Google’s purchase of internet advertising giant DoubleClick means it also owns one of the biggest SEO companies in the world.

Performics is a search marketing company and may present a conflict of interest to Google, since the goal of Performics is to rank their clients highly on the search engines.

Search Engine Journal lists Performics clients as :

America Online, Blair Corp., Bose, Cingular, CompUSA, Eddie Bauer, Fairmont Hotels, HP Shopping, J. Jill, Jos. A. Banks, Kohl’s, L.L. Bean, Motorola, OfficeMax, PC Connection, RedEnvelope, My Sony, Quickbook, Staples, Verizon Wireless, and Wyndham Hotels.

Such services offered by Performics include paid search marketing, ‘natural’ search engine optimization and data feed marketing.

Google’s FAQ on the buy includes the following Q&A :

Q. What will Google do with Performics?
A. Performics is part of DoubleClick, and we are acquiring it as part of the transaction. We have no plans to dispose of it at this time.

With Google clamping down on text link ads and other optimization activities, isn’t this all a tad tacky?

Or is there something we’re not being told — yet?