Google blacklists BMW

"Knowledge is power," Sir Francis Bacon noted long ago. That truth still holds, and it goes double for knowing how to get your Web site listed at the top of Google's search results. Search engine optimization, or SEO, has been a major buzz term for businesses that offer online services. In fact, large organizations often hire specialists dedicated to finding new ways of convincing search engines to give their sites higher rankings. SEO is as much an art as a science, and there is a fine line between encouraging a search engine to appropriately value the legitimate relevance of your site and entering into a deceptive ploy designed solely for increasing page views or selling ad impressions. Recently, , and Google removed the offending site from its index. Aside from being another sign of how competitive the dot-com world has become, the energy that companies are devoting to optimizing their sites is also a good reminder of how lucrative a successful SEO strategy can be for your business. For some tips on how to optimize your Web site without defrauding search engines, check out our SEO Best Practices.