{"id":10956,"date":"2011-03-10T15:27:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-10T14:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=10956"},"modified":"2014-02-25T12:51:04","modified_gmt":"2014-02-25T12:51:04","slug":"6-ways-of-gaining-organic-search-engine-traffic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/webmasters\/6-ways-of-gaining-organic-search-engine-traffic\/","title":{"rendered":"The JCPenney Scandal: What\u2019s the Buzz?"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Warner Carter<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Most search engine optimization processes are free, and it won\u2019t cost you a dime to get the top spot on Google search results provided that you\u2019re willing to do the work. The online scandal involving the popular department store chain is considered by many as the most blatant act of Black Hat SEO in recent history. For some time, the JCPenney website dominated Google search results for an extensive range of search terms. A search expert consulted by the New York Times discovered how the company was able to achieve such a feat: thousands of inbound links from websites that aren\u2019t even related to the company\u2019s niche.
\nSuch practices fall under Black Hat SEO, and companies that use Black Hat SEO techniques are correspondingly penalized by Google. Although the punishable SEO methods are clearly defined by Google, the company\u2019s Webspam team doesn\u2019t really expound on the best way of doing SEO. <\/p>\n

We don\u2019t have to single out JCPenney. Black Hat SEO techniques are commonly used by website owners and developers everywhere. These people saw SEO\u2019s potential in making them more popular and richer than ever. It\u2019s not organic Black Hat SEO; it\u2019s link buying. Whoever is behind the JCPenney scandal can be considered a genius. Concealing the trickery for months without catching the attention of both Google and the company\u2019s competitors isn\u2019t an easy task. This can be a wakeup call for Google\u2019s Webspam team. <\/p>\n

Webspam cops have wasted their time running after Black Hats. History chronicles a list of companies that used these \u2018illegal\u2019 techniques, and laying down the exact rules for proper SEO may help clarify some issues. What\u2019s punishable by Google and what\u2019s not?<\/p>\n

Keywords have been misused for a long time. The reality is that Matt Cutts and the rest of the Google Webspam team won\u2019t be able to track down all the companies who exploit the influence of valuable keywords on search engines. As a result, not all websites at the top of Google\u2019s search results get into the position because of clean SEO. <\/p>\n

Having more money is an undeniable advantage in SEO. Whether you\u2019re targeting organic traffic or buying links, money helps you achieve better results. You need money to pay experts to help you with optimization and to hire people who have the necessary expertise in a certain process. SEO is still a business, and JCPenney never ignored this truth.<\/p>\n

The bait that caught JCPenney
\nMany think that Google should have laid down specific rules and standards about what the search engine considers as good and bad SEO. Many SEO practitioners are actually surprised when they find themselves penalized for SEO methods that they believed to be proper. Google\u2019s ever-changing algorithms make it difficult for SEO practitioners to balance doing SEO the right way and gaining high rankings for their clients\u2019 sites. Maybe, even from the start, the SEO marketers behind JCPenney\u2019s website believed that there was something wrong with gaining rankings through irrelevant inbound links. However, because of the popularity of such SEO methods, maybe these marketers thought that using such techniques was acceptable. They might have thought, \u201cNo one gets sanctioned or penalized, anyway.\u201d If they did get penalized, some of these marketers probably thought of getting around the penalty through another Black Hat technique. <\/p>\n

The sanction<\/strong>
\nAccording to Matt Cutts, Google\u2019s goal is to preserve the integrity of search results and not to embarrass people or companies. This may be the reason why there are no articles on how JCPenney is serving the penalty. What the public knows is that the company\u2019s website experienced a massive ranking decline. For some keywords, JCPenny.com went from the top spot to the tenth spot; other keywords had the website ranked below the 50th spots. <\/p>\n

However, don\u2019t take JC Penney\u2019s case for granted. If Google made JCPenney\u2019s sanction real, it would be possible for the search engine to issue sanctions to future multiple link buyers and ranking thieves. Low rankings in the world\u2019s leading search engine can mean automatic SEO failure for your business, unless your business is as well-known as JC Penney. So if you\u2019re planning to copy some of JCPenney\u2019s moves, you know what to expect. <\/p>\n

If the SEO world was shaken by this scandal, the opposite is true for JCPenney\u2019s offline customers. JCPenney is one of the most popular department store chains in the US. As a household name among Americans, JCPenney can probably get by without SEO. <\/p>\n

The vigilantes<\/strong>
\nAs search engine users, website owners, or businesspeople, we should take part in leveling the playing field for all online businesses. If major companies like JCPenney was able to pull off the stunt with slight success, other companies might achieve full-fledged success using the scheme in the future. We should be watchful and extra vigilant about the SEO processes becoming popular nowadays. <\/p>\n

Warner is interetsed in everything about discovering and learning new things online. He works with the only for SEO Resellers<\/a> outsource resource Endless Rise<\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Warner Carter<\/a>
\nMost search engine optimization processes are free, and it won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t cost you a dime to get the top spot on Google search results provided that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re willing to do the work. The online scandal involving the popular department store chain is considered…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1213,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[518],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10956","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-webmasters"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10956\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}