What Is Negative SEO? [+5 Ways To Protect Your Site From It]
The search engine optimization market has changed drastically recently. Because of this, many internet marketers have had to make significant adjustments to their methods.
However, since the introduction of these negative SEO techniques, it has been substantially more difficult to achieve a high position on Google for competitive keywords than it was three years ago.
This black hat SEO method is typically quite harmful to a website’s overall health. It is less likely to produce the desired results and, as a result, is a barrier to enhanced efficiency.
Therefore, I’d like to welcome you to our in-depth article that will hopefully address the question, “What is negative SEO?” And similar questions such as “How do I protect my website from negative SEO? How do you deal with negative SEO?”
Let’s skip the small talk and get to the heart of the problem. Shall we?
What Is Negative SEO?
Negative SEO refers to the unethical practice of using various tactics to harm and lower a competitor’s website’s search engine rankings.
To influence search results and harm a brand’s organic visibility, black hat SEO involves using tactics that go beyond Google’s SEO webmaster guidelines.
In most cases, a disgruntled competitor and their allies will launch an SEO attack (also known as a “negative SEO techniques”) against a targeted domain in order to lower its search engine ranks.
Types Of Negative SEO
Numerous negative search engine optimization strategies exist, each with the potential to severely damage a website’s online standing. Having known what is negative SEO, you need to learn the types.
These methods are unethical and in direct violation of the policies of major search engines. The following are examples of negative SEO techniques commonly used by individuals to artificially reduce a website’s rating in Google search results:
Scraping A Website’s Content
Making many versions of a website that break the rules of search engines is a popular negative SEO tactic.
In order to make your website vulnerable to further cyber-attacks, hackers may scrape its content and publish it on other websites.
Website Hacking
Some websites may experience a malicious attack in which an outsider gains unauthorized access to the site and steals links. Further manipulation of these links will modify visitors’ paths to malicious websites.
Producing Harmful Backlinks
The use of spammy anchor texts in conjunction with the establishment of questionable or detrimental links is another widely used method of bad SEO.
In order to discover and eliminate any of these links, you must keep an eye on your backlink profile so as to ensure they are always genuine.
Posting Phony Reviews Online
Before making a purchase, most people read reviews about the product or service’s performance and reliability on the Internet.
Thus, competitors may harm your online reputation and discourage your customers by publishing false reviews of your website or business.
Ways On How To Deal With Negative SEO Techniques
Having known what is negative SEO, let’s talk about the ways to combat it. In this part, you’ll learn everything you need to know to keep it off your website for good. Come on, then!
1. Set Up Google’s Search Console Email Alerts
Having this option enabled is helpful since it allows users to get updates and notifications sent straight to their inboxes.
You can use these notifications for a variety of purposes, such as when a new backlink or comment is added to your site.
In addition, you’ll get email alerts if:
- Your website contains or receives any possible malicious software.
- There appears to be a problem with the indexing of your website’s pages.
- Your domain is currently encountering issues with the server network.
- Google or another search engine has penalized your website.
If you want to deal with negative SEO techniques, you should definitely use these notifications. Plus, the Google Search Console is completely free of charge.
2. Secure Your Website From Hackers
When it comes to defending their sites against harmful SEO strategies, many website owners tend to look the other way.
Please allow us to stress how crucial it is to have secure websites.
Having your website body hacked a few months ago and wreaking havoc ever since is horrible news to wake up to.
Damage to your site may have progressed beyond the point where remediation is possible.
Hence, here are a few easy precautions you should take right away to keep hackers away from your website.
- Always generate a very strong random combination of letters, numbers, and symbols for a password that is at least 12 characters long.
- It is essential that your entire domain has access to a reliable and regularly scheduled backup mechanism.
- Update your software and plugins on a regular basis to the most recent stable versions.
- Make sure that every page of your website uses a robust HTTPS security scheme.
- We suggest activating 2-step verification and using the Google Authenticator plugin to increase security and thwart any harmful SEO tactics.
The aforementioned extra safeguards will prevent illegal access to your accounts and assist you in combating black hat SEO.
