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It has been revealed that search engine Google has chosen to punish lyric website Rap Genius following an SEO 'scam'.

As Fact reports, the alleged 'scam' worked was to invite "open affiliates" to share content from the Rap Genius site on unrelated blog content, in exchange for traffic from Twitter. This would enable the site to gain more page views and increase revenue by circumventing the usual search format.

However, Hacker News has written that Google is now investigating the process which has been described as a 'Growth Hack' designed to game Google's algorithims.

Following on from the investigation, Rap Genius has found itself sunk to the bottom of the sea of search results. Normally, it recieves top of the first page placing after a search, however recent events have seen the results sat on the fourth or fifth page. In response Rap Genius have penned an open letter to Google, hoping to work out the landscape of searching for lyrics on the internet.

It marks the end of a tumultuous year for Rap Genius who found themselves in hot water with multiple takedown notices. In response however, they have begun to work out licensing deals with publishing companies in order to maintain their huge levels of growth. Last year the site recieved $15 million in venture capital last year.