In 2010 JCPenny, a department store, was busted for the use of black hat SEO tactics.
At the time JCPenny had hired an SEO company to run and improve site ranking. This company had been engaging in what is commonly referred to as “black hat” SEO which is the act of trying to pursue loopholes and cheating your way through the Google SEO algorithm. Just a heads up-Google is way smarter than this and will almost certainly see through these efforts.
They linked thousands of completely unrelated websites back to their page. Google system is made to and first saw this as a credibility confirmation. The algorithm likes when links to a certain site are out there making it seem like a reliable and commonly used site. The company’s black hat effort increased its ranking for hundreds of keywords dramatically and, from there, increased sales and revenue. However… not for long. Google soon caught on
The New York Times released this news to the public which some believe was a convincing act of a JCPenney competitor. Additionally, JCPenny fired the company after this happened but it is hard to believe that they were completely unaware that this was happening.
2 Responses
It’s a shame that this tactic can get you a lot of clicks but only for so long until you’re caught. To bad it happened to JCPenny. They should’ve been careful with who they hired.
I think this case study really highlights the importance of finding trusted business relationships in the digital space. JCPenny likely lost millions of dollars because they hired a shady =service that they should have done their homework on.