Search engine giant Google has placed the German automotive manufacturer BMW on its “blacklist” due to violations of Google’s principles.
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BMW intended to “outsmart” Google by using manipulative tactics to ensure that the name “BMW” consistently appeared at the top of Google search results. (Autoweblog) |
Google’s investigation revealed that BMW’s German website had influenced search results to guarantee a top position when users searched for the term “used car.”
As a result, Google has demoted BMW’s website to a rank of 0 and ensured that the automotive company will no longer appear at the top of the search results.
BMW acknowledged that it had employed specially created websites (known as “doorway pages”) to enhance its search ranking, but denied claims that it attempted to deceive users.
The behavior of BMW was exposed on a personal blog by software engineer Matt Cutts, an employee at Google.
BMW’s German website, primarily using JavaScript code that Google could not index, utilized text-based pages sprinkled with keywords to attract the attention of Google’s indexing system.
However, once users clicked on the link displayed in the results window, they were redirected to BMW’s official German website, which contained significantly fewer keywords.
Markus Sagemann, a spokesperson for BMW, admitted that the company had used specially created websites designed to easily search for certain phrases and redirect users to a final website. However, he asserted that BMW’s intentions were commendable.
He stated: “On the final website, we do not provide content different from what is found in the search results. However, if Google claims that all “doorway pages” are illegal, we will reconsider this.”
On its website, Google has outlined a set of ranking principles, with the top requirement being that websites must be designed for users, not for search engines.
Google stated: “Do not deceive your customers or provide content to search engines that differs from what is provided to users.”
Google confirmed that BMW.de has been removed from search results and will not accept any actions that attempt to manipulate search outcomes.
In a statement, the company declared: “The quality of our indexing system and search results is of utmost importance to Google.”
This announcement also indicated that Google will continue to strive to protect the accuracy and quality of its search results.
