How not to optimise search engine positioning

Jackpot Factory online casino group illustrated the perils of outsourcing without competent internal control and vetting this week when a series of small and titillating stories appeared on the various sites, glorifying slot play and rich in keywords that search engine bots seek. Unfortunately some of these offerings could have seen gambling and the JF group popping up on totally inappropriate (for gambling) websites.

This mystifying slip in ethics and efficiency by a usually respectable online casino group that has achieved membership after meeting the strict eCOGRA requirements immediately became the target of wide opprobrium from players around the Internet, but after a frustrating delay of some hours all was explained by the (strangely unidentified) general manager, who posted:

"Please accept an unequivocal apology from myself and the rest of the Jackpot Factory management team for the appearance of these articles on our sites.

"These articles were written and posted by an outsourced content writer, who overstepped their bounds and will, of course, no longer be working with
us. There was also an obvious lack of appropriate editing and follow-up from our internal staff. There have been some significant changes in our marketing team recently, specifically in the area of content and optimization, and I will be emphasizing to the new team that articles such as these are not to form a part of their future plans.

"As I believe most of you know, Jackpot Factory takes responsible gaming and our responsibilities in that regard very seriously, and these articles do
not in any way reflect either our policies or our personal beliefs with regards to responsible gaming. All articles which contradict these are currently being
removed and I can assure you that this will not happen again.

"My apologies once again."

Unfortunately, this did not seem to appease some of the more radical posters on some portals, and this was exacerbated by further delays which followed in removing the offending articles from all of the sites. By late evening the GM was back again with a further post:

"First of all, the articles have been removed from our sites. Regarding some of the postings today, I would like to respond that this was not a stock answer, and I was definitely not trying to make any excuses for what happened. I believe I made it quite clear that I view these articles as unacceptable, and that third party or not, it is our responsibility what gets published on our sites. This was a major error on our part - no two ways about it.

"I also stated - categorically - that some issues [flaws] in our internal processes have been revealed. I also mentioned that some significant staff changes have taken place recently in this area of our operations - some voluntary, some not. Once again, the new team will ensure that this does not happen again."

The incidence represents a stunning confluence of outsourcing and inefficiency, and will no doubt be a hard lesson for JF management.