The Dirty Little Secrets of Search
When you are searching online at Google, you may wonder how google searches all the websites and magically places results that are relevant to you on the top of the page. Google does it by using dozens criteria in search algorithm. Google described one crucial factor in detail: links from one site to another. This means a site’s Google ranking will improve as more other sites link to it. This concept is discussed as PageRank in class where more links pointed toward a site will give more power to it, and Google’s algorithm shows pages with more power on the top.
This year JCPenny was involved in the search scheme where the company manipulated Google’s search results so that the company’s site will show up on the top. For example, Google will give JCPenny.com before Samsonite.com or BedBathandBeyond.com as results when one searches Samsonite bags or comforter sets. Although Samsonite or BedBathandBeyond seem to be better search results for customers, JCPenny placed on the top because of its search scheme. This was possible because many sites were paid to included these key words and contained links to JCPenny.com that allowed the website to increase its PageRank.
Search experts say that JCPenny “likely reaped substantial rewards from the paid links.” Since google is the biggest search engine and “the entrance to the planet’s largest shopping center, the links helped JCPenney appear as though it was the first and most inviting spot in the mall, to millions and millions of online shoppers.” Here, search experts hint that online shopping is largely influenced by herd behavior: people are likely to shop at the site that many other online shoppers use. Therefore, JCPenny was eager to show its website on the top results so that most online shoppers will believe that many other shoppers also use the site. The JCPenny’s search scheme was effective in that its online sales improved greatly before the Times exposed and Google took action about it.
References
www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/business/13search.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all
http://searchengineland.com/new-york-times-exposes-j-c-penney-link-scheme-that-causes-plummeting-rankings-in-google-64529