Search Engine Optimization is something that companies and businesses almost cannot live without in the current day and age. That being the case, it is very much a place of contention for these businesses and companies as they vie to be at the top of the list of search engine results pages or SERP.
While many companies strive to set themselves apart and stand out from the crowd amidst the myriad of competition without interfering with the work of others, some do not, shall we say, play by the rules of search engine optimization (SEO).
Some users become so desperate to drag down the competition and set themselves ahead of the rest that they will not only work to promote their results but will actively strive to drag down others.
If you don’t want to fall victim to negative SEO and the consequences of it, then you can read up on this guide we’ve made for you. Afterward, you will get a better understanding of what exactly negative SEO is and how you may protect your site from these attacks.
What Exactly is “Negative SEO”, and How Should I be Worried About It?
Negative SEO is, to put it simply, the actions of individuals or groups of individuals who will purposefully attack and attempt to sabotage the rankings and position of a company or business in the search engine results pages.
The way that they do this can be through a variety of methods, and sometimes entire teams are assembled with the express purpose of dragging down the rankings of other pages in the results.
Most commonly, the way that they accomplish these negative SEO attacks is by purchasing a very large amount of shoddy, cheaply made, spam links in the attempt to make Google think that the site that is being targeted is trying to break the rules in an attempt to raise their rankings in the SERP.
Google will then punish the website that is being targeted for this, sending it crashing down through the search engine results page rankings even if the said site is the victim in this situation.
This is a very real threat that every website owner should be aware of and take steps to avoid.
How You Can Prevent Negative SEO Attacks
To catch a negative SEO attack in its early stages, make sure that you carefully watch over your backlink profile. As we discussed previously, the most common way that negative SEO attacks are launched is via the use of spam links.
If you notice that someone is creating an oddly large amount of links and redirects to your site then something is probably wrong.
Watch out also for attackers who will try to get your best links removed from the search results. They can do this by contacting the webmaster and pretending to be the owner of the page. They may even try to pose as you and get the webmaster to change your current link to one of their links!
The best way to prevent this is to use a professional account owned by you, and only using this email address to communicate with the webmaster. Using your website domain rather than a Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo account will help to verify that it is truly you that is communicating with the webmaster.
Attackers may also pose as you or your company on social media, and post negative things about the company. Report these fake accounts immediately so that they get removed and cannot cause further damage to your website.
Conclusion
Negative SEO attackers’ techniques aim to knock down those with higher search results in the hierarchy of results on the SERP. There are many ways to do this, and each is detrimental to the position of a website in the overall search result rankings.
If the site is impacted enough by these negative SEO attacks, then Google, Bing, or other search engines may stop displaying the site entirely if it is considered to be breaching the rules and regulations.
It may be challenging to run a website or business, and having to worry about negative SEO is just another stress piled onto this. But if you can catch the signs early on and prevent them from getting worse or happening at all, you will find yourself doing well in the overall search results. With Local SEO Tampa Company, we’ll help to shoot your website right to the top of the search results. Working since 2007, our fully-fledged company will stop at nothing to bring you quality service and the best SEO services available. You won’t need to worry about negative SEO attacks won’t be a worry as long as you’re with us.