As if the web wasn’t a mess enough, website owners have to deal with a thing like Negative SEO.
Negative SEO is basically an underhanded tactic by competitive and/or vindictive webmasters who target your site using what is referred to as Black Hat techniques to damage your website’s rankings in the search engines.
This is done for any number of reasons but primarily it is due to competition. One niche has only so many customers and your competition is afraid you’ll gain the high ground. They engage in or hire someone to attack your site with negative back links and things they know Google and the other search engines will penalize you for. Not only competitors but people who may just not like you or twisted and evil people who do it for fun.
Once Negative SEO takes hold it’s like trying to pull teeth. You have some damage repair to do and it can take you a lot of time and money. It’s not a new technique but is quite a problem. Anything damaging to you is considered Negative SEO. Some people go to great lengths such as trying to damage your reputation or smear your credibility. Google has tried to battle this and there are options available.
One option is your Google webmaster account. Get one. Keep Google notified as to what is going on especially regarding links to your site. You can disavow these links and it’s a good thing to do so.
Can you protect your site? You can minimize the threat with some help. Make sure you get email alerts in your Google Webmaster’s account mentioned earlier. This will keep you on top of what is going on with your site. More drastic measures can be done by shoring up your website’s security. Check your webhosting company for this and get a webhosting company that is reliable. Cheap is cheap and you get what you pay for.
Any website owner and webmaster must be aware that there are dangers out there on the web. Your company or your name are valuable to what you don online and having people attack you is totally irresponsible on their part and a sign of their own unethical core being. There are a lot of criminals out there and you need all the tools you can use to protect your website. Hopefully Google will have more tools and tips and software coming along that will help.
Please contact ISEOU at 727-938-8891 if you think your website has been a target of negative SEO.