J.C. Penny Games Their Way to the Top

This recent article in the New York Times suggests that J.C. Penny has “gamed” the way Google ranks web pages in order to make www.jcpenny.com the #1 result for numerous combinations of shopping-related keywords. According to the article, J.C. Penny exploited the ranking criteria that ranks pages based on how many pages with similar criteria link to a particular site. Links to J.C. Penny’s homepage were found in sites such as nuclear.engineeringaddict.com, bulgariapropertyportal.com, and elistofbanks.com with phrases like “cocktail dresses”, “evening dresses” and “black dresses”. The abruptness of J.C. Penny’s rise in the search results has caused some to question the fairness and accuracy of Google’s secret ranking formula. With online search becoming more commonplace every day, thousands of companies and individuals will spend upwards of $25 billion in 2011 to get their site at the front of the line. But how will Google and other search engines keep their results relevant and resistant to these types of keyword- and link-pumping schemes?