa Fox, author of Marketing in the Age of Google wrote this Search Engine Land article: New York Times Exposes J.C. Penney Link Scheme that Causes Plummeting Rankings in Google.
BONUS #2: This article from The Wall Street Journal explains the overall fallout and how Google modified its search algorithm to counteract this type of SEO gaming: Google Reorders Web's Winners.
BONUS #3: Knowledge@Wharton published their point-of-view in this article: In Search of the Perfect Search: Can Google Beat Attempts to Game the System? The article talks about the J.C. Penney fiasco, the implications of Google's market power, and some thoughts on social search in Google and Bing's search algorithms.
Why Did J.C. Penney Do This?
They wanted to outrank competitors in Google Searches during the 2010 Holiday Shopping Season. By ranking higher than competitors, consumers clicked on J.C. Penney's Google results (versus Bed Bath & Beyond or Amazon).
How Big Is Earning a Page-One Google Result in Organic Search — HUGE. Research proves that the #1 ranking Google search result captures a disproportionately large portion of the click traffic for that keyword / keyword phrase.
Check out the research explaining the implications of page-one Google results.
Nine (9) Resources Explaining the Value of Page-One Google Results in Organic Search:
1. Chitika.com Research: The Value of Google Result Positioning
2. Enquiro.com: Organic Click-Through Rates Not So Elusive Anymore
4. Seobook.com: What is a #1 Google Ranking Worth?
5. eMarketer: Organic Search Still Reigns
6. Accuracast.com: First Page Listings on Google Even More Important
7. Wordstream.com: SERP – Why "SERP" is the Most Important Acronym for Your Business
8. My Blog Post: The Value of Page-One Google Organic Search Results
9. iProspect White Paper: Search Engine User Behavior Study April 2006
Conclusion
What J.C. Penney Did is Just Plain Dumb. Simple as that. And, don't get me started on the public relations debacle.
But, Embarrasing Google in a Global News Story is Worse. And now, they are facing Google's wrath. Google who has the power as trial, judge, and jury to continue burying Penney's search results or remove their search results completely.
Yes, they can do that because they're Google!
Sorry, J.C. Penney. You're Buried! Literally!