Negative SEO consists of using Black Hat SEO on third-party websites in order to be penalized by Google, and may also include reducing the effectiveness of a website’s SEO properties by disabling or altering them. Unlike other hacking practices that directly attempt to destroy a website or spoil its appearance, a negative SEO attack does not affect its appearance or user experience, but its effects are only apparent in Google’s search ranking. For this not to happen to our website, it is necessary to know how to protect yourself from negative SEO and be able to identify attacks.
Dealing with negative SEO techniques can be quite complicated since most of them are beyond our control (such as bad links pointing to our website). And, in addition, it is also usually a bit difficult to detect, so in this article, we are going to try to explain step by step how to do it.
But, Before We Start… Why Would Someone Commit A Negative SEO Attack
Like hackers, people who carry out negative SEO attacks can do so for various reasons. It can be intentional, such as – sabotaging a competitor’s website, extortion, or just for fun – but it can also happen that involuntary negative SEO attacks occur. There are cases where family members, employees, or even SEO agencies contracted by the website owner carry out outdated Black Hat practices thinking that this will help your website ranking and unknowingly engage in techniques negative SEO.
So What Are The Chances That Your Website Will Get A Negative SEO Attack?
With this information, you may be concerned that this practice will become massive and may affect your website. Luckily, reality indicates that, although these practices exist, it is not so easy for your website to fall. Therefore, although it is interesting to know how to protect yourself from negative SEO just in case, the truth is that it is high risk and low reward activity . And while it’s pretty common unless there’s a very compelling reason (revenge maybe?), someone is unlikely to try to attack your page.
The websites that are most susceptible to a negative SEO attack are those that are in highly competitive niches, and that move a lot of money (for example, gambling or erotic video websites). In contrast, less competitive themed websites are much less likely to receive negative SEO.
Despite this, you cannot create a negative SEO-proof website, and we can all be potential victims (although unlikely, as we have already explained), so constant vigilance is the best way to safeguard our website and its reputation So let’s get down to business and learn how to protect yourself from negative SEO.
How To Protect Yourself From Negative SEO
The first step to protect your website from negative SEO is to detect any signs of attack, such as a sudden drop in organic traffic. This is easy to see if you monitor your traffic through Google Analytics regularly. You can also set up an email alert in Google’s webmaster tools, which will allow Google to notify you by email if your website is not indexed or if it receives a manual penalty. If this happens and you know that you have not carried out any strange practice, it could mean that your website is being attacked. And the sooner you know, the sooner you can react and minimize the damage.