If you’re worried that your website might be the target of a negative SEO attack, you’re not alone.
Negative SEO is a black hat SEO practice that aims to harm a competitor’s organic rankings and online reputation, ultimately decreasing website performance and conversions.
It can be tricky to detect, and it can undermine the hard work you’ve put into your SEO efforts.
In this article, I’ll explain what it is, how to spot it and stop negative SEO, and, most importantly, how to protect your site.
Let’s start with a definition for clarity.
What is Negative SEO?
Negative SEO is the unethical practice of using manipulative tactics to harm a competitor’s website ranking in search engine results.
This form of SEO sabotage can negatively impact on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and technical SEO efforts, undermining a website’s overall performance.
Common negative SEO tactics include the following:
- Duplicating content,
- Creating low-quality backlinks,
- Spreading false information about a brand,
- In extreme cases, it also involves website hacking to gain an unfair advantage by diminishing the competitor’s keyword rankings, traffic, and credibility.
Identifying Negative SEO Tactics
Now that you know negative SEO, let’s explore how to identify it.
Although negative SEO attacks may be discreet, there are certain warning signs that you should watch out for:
- A sudden increase in low-quality backlinks or, simply put, bad links.
- If you notice that your website’s content is being used on other domains without your permission, it may be a case of content scraping or theft.
- Ensure your PR team is looking for fake or negative reviews without a cause.
- Regularly analyze your website traffic using Google Analytics to detect sudden decreases that could be linked to an attack.
If your website has been hacked or compromised, and you see unusual or spammy content on your pages, it could be a sign of malware injection or other security breaches.
Is Negative SEO illegal?
Although not expressly prohibited, participating in negative SEO practices violates search engine terms of service.
So, it’s not illegal per se, but definitely not what any other content strategist or I would recommend doing.
That’s because negative SEO is considered an unethical SEO tactic.
If it is effective, it can harm the reputation of the targeted website, potentially leading to legal repercussions, depending on the methods employed.
Is Negative SEO Still Relevant?
Negative SEO remains a relevant issue despite being unethical and against Google’s policies.
While its effectiveness has been affected by constant updates to search engine algorithms and security measures, it still has the potential to harm websites if not addressed carefully.
Although traditional techniques such as low-quality backlinks lose effectiveness, attackers constantly find new methods, such as manipulating reviews, creating fake social media accounts, and exploiting vulnerabilities.
Even unsuccessful attacks can harm your online reputation and that’s why negative SEO is still relevant.
6 Types of Negative SEO You Should Know About
Here are the 6 most common types of negative SEO you should know about and watch out for:
1. Link Spamming
Link spamming creates numerous low-quality backlinks for your website, deliberately causing search engines to penalize it, ultimately damaging your rankings.
This is commonly achieved through automated methods to generate a high volume of links.
2. Content Scraping
Content scraping is duplicating and publishing content from your website onto other domains. This can lead to duplicate content problems and confuse search engines.
It can also lower your website’s ranking, as search engines may prioritize the duplicated content over the original content.
3. Unauthorized Access and Malware Injection
This harmful method of negative SEO involves breaching a website’s security and inserting malicious code or spam material.
Individuals may even redirect site visitors to a different website in certain instances.
These actions can result in search engine penalties, negatively impact your site’s well-being, and tarnish your reputation.
4. Discrediting Campaigns
One popular negative SEO strategy involves fabricating false negative evaluations, social media updates, or other material to damage your website’s online reputation and credibility.
These smear campaigns are primarily used to discourage potential clients and redirect them to alternative sources.
Additionally, they can have adverse effects on your search engine rankings.
5. Requests for Removal of False Links
In this scenario, individuals may file fraudulent copyright infringement reports with search engines to have your valid backlinks taken down.
This negatively impacts your link profile and potential for ranking.
6. Hotlinking and Excessive Web Crawling
Hotlinking is when you host media files on your website’s servers without obtaining permission.
Even though the files are hosted on your servers, they are loaded on a different website. This can overwhelm your server resources, resulting in slow speed and performance.
Site speed and performance are important aspects of SEO that affect search rankings, conversion rates, and other metrics that determine a website’s well-being.
Excessive or query-arg crawling is a form of negative SEO that can significantly strain your server.
Malicious agents also use automated tools to crawl your website, overwhelming your server’s resources.
As a result, your website may experience crashes, potentially leading to decreased credibility with search engines if it happens repeatedly.
8 Strategies to Defend Against Negative SEO Attacks
So, how do you respond when facing a negative SEO attack?
Here are some of the most effective strategies to defend your website and online presence against negative SEO:
1. Focus on Positive SEO
The most effective way to counter negative SEO is by building your website’s credibility through legitimate SEO techniques.
I use tools like SEOBoost and AIOSEO to help me do that.
How to Use SEOBoost for Positive SEO?
I love using SEOBoost for on-page optimization, which contributes directly to positive SEO.
Here are the three winning features that help me do that:
- Content Optimization: The editor-styled content optimization builder provides real-time suggestions to improve on-page SEO, such as keyword usage and readability, helping boost rankings.
2. Topic Reports: Right keyword research leads to winning the top 3 Google positions that drive the most revenue. I use SEOBoost’s Topic Reports feature to find intent-focused keywords, keeping content aligned with user needs.
3. Content Audit: If you have decaying content or need to update website content, use SEOBoost’s Content Audit feature to identify outdated or underperforming content. The report provides actionable insights for improvement that you can implement to improve your content quality.
