Your website has become more popular and well-estimated. And dishonest competitors will direct their powers to destruction instead of improvement.
Of course, your website might become prey for the so-called hacktivist groups who merely want to mess up your business.
So, there might be business, political, and other “reasons” to attack your website.
And that creates more reasons to defend your project and systematically return to the full SEO checklist. So, we will explain all negative SEO types and how to avoid them.
Wait, what Is Negative SEO?
The term means using black-hat methods to decrease the ranking of a competitor in SERP. So, a person who wants to harm your business pays for bad links and comments.
They might also try to hack your website or create copies of your content to make Google mark you as a plagiarist.
The methods are different, but the goal is one — envious or mean Internet users screw up what you create. And you need to use an SEO site crawler again to see what they have done.
The Main Types
Contents:
- Hacking/Cracking
- Toxic backlinking
- Duplicate creation
- Spamming
- Content manipulation
- Fake reviewing
1. Hacking/Cracking
Hackers can attack your website in two ways:
1. They can try to get valuable information like credit card numbers or login details; 2. They can make the website unavailable for some time.
The first type of attack is not that critical since you can always change the passwords and reestablish the safety of your website.
The second one is more serious since it causes material and reputational damage. If that occurs, your website is unavailable for a longer time, and you might lose some customers forever.
2. Toxic backlinking
That is when a person pays for bad links that send users to your website. The quality of such links is very low, and they are usually placed on websites with debatable content. For instance, there might be 18+ video links. Overall, the negative SEOs tend to use NSFW content for that.
3. Duplicate creation
Another atrocity is scraping all your content and creating several identical pages. As a result, you get lower SERP positions. That leads to the Google system thinking that there is only repetitive content that is not worthy of analysis.
4. Spamming
That is when someone fills your comments section with the useless and meaningless information. The same can happen with your contact form. You will get hundreds of requests full of phrases like “SEO is a must” or “I can help you with that” from random email addresses.
5. Content manipulation
This method implies adding some content to your website without your knowledge. The goal is to make Google think you are trying to deceive users by adding too many keywords. So, the algorithm lowers your position.
6. Fake reviewing
Sometimes, competitors will hire people to leave bad reviews on different platforms. For instance, they might go to Google My Business and leave rude comments.
How to Fight Back and Avoid Those Attacks?
Unfortunately, negative SEO cases are very challenging to prove. Moreover, the attackers know what their anonymity means and hide their faces. So, it is not that easy to take any legal action.
You can only try to find the root of the problem and fix it as fast as possible. That might take a lot of time, but you will eventually succeed using the right tools. And here is a condensed SEO checklist that will help you focus on all potential issues faster.
Contents:
- Crawl the website regularly
- Check Google Search Console
- Backlinks audit
- Check Webmaster Guidelines
- See if all content functions as intended
- Remove all duplicates
- Report bots that spam in your comments
- Improve your website’s security
1. Crawl the website regularly
The website crawling process implies analyzing every page to find technical issues. That is how you will spot the problem at its very beginning. The most convenient way to do that is using an SEO website crawler. It detects even the tiniest changes on your website.
2. Check Google Search Console
The platform exists to help you track your website’s progress and spot any issues. Google will send you messages about penalties or other problems that need to be addressed asap.
3. Backlinks audit
If you have never checked your backlinks, now is the time to do that. Go to Google Search Console and find the “Links” category. There, you will see the list of all links that refer to your website. Check if there are any new and suspicious ones. If yes, then you have to deal with a negative SEO attack.
4. Check Webmaster Guidelines
Google’s Webmaster Guidelines exist for a reason. They are full of important recommendations that will help you make your website better. Besides, you will find some advice on what to do if you get attacked.
5. See if all content functions as intended
When someone tries to manipulate your content, they usually do not know how to do that properly. As a result, something might look or function not as intended. So, check all your content to ensure it is placed correctly and functions smoothly.
6. Remove all duplicates
The more duplicate content you have, the lower your SERP position. So, use a Plagiarism checker to find all identical or similar pieces and delete them.
7. Report bots that spam in your comments
If you have a comments section, you are probably familiar with spam messages. The best thing you can do is report those bots and IP addresses to Google. Moreover, do not neglect to filter irrelevant comments. Contact the support of a review hub so that they can erase all bots. And there might be other “reviews” on independent platforms.
8. Improve your website’s security
A strong website is a well-protected one. So, ensure your website is safe from attacks by investing in proper security. The most common methods are SSL certificates, two-factor authentication, and website monitoring.
Conclusion
No one is safe from a negative SEO attack. However, you can protect your website by taking preventative measures and being aware of all potential risks. So, do not wait for an attacker to hit you — be proactive!
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