Google Inc. GOOG +0.29%recently tweaked the way its search engine ranks websites, seeking to downplay sites it suspects of artificially boosting their rankings. Now some small businesses say they are scrambling to avoid being relegated to the Internet's junk bin…"We should fare well," adds Jim Hale, a marketing manager for the Mayo Clinic. The Rochester, Minn.-based medical nonprofit saw its traffic increase 63% last year, compared with 12% in years prior. Mr. Hale credits Google's earlier rounds of algorithm changes as the biggest factor for its traffic increases.

Wall Street Journal by Sara Needleman

Tags: google, Jim Hale, Mayo Clinic Rochester, search engine, Wall Street Journal