However, keep in mind that website hacking is more common than you might think. To keep your website safe from any potential dangers, you should take preventative actions.
3. Find And Safeguard Your Best Backlinks
High-quality backlinks are a common target for sophisticated spammers, who will often seek to remove them at any possible cost.
If successfully accomplished, this has the potential to:
- Decrease or harm your domain’s authority in the eyes of other websites.
- Reduce the number of free, natural visitors to your site.
- Lower your site’s visibility in search engine results on Google and other search engines.
Hence, to monitor this set of backlinks, log into Backlink Checker and navigate to your link list. Several choices for controlling these ties will now become available to you.
You should think about adding a “premium links” tag to your backlinks to improve their visibility and deal with negative SEO techniques.
Don’t forget to put in place an alert system that will warn you as soon as any of these high-quality inbound links disappear.
4. Don’t Make Enemies Online
It is advisable to avoid creating adversaries on the internet if you are dealing with bad SEO strategies.
The most divisive among us, though, often find entertainment in participating in online debates. And these set of people are called Keyboard warriors.
These people aggressively lurk in online communities, looking for arguments to start. They may purposefully send a controversial comment to get a rise out of your site.
Stay away from comments like that and the people who make them.
This is because it is not always easy to tell who is on the other end of an internet connection or what kind of expertise they possess.
So, tread carefully.
In other instances, though, I’ve seen well-intentioned people make honest internet comments discrediting the unfounded assertions of others.
Shortly after they joined the discussion, their website began receiving a flood of bad SEO hits. These troublemakers attempted to hack into his website.
So, our humble advice is never to be a part of this if you wish to deal with negative SEO techniques in a genuine way.
5. Conduct Regular Links Audits
Performing regular link audits is crucial to maintaining a healthy and high-performing website, which is why you should consider doing so if you want to deal with negative SEO techniques.
All webmasters and website owners should make it a habit to do regular link audits.
However, if your domain ever falls prey to an accidental negative SEO attack, these checks can save the day.
In light of this, one of the most efficient ways to discover and deal with negative SEO techniques before they expand beyond your control is to always keep a close eye on the growth of your link profile.
If your domain has been compromised, it’s likely that any external links it contains will be compromised as well.
It’s also conceivable that the hackers have changed your content so that links now go to malicious sites.
But if you know what is negative SEO and the measures you can take to protect your site from it, you will be able to spot this network of malicious links and get rid of them without delay.
6. Avoid Tactics That Could Hurt Your Site
Make sure you’re not using any black hat SEO strategy that could hurt your site’s rankings and credibility.
If you want to succeed in SEO, you need to know how to deal with negative SEO methods without hurting your own efforts or making decisions that will hurt you in the long run.
In an effort to artificially increase their rankings in SERPs, many people resort to dishonest black-hat SEO strategies, which are against Google’s policy.
Sure, those black hat SEO methods might bring you some short-term gains. Over time, you will see a reduction in your website’s ranking position.
In the worst case, Google could slap you with a penalty and begin investigating any and all sites that seem remotely connected to yours.
Trust us when we say that reversing a Google penalty isn’t cheap or easy. Therefore, the downsides are more significant than the upsides.
If you think a Google penalty has hit your site and you want to recover quickly, don’t hesitate to contact the top SEO experts here at EucarlMedia.
What Is Negative SEO, & How Can You Protect Your Site From It?
We will be concluding this article by letting you know that Google is seriously out for websites that deal with negative SEO techniques.
If Google determines that your website has engaged in any form of black-hat SEO, it will immediately remove your site from search results and lower its overall rating.
Our parting words of wisdom for avoiding becoming a victim are, therefore:
Avoid making enemies in the digital sphere and use caution when employing SEO strategies; other best practices include doing an audit of your site’s backlinks and setting up Google Console and lots more.
We’re interested in hearing your take on this controversial issue. How did you deal with negative SEO techniques if you’ve ever been the target of one of these attacks?
Leave your opinions in the comments box, and we’ll respond to you cordially.
