Search engine optimization, or SEO, is almost as old as the public internet. As soon as there were enough pages to require search engines, people tried to find ways to make their website appear on top of the search results pages. And as soon as Google came on the scene in the late '90s, all eyes turned to their incredibly powerful new generation of search algorithms to determine what SEO tactics to take.
As with any new technology that impacts people's business and bottom line, there developed two camps: those willing to work within the boundaries and those who looked for back doors and hidden ways to beat the system. In SEO, these became known as White Hat and Black Hat SEO. White Hat SEO refers to strategies that are in line with search engine terms and conditions, while Black Hat SEO involves tactics that violate those guidelines to gain an unfair advantage in search rankings.
Where Did Negative SEO Come From?
First, you must know that most of you will never experience a negative SEO attack. Yes, negative SEO is a real threat, but no, it's not very common.
With that said, where did this concept appear? It evolved from Black Hat SEO once Google started cracking down on the tricks used to circumvent their algorithms. Once someone could submit their site to directory pages to build backlinks, now Google down-ranks sites for being linked to from these sorts of pages, so those same people will instead fraudulently submit their competitors' URLs for listing.
Google's crackdown led people to think, “How can I harm my competitors' rankings?" Thus, negative SEO was born. In essence, negative SEO is the practice of conducting primarily off-page activities using malicious, black-hat techniques to lower a competitor's website ranking. Occasionally, and rarely, this will slide from being in a gray area to being outright illegal when someone hacks their competitor's site to alter the content in such a way as to affect their SEO negatively.
We can't emphasize enough that these negative SEO tactics and practices are uncommon in the real world. That said, the best practices for preventing these sorts of attacks are generally good ideas for any business with a web presence to follow, so we would like to take you through a handful of examples and discuss what you should be doing to keep yourself and your business happy and healthy online.
Most Common Forms Of Negative SEO Attacks, And What To Do About Them
Building unnatural backlinks
By far, the most prolific yet least technically savvy type of negative SEO attack is someone submitting your website to scammy directory pages. These pages will then create many anchored links to various pages within your domain. This tactic boosted SEO juice in the past, but with more modern search algorithms, these pages have been largely discredited, leading to a link here having the opposite impact—down-ranking your site.
What to do:
- Conduct monthly backlink audits.
- Monitor backlinks with a tool like Ahrefs or MozPro for deeper insights.
- Disavow linking domains via Google.
Duplicate content/Content scraping.
Plagiarism is nothing new. What is new is the impact it can have on how your site is indexed by Google. Let’s say you post awesome new blogs every Monday in the early morning. Your competitor then scrapes your content and reposts it on their site with no attribution. Google then indexes new pages and sees their page first. Your blog is dinged for being a duplicate, even though you created the content.
What to do:
- Run plagiarism checks—Google a paragraph in quotes for a quick and dirty check or use a tool like Copyscape for bulk checks and in-depth research.
- Email the offending page; sometimes, they don't even realize the negative impact this practice can have.
- Submit a DMCA takedown request via Google's DMCA dashboard.
Negative reviews/Fake profiles
We combine these two as they have similar impacts, and the solution is the same. People can be vindictive, and one of the easiest ways to get back at someone for a perceived wrong is to write incendiary false reviews of their business. Some take it further and hire a content farm to flood review sites or create false social media profiles similar to the real account name, then post defamatory links, updates, etc. This is all done in an attempt to undermine your online reputation and your authority with search engines.
What to do:
- Set up Google alerts for review sites you're on, with your business name in quotes, so you're notified anytime someone mentions you there.
- Stay on top of your existing profiles and create further alerts on social media platforms, especially those you don't use. Consider creating a profile to reserve your business name.
- Read and respond to all reviews; the best way to stop someone from creating false negative reviews is to handle any legitimate ones you receive professionally and promptly.
Hacking your site
This is far and away the least likely tactic for a competitor to take simply to downrank a website. Chances are that a hack is for far more nefarious reasons, so the practices put in place to safeguard your site from general attacks will also protect you from these. A negative SEO hack would most likely look like someone getting into your CMS and creating ghost pages full of content intended to tank your rankings. This generally means content and links to known scam websites.
What to do:
- This is far too massive a topic to cover here. If you fear you may have been hacked, you must address the situation immediately, as there is far more at stake than negative SEO.
How Relevant Is This?
Unfortunately, some people would rather spend their time, energy, and money attempting to take down their competitors rather than building up their own presence and reputation. As a business owner doing business online, you need to be aware of these tactics and watch for any signs that you're under a negative SEO attack.
Google has safeguards that catch many, if not most, such attacks. That said, humans are still in control of their algorithms, so things get overlooked, and there will always be people looking out for the loopholes such oversight creates. Being mindful, monitoring your properties, and knowing how to respond are crucial to mitigating any effects of a negative SEO attack and keeping your sterling SEO and online reputation clean.
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