The Biggest SEO Missteps in History

With all the information available about search engine optimization and all the competition for the best results on searches with the most common search term, it may be tempting to break the unwritten rules of SEO. Who’s going to know anyways? Search engines, like Google, have become very good at finding “black-hatters” (rule breakers) and penalizing them for their misdeeds. It doesn’t matter if you’re a huge retailer or a small agency in Utah. Search engine giants are ruthless when it comes to doling out the punishments for cheating.

The most common reason for Google or other search engines to drop a website’s page ranking is unethical linking practices.

Overstock.com

In 2011 the online retailer Overstock.com watched its Google page rankings plummet leading to an estimated $1.05 billion in revenue loss. What did the company do to deserve such a harsh punishment? Turns out that the Overstock.com was offering student and employee discounts to universities who would embed links into their websites. For example if the University of Utah posted a link somewhere on its website, every Utah student and employee would receive a discount.

As unethical as it was, the idea was pretty smart because links from .edu sites are seen as more authoritative and credible. Just make sure that if you find a way to have an educational institution link to your content it’s ethical. Otherwise, it could cost billions.

Rap Genius

Lyrics website Rap Genius was also penalized for unfair back linking. Founded in 2009 the site quickly gained popularity among users searching for lyrics to popular music by allowing visitors to offer up their own interpretation of lyrics.

But in 2013 Rap Genius got itself into trouble with Google when it announced an “affiliate program” offering retweets to bloggers who linked lyrics in their posts. Google’s penalty was so harsh that Rap Genius didn’t even appear in Google searches for “Rap Genius”.

Google… Wait, What?

One of the most notorious punishments that Google has given was to itself. That’s right, Google penalized its own Google Chrome homepage for 2 months after it was released that the website was taking advantage of paid links for SEO.

SEO is a dog eat dog world, and businesses are trying to find any tactic that will give an advantage. When determining your optimization strategy, be sure to use ethical practices. Whether you’re an agency in Utah or an in-house SEO consultant, In the end your best bet is to create high quality content that people will share and link organically.

Drew Scholl writes for Fusion 360, an SEO and content marketing agency. He writes for many other clients as well. Follow on Twitter.