So as you may or may not know, JC Penney, one of the largest clothing retailers in the world, got in big trouble with Google just a few months ago. Due to some major issues with their… style of internet marketing, Google slapped all JC Penney links to the back of their search engine results. Let’s explain.
Link building is a popular trend when it comes to internet marketing and search engine optimization. It’s always nice to have lots of different pages linking to your website and Google recognizes/rewards this. So what was it that got JC Penney busted? Link-baiting, a common “black-hat” SEO technique that had hundreds of spam websites linking to JC Penney products. (This tricks Google and other search engines into thinking the company website is more popular online than it really is.) While “black-hat” SEO tends to have a quick return and great results, it’s also a great way to get your website blacklisted. JC Penney is still feeling the wrath.
Business Lead Widget 1
Seriously though… go to Google and look up a simple clothing item (I searched “black sweater”) and see how many pages you have to go through. Then try looking up “department store” and see how far back Penneys is with that criteria! Shocking eh?
So what does this all mean?
SEO is serious business, and doing it right can do wonderful things for your business online, but done carelessly can ruin your online presence indefinitely. So in the long run, if you are looking to market your business it pays to let the professionals do it. Even if it takes a little longer for search engine marketing to take effect, it’s always better to put on the “white hat”.
Or you can get kicked back to page 60…
