Posted by Jonah A. Berger, Senior Specialist (SEO) & Jason Walker, SEO Specialist
The first quarter of 2011 provided some of the most dramatic news in recent search engine marketing memory. Major retailers and publishers were punished, particularly by Google, for a variety of link building and content-related guideline violations. However, the visibility of recent violations exposed by publications like The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, not to mention heightened industry chatter within C-suites, proves link building practices are top of mind for many of today’s leading brands.
J.C. Penney was the first to be scrutinized, then Forbes (albeit to a lesser extent), and then Overstock – all for questionable linking tactics and all within the course of a month or two. In early March, Performics issued a POV focused on several popular content farms that also made headlines for violating Google’s content guidelines that, while previously enforced, were not under the glowing media spotlight.
The message Google is sending is clear: No matter your longevity in the industry or how great your brand reputation, the search engine is cracking down on questionable SEO tactics. In light of this fact, the Performics SEO team decided to ask the million dollar question: Who’s next?
OUR LINK BUILDING SNIFF TEST
Performics took a close look at the link building practices of the top thirty retailers in the Internet Retailer 500. The retailers – as part of a list that includes mega names like Amazon, Staples, Dell, Apple, Office Depot, Walmart, OfficeMax, CDW and the aforementioned J.C. Penney and Overstock – are ranked by the e-commerce magazine based on full-year online sales and related data. If major SEO performers like J.C. Penney and Overstock were called out and punished by Google and other search engines, what other big brands are in jeopardy due to high-risk link building practices?