I was wondering if there were any big name companies that have or have had bad SEO and I found a whole article outlining some huge companies we’ve all probably heard of, committing some of the most heinous SEO crimes out there.
BMW’s Keyword Stuffing Nightmare in 2006
BMW used doorway pages stuffed with keywords to manipulate Google’s rankings. When BMW got caught, Google demoted their PageRank to zero! Lesson learned: do not stuff your site with keywords. Of course, Google’s algorithm is much more advanced today, so high-quality content is the only sustainable strategy.
Toys “R” Us Wastes Millions in 2009
After buying the Toys.com domain for $5.1 million, they failed to set up 301 redirects for old URLs and completely lost the domain’s authority (and the SEO value they paid for). Lesson learned: Google can’t read your mind, so always set up 301 redirects when buying domains.
Ryanair’s Website Overhaul in 2014
Ryanair, the most profitable European airline, tried to reduce the number of clicks to book a flight. They forgot to redirect old landing pages to the new ones, costing Ryanair 25% of its search volume until they managed to fix the issue. Lesson learned: always tell Google that you’ve redirected your pages.
PwC’s Domain Debacle in 2002
PricewaterhouseCoopers spent $110 million on a rebranding exercise and didn’t register the .co.uk suffix of their domain, even though most of its customers were in Britain. PwC ultimately suffered from a huge PR disaster and ended up scrapping the rebrand. Lesson learned: domain suffixes really matter, especially those related to specific geographic markets.
GoCompare’s Spammy Link-Building in 2009
Price comparison site GoCompare tried to pay for links not once but twice within months, and Google penalized them immensely. Lesson learned: build backlinks ethically and steer clear of black hat SEO.
No matter how big or small a business is, SEO mistakes can be extremely costly. Proactive and white hat SEO practices are the best for long-term success.
3 Responses
Learning by example is super important, thanks for finding these examples! I like how you talked about each instance and identified a key learning for the reader.
These are some interesting cases of misusing or neglecting SEO tactics. SEO is a much bigger part of the pie than I had originally thought for sure, and seeing how well it works when done correctly shows that you need it to become more successful with your content.
It is crazy that such big name companies partake in such black hat SEO like this. Getting caught is so costly-it really makes one wonder is it really worth it?