The topics of search engines keep popping up. The news that the department store JC Penny spammed Google searches in the interest of directing more traffic to their site for months even though warned early on to stop. Matt Cutts, who often represents Google in the media, has stated they are stepping up their efforts to keep spam from affecting organic searches. The have adjusted their algorithm to be more capable of identifying spam which will improve internet searches.
Along with the attempt to eliminate spam, Google recently turned their attention towards website content often employed by search engine optimization firms. To keep a site high in search pages, keeping the content of the websites current is crucial in maintaining high rankings. There are numerous sites which go so far as to steal content from other pages in order to generate hits. Many search engine optimization firms use ethical tactics to help the businesses they represent increase their rankings. They also pay individuals to generate content which can be complete garbage. Google wants to discourage the use of duplicate or low quality content in their efforts to limit spam.
As we continue to accumulate technologies that put the internet at our finger tips no matter where we are raises the topic of how reliable are internet searches. Internet visibility is crucial to businesses in this portable computing era. The ability to find information quickly can greatly benefit businesses if they employ ethical search engine optimization techniques.