If you have a website or a blog, you know how difficult it is to develop SEO strategies that allow you to
rank well in organic search results. Now imagine if that entire process is compromised by practices
carried out with the aim of harming your website’s positioning.
This practice is known as negative SEO and is scaring many companies.
In this post, we have prepared some tips that will help you better understand this issue and know how
to protect your website.
What is negative SEO?
Negative SEO is a set of actions carried europe cell phone number list out with the aim of harming the
positioning of a website in search engines such as Google, Bing or Yahoo, for example.
With the Penguin and Panda updates (Google algorithms) a few years ago, the debate on negative SEO
practices (such as the concept of black hat) took on new proportions.
These were used to track and promote sanctions for websites that did not comply
with Google’s webmaster guidelines , such as websites that use camouflage techniques and that
inappropriately use duplicate content.
In practice, this means that even if you develop an excellent SEO strategy to rank your website high, if
you do not keep your website protected, it could become a “victim” of negative SEO actions. In this
way, you may lose your position or even suffer more severe penalties from search engines.
Who promotes this type of action?
During an Internet search, it is possible to remain attentive and reachable throughout to find companies and individuals who report having suffered threats, blackmail and even actual attacks by people interested in harming the positioning of their websites.
But why would anyone do that?
A quick search on the Internet will reveal hackers willing to do the job for as little as $5.
Another possibility mentioned by those companies that report having suffered attacks is that of competing companies interested in improving the positioning of their own website and, to do so, they carry out negative SEO actions. In this way, they benefit from the loss of position of another website .
The fact is that it is not possible to predict who will carry out such attacks. That is why it is so important to know the potential damage and how to prevent such actions.
What damage can it cause to your website?
It goes against the policy of duplication that can cause sanctions
Negative SEO practices can result in content review b from other websites being copied and placed on other websites, going against the duplication policy of search engines, especially Google.
And if it appears that this action on your website is intended to harm another website, your site may be subject to penalties , such as ranking adjustments or even exclusion from search results.
It can harm your website’s links
Backlinks allow you to track other websites that link to your site. And that’s not always a bad thing: you can have links to your site on other websites as a way of promoting them.
But in cases of negative SEO, the intention is to harm your link , making it have low quality or violate the quality guidelines of search engines. This will cause your website to lose positioning in the results.
Other damages that can occur from negative SEO
Hackers can invade and block your website or even alter its code so that it does not appear in search engines.
They can also damage the company’s reputation by creating fake sites and profiles on social networks and spreading false information.
