TRAFFIC
fact, months earlier their host’s server
was hacked and parasite pages were
created on every domain it hosted.
Those were the URLs the links were
pointing to. The host decided not to
tell its clients about the incident but
the links were still hurting the site. My
advice to the owner was to disavow the
links, de-index the nonexistent URLs
and move hosts.
Hacking, even to make a site’s
rankings drop, is not negative SEO. (It
is, however, a criminal offence in most
jurisdictions.) Negative SEO means
purposeful action to create enough
negative signal to hurt a site’s organic
visibility. It’s not always visible because
a good negative SEO campaign
doesn’t create something that has not
previously existed – it exploits existing
weaknesses in a site’s SEO.
U ses of negative SEO
“If I make my competitor drop
from the SERPs, my site will take its
place,” goes one common rationale
for negative SEO. But it doesn’t work
that way. Even if you’re ranking right
below your competitor, there’s no
guarantee that some obscure site from
the third page of the SERPs won’t take
their place instead. Modern algorithms
are complex and depend on the
balance of a lot of signals – upsetting
those may result in the whole SERP
changing completely.
Alternatively, a site owner might
have a reputation issue, for example
from an online article. “If we negative
SEO it,” they think, “it will go away
and our issue will be solved.” There is
merit to this logic but an unsuccessful
negative SEO campaign will only
strengthen the offending URL. If you
have a reputation issue, don’t point
a ton of links at it – get a specialist
in online reputation management to
help you.
26
iGB Affiliate Issue 71 OCT/NOV 2018
Then there is the by-no-means-
commendable notion of, “I really hate
this person/company and I want their
site gone.” This is the one scenario
where negative SEO can be effective
and cause harm. However, it may
also be obvious who is running
the campaign.
NAME:
JULIA LOGAN
WHEN:
18 OCTOBER@14:00
WHERE: ROOM 1
How to fight negative SEO
First, ensure your onsite SEO is as
perfect as possible – if you have any
issues, you are inviting perpetrators to
exploit them.
You’ll also need to build a strong
link profile – the stronger it is, the
more effort it takes to overthrow it
via negative SEO. It is hard for a
link-based negative SEO campaign to
succeed against a site with a strong,
massive, high-quality link profile.
Be aware of your link profile and
audit it regularly – what links you get,
what URLs they point to and what
anchor texts are used. If any links are
involved in a negative SEO campaign,
disavow them.
If you suspect a negative issue, have
someone skilled diagnose it (which
takes more knowledge than just reading
a few articles). Meanwhile, check if
there are underlying security issues.
It’s important to work out what
the impact has been so far and if the
activity is ongoing. Document your
findings and your countermeasures,
and monitor results closely – if you
end up having to contact Google, you
will need detailed notes to persuade
them you haven’t dreamed it all up.
Be ready to switch to something
completely different at short notice
and be ready to spend a lot of time to
solve the issue.
Finally – and nobody wants to hear
this – in the worst-case scenario, when
all else fails, you may simply have to
drop your site and start from scratch.
JULIA LOGAN
has been involved
in SEO and online
marketing since 2000,
working on both her own
affiliate sites and client projects in
different markets including igaming
and binary options. She is an SEO
consultant at irishwonder.com and
has published a series of case
studies on gambling SERPs on her
blog at irishwonder.syndk8.co.uk.
Her specialties include on-site/
technical SEO and SEO security
audits, link profile audits, online
reputation management, negative
SEO investigations and private
network consulting.