For most people, checking a company, a product or a service on the Internet begins with typing its name into a Google search engine box. Consumers hope for accurate information that will enlighten them and help save money.

But some companies, or the search engine marketing companies they hire, learned to game Google to dominate results with what they want consumers to see.

Studies show that very few people venture past the first page of search results, so manipulating the search rankings can give a huge advantage. It could drive Web traffic to a seller’s site — or bury damaging information.

In recent weeks, though, Google has cracked down on several search engine optimization practices it deems unethical and retooled its mathematical search formula.

The popular website Overstock.com was penalized with lower Web rankings after Google learned that it had offered discounts to college students and faculty members who put links to the company on their education-related Web pages.

Google treated links from pages that contain the domain name of .edu more seriously because they are from the academic, not commercial, community.

Google also penalized J.C. Penney’s retail website after it learned that a company hired to perform SEO for the website gamed the search system in another way. The outside company paid for links to J.C. Penney’s site from other websites worldwide.

More incoming links to Web pages lead to a higher Google ranking. Google doesn’t want businesses to buy these incoming links. That gives those who pay an unfair advantage. Yet it happens all the time. (Read what Google says about this on its blog here.)

J.C. Penney spokeswoman Darcie M. Brossart says her company did not know that the SEO practice was occurring. Penney fired the SEO company, is working to remove the offending links and “instituted more rigorous internal controls over our search program to ensure future compliance,” she said.

Google made a third change last month, its biggest in years, in its secret search formula. The change, Google says, is designed to reduce the rankings of junk Web pages that rarely offered relevant answers to users.

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As readers of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Dave Lieber column first learned, this is a significant advance for consumers.

Before the recent changes, when I tried to research vending machine company Planet Antares on Google and other search engines, the results had turned up meaningless Web pages. Watchdog Nation readers might remember Planet Antares as the company that sent me an invitation to a hotel sales seminar — even sent me flowers the day before — but kicked me out of the hotel and ordered me not to write about it when it learned about my column.  (Read this funny and memorable story here.)

Critical postings about the company were buried deep in the Internet rankings. Consumers would have to dig past the first pages to learn, for instance, that the Federal Trade Commission fined the company $1 million in 1996 for misrepresenting potential earnings of prospective vending machine distributors and using shills as phony references.

Now, after Google’s search cleanup, such information is easier to spot. If you search for the company’s name, some junk postings remain, but more important pages, including a link to the Better Business Bureau’s website — http://www.trustlink.org/Reviews/Planet-Antares-Inc-205711200 — rank much higher.

When I called Planet Antares to ask officials about this, some of its various phone numbers were disconnected. One kept me on hold, but no one came to the phone.

In court papers filed in a California lawsuit, owner Dana Bashor stated in December that the company is “remaining open in order to service its clients until other arrangements can be made.”

Tony Wright, former president of the Dallas/Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Association and owner of reputation-management company WrightIMC.com, analyzed Planet Antares’ Google results for me. He said that someone had created a number of websites built around the phrase “Planet Antares scam.” Until the recent changes, anyone who searched for those words would have quickly found postings in the company’s favor, he says.

Headlines included: “Planet Antares Tips for Avoiding Vending Machine Scams” and “Planet Antares Awareness Program on Vending Scams.”

Those stories have now dropped in the rankings. “I do believe the Google algorithm change probably affected Planet Antares’ listing,” Wright says.

Watchdog lesson here: When researching a product, service, individual or company (a requirement for all citizens of my Watchdog Nation), you must go past early results and drill much deeper.

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One of the many sites used by Planet Antares has apparently been hijacked by its previous webmaster. The writer, listed as Chris, lays out how his view about how the company managed its Internet reputation on this page:

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Dave Lieber, The Watchdog columnist for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is the founder of Watchdog Nation. The new edition of his book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, is available in hardcover, as a CD audio book, ebook and hey, what else do you need. Visit our store. Now revised and expanded, the book won two national book awards in 2009 for social change. Twitter @DaveLieber