Section: Web

One Company’s Comeback After Being Penalized for Over-optimized Links by Google

companyfolders

Company Folders, Inc. now ranks in the Inc. 5000 as one of America’s fastest-growing private companies, with a revenue increase of 128% from 2011 to 2014. But between March 2012 and January 2013, Company Folders was in a tailspin of shrinking revenue, and founder and CEO Vladimir Gendelman was facing the very real possibility of closing the business and filing for bankruptcy.“We bet our entire marking strategy on traffic from Google’s search engine,” said Gendelman. “That traffic was the lifeblood of the company. And after getting penalized for over-optimized links by Google, our website traffic dropped by two thirds almost overnight. Our revenue and profits quickly followed. We had gambled all of our resources on just one strategy—and we were at risk of losing it all.”