Negative SEO refers to search engine optimization, which, contrary to expectations, has a detrimental effect on your online visibility. Instead of moving you towards the top of the search results, the result is that your website no longer generates more visibility or, in the worst case, is even penalized and dropped from the index. Negative SEO or SEO attacks are sometimes used by competitors to weaken their competitors’ rankings and thereby gain an advantage for themselves. SEO attacks are punishable but, unfortunately difficult to trace. Signs that you are affected by negative SEO include new articles not being indexable, rankings deteriorating, or bots attempting to manipulate session duration and other metrics. Is your web presence suffering from negative SEO effects? Contact us now. We would be happy to plan the first steps with you.
Negative SEO attacks – diverse and varied
There are many ways to attack a website and cause long-term damage. One of the most common is through spamming low-quality backlinks. These are deliberately placed from directories or link farms and lead to a relatively rapid decline in ranking. However, this method not only involves the creation of spammy links, but also frequently uses poor anchor text (the name of the link), which also appears inorganic and thus causes Google to downgrade the website. Content spam is another method of attacking the competition. In this attack, content is mixed with poor content and posted online as a mixture of duplicate content and bad content. This causes your own articles to lose visibility. Websites are also increasingly struggling with hacking attacks. The goal of this type of attack is to contribute to a poor ranking through targeted on-page manipulation. Installing malware, placing backlinks to malicious websites, or requesting NoFollow or NoIndex are just a few examples.
Practical example of a negative SEO attack and its removal
At the beginning of July, we were confronted with a negative SEO attack by a client. This was noticeable because the client had lost position for their main keyword, while still maintaining excellent top 10 positions for combinations of this keyword.
Since there weren’t any significant changes on the website, suspicion quickly fell on the backlinks. We had already pointed out beforehand that we repeatedly identify bad links.
As part of our link risk management, we took a closer look at backlinks.
Within just one week, the number of toxic backlinks increased. At this point, we started a manual link audit. A link audit checks every link. The website has approximately 777,000 backlinks.
At the time we wanted to upload the disavow file to the Search Console, we did another check with LinkResearchTools NG, for which we are one of the few alpha testers, and actually found even more bad links.
We have set up link alerts for the client and their domain(s) so that we are informed of new backlinks – this is part of our service as part of link risk management.
Even during the link evaluation, we received well over 100 new backlinks every day – almost all of them of a bad nature. They were primarily related to the brand or keyword (a good example of how the Realtime Penguin algorithm works very well here, and actually only penalizes the site for the keyword in question).
During the downgrade, 51% of the backlinks were devalued. We then requested Google to re-crawl all the bad links via DETOX Boost. This allowed us to quickly correct the client’s ranking calculation.
Within five days of devaluing the bad links, the website improved its rankings for many keywords, sometimes by 43 positions. The major keyword returned to position 5 five days after the devaluation.
Nevertheless, the client is not immune to further negative SEO attacks. On the contrary, new links must be evaluated and, if necessary, downgraded.
Negative SEO backlinks
Low-quality backlinks do more harm than good
Before you, as a website owner, take off-page optimization into your own hands, it’s important to know how to build backlinks correctly. Quantitative backlinks can quickly lower your website’s ranking. For this reason, you should build backlinks carefully and do your research beforehand. First, it’s important to understand what a backlink is. It’s a link from one website to another. Google introduced this ranking factor very early on and essentially values a backlink like a recommendation. The Google Search Console is a tool that helps you get an overview of your existing backlinks. There, you can also identify spammy links and then devalue them with the help of the Disavow Tool. Caution: The Disavow Tool is a powerful tool and should only be used with caution.
Broken Links – How to get rid of them
Broken links are negative SEO signals that competitors usually have no control over. These are defective internal links that lead nowhere. Instead of strengthening certain subpages, the power is wasted, resulting in a lot of potential being lost. With the help of tools like Sitebulb or SEMrush, broken links on a website can be easily identified. These can be easily repaired to maximize their potential. It is recommended to regularly check your website for broken links. Once the defective internal links have been repaired, you can expect improved rankings sooner or later.
What to do if the website has already been penalized?
Are you already suffering from a Google penalty? Then you’re probably wondering if the negative effects can still be reversed? After devaluing bad backlinks, a ranking improvement can occur within a short period of time. In some cases, however, it can take a few months. Do you suspect you’ve been the victim of a negative SEO attack? We at Seybold are happy to help. Contact us now and let us advise you.
The ultimate guide: Detect and defend against negative SEO attacks
Is your website suddenly losing position in search results? Or is it no longer discoverable? Then it’s quite possible that you’re being affected by a negative SEO attack. This topic has become increasingly popular in recent years.
If detected early, a negative SEO attack can be quickly and successfully remedied.
Ralf Seybold’s e-book shows what negative SEO attacks look like. It also serves as a guide for removing unwanted links. It describes how to remove them using tools from Ahrefs, CognitiveSEO, LinkResearchTools, SEMrush, and Xovi. For penalized pages, a link audit can help regain top positions in Google within a few days.
Negative SEO costs domains, revenue, and ultimately jobs. This is precisely why it is necessary to conduct regular link audits as part of link risk management. During such an audit, bad links are identified and declared invalid by Google.
Negative SEO attacks: Detect and eliminate them is your little helper for detecting, evaluating, and removing unwanted links to your valuable website.