How to Use AIOSEO for Positive SEO?
The second tool I regularly use for positive SEO is AIOSEO.
It is a widely-used WordPress SEO plugin that offers features like:
- TruSEO provides an SEO score for your content and helps you create optimized copies.
- Author SEO to demonstrate E-E-A-T.
- Search Statistics for keyword tracking through Google Search Console.
2. Build a Positive Online Brand Image
Establishing a strong and positive digital presence effectively countering negative SEO.
ORM, also known as online reputation management, is a strategy for controlling how your brand is perceived on digital platforms and search engines.
It involves monitoring any references to your brand, products, and services online to maintain a positive perception of your business.
Although ORM may not be able to remove negative content related to you completely, it can assist in countering it:
- Detection of harmful content: Online reputation management (ORM) tools can track your brand’s online mentions and identify any negative reviews, articles, or social media posts that may be part of a negative SEO campaign.
- Responding to negative comments and reviews: ORM strategies can assist in composing professional and appropriate responses to unfavorable content, potentially minimizing its impact and demonstrating transparency.
- Promoting positive content: ORM also involves creating and promoting positive content about your brand, such as blog posts, press releases, or customer testimonials focused on presenting a positive brand image.
- Establishing brand credibility: ORM can help establish trust and credibility for your brand by actively engaging with your audience and addressing their concerns.
3. Use Google’s Suite of Tools
Google has developed highly beneficial tools to assist genuine users in optimizing their online presence and combatting negative SEO.
The two most important features in Google Search Console in this regard are:
- Email notifications: Opt in to receive GSC email notifications whenever suspicious behavior or unusual activity is detected.
- Disavow Feature: This functionality allows you to disconnect your website from harmful backlinks.
4. Strengthen Your Website’s Security
Vulnerabilities on your website can allow malicious individuals to manipulate it. That is why strong website security is important in preventing negative SEO.
I highly recommend implementing SSL/HTTPS on your website. By installing an SSL certificate, a padlock icon will be displayed in the address bar, indicating to your visitors that they are browsing a secure page.
Furthermore, your website’s URL will be HTTPS instead of HTTP.
These subtle visual indicators effectively establish user confidence, which is important for promoting returning visitors.
You can also take the following additional security measures for WordPress sites:
- Ensure your software is up to date: This includes your CMS (Content Management System), plugins, themes, and any other software used on your website.
- Implement strong password policies: Encourage users to create strong passwords that combine uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. Consider adding two-factor authentication (2FA) for added security.
- Regularly backup your website: A recent backup allows you to quickly restore your website in case of a security breach or other unexpected event.
- Use a trusted WordPress security plugin: Reputable security plugins can help block unauthorized users. They also provide a web application firewall (WAF) that acts as a protective shield, filtering out malicious traffic and safeguarding your website from common attacks.
5. Monitor Your Backlink Profile
One of malicious individuals’ most frequently used negative SEO techniques is including spam links and redirects. Monitoring your backlink profile using tools like Semrush is important to counter this.
After identifying the toxic backlinks, examine each one individually to determine if it poses any harm.
Based on your assessment, categorize each backlink (using Semrush) into one of three lists:
- Safelist: This is where you can transfer backlinks that have been verified as secure.
- Request list: You can contact the website referring to your site and request that the link be removed.
- Disregard list: You can generate a file that requests Google to disregard the link.
6. Remove Duplicate and Decaying Content
Use tools like Grammarly, Copyscape, and other SEOBoost to check for duplicated content.
Just copy and paste portions of your content into these tools and run a plagiarism check.
If you are looking for a simpler method to identify duplicate content, use tools like Semrush’s Site Audit tool, Ahref’s Site Audit tool, and other SEO analysis tools.
These tools will scan your website and detect any problems, such as duplicate content, that may be affecting it.
7. Collaborate with Your Web Hosting Provider
If your website is experiencing heavy crawling attacks, I recommend that you contact your hosting provider for assistance in identifying the source of the unusual traffic.
They can also help you find solutions, such as redirecting traffic through a DDoS protection service or implementing more robust firewall regulations.
8. Keep Track of Your Digital Image
Create Google Alerts for your company’s name to monitor references on social media and review platforms.
If you encounter any unfavorable content, handle it promptly and respectfully.
Final Thoughts
I hope this guide has helped you understand how to protect your website from negative SEO.
While it’s essential to be aware of these harmful tactics, focusing on positive SEO and consistent optimization is the key to maintaining your site’s health and rankings.
As mentioned, tools like SEOBoost can help you with this process.
By using features like content optimization and topic reports, you can strengthen your defense against negative SEO while boosting your organic growth.
FAQs
1. Is negative SEO illegal?
Negative SEO isn’t explicitly illegal, but it involves unethical tactics like sabotaging a competitor’s ranking through spammy backlinks or other harmful actions. These tactics often violate search engine guidelines and could lead to penalties.
2. What does “bad SEO” mean?
“Bad SEO” refers to practices that harm a website’s search ranking, such as keyword stuffing, buying low-quality backlinks, or using duplicate content. These techniques can lead to search engine penalties.
3. How to protect against negative SEO?
To protect against negative SEO, monitor your backlink profile regularly, disavow harmful links, secure your website, and set up alerts in Google Search Console for unusual activity.
4. What is reverse SEO?
Reverse SEO involves pushing negative search results about your brand lower in search rankings by creating and optimizing positive content, helping to maintain a positive online reputation.
