Negative SEO

Lecture: Introduction to Negative SEO

What is Negative SEO?

• The opposite of positive SEO - practices that decrease search rankings

• Can be done unintentionally or deliberately by competitors

• External parties can perform negative SEO against your website

Why Learn About Negative SEO?

• To avoid unintentional self-harm: Some practices unknowingly hurt rankings

• For protection: Competitors might try to damage your rankings

• For awareness: Understanding threats helps you defend against them

Who Should Be Concerned?

• Sites in competitive niches (hacking tutorials, black hat SEO, etc.)

• Popular sites that outrank established competitors

• Sites with valuable commercial keywords

Low-Risk Situations

• New websites

• Sites in non-competitive niches

• Sites where competitors are unaware of negative SEO techniques

Lecture: Common Negative SEO Methods

Link-Based Negative SEO

• Spammy backlink creation: Creating thousands of low-quality links to your site

• Timing is key: 100,000+ backlinks appearing within 24-72 hours triggers red flags

• Penguin algorithm: Analyzes suspicious link patterns and can penalize sites

How Competitors Execute Link-Based Attacks

1. Identify successful sites outranking them

2. Pay black hat SEO providers to build spammy links

3. Create links with spammy anchor text on low-quality sites

4. Wait for algorithms to penalize the target site

5. Regain rankings as the target site drops

Real-World Scenario

• New blog gains 100,000 daily visitors within 6 months

• Outranks competitors for valuable keywords (e.g., iPhone 14, Galaxy S23)

• Competitor hires black hat SEO to build 10,000 spammy links overnight

• Penguin algorithm penalizes the site

• Site loses rankings; competitors regain positions

Lecture: Google Search - An Insider View

How Google Search Works

• Algorithm updates: ~6 times daily (2,000+ times per year)

• Testing: 200,000+ experiments annually

• Purpose: Improve relevancy and fight spam

Google's Definition of Spam Websites

• Sites mimicking well-known websites

• Websites stealing user information or passwords

• Sites with auto-generated content from other sources

• Unauthorized celebrity sites

How Google Ranks Pages

• Initial ranking: Determined by algorithm

• Adjustment: Based on user behavior

  • Click-through rates

  • Bounce rates (immediate returns to search)

  • Time spent on site

• E-A-T: Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness

Google's Evolving Technology

• Project Deeprank uses BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers)

• Better understands search context and website content

• Improved handling of natural language searches

SEO Perspective

• Understanding both user perspective and search engine mechanics is crucial

• Focus on user behavior signals and quality rather than just technical rules

• Anticipate future algorithm changes by understanding core principles

Lecture: Proof - Negative SEO Exists

Real-World Examples

1. Ker Communications: Documented history of attacks and recovery

2. Aqueous Digital: Experienced significant ranking drops after attack

3. Search Engine Roundtable: Reported poll showing 89% success rate of negative SEO attempts

Should You Be Concerned?

• Most websites don't need to worry about negative SEO

• Focus needed only for competitive niches or high-value sites

• Reference: Matt Cutts (former Google head of webspam) video on negative SEO

Lecture: Recover from BruteForce & Hacks

Types of Hacking Attacks

• Brute force attacks

• File deletion

• Robots.txt modification to prevent indexing

Prevention Methods

1. Implement basic security and firewall for WordPress

2. Avoid installing plugins/themes from unreliable sources

3. Never use "free" premium themes from unauthorized sites

Recovery Steps After Being Hacked

1. Document all plugins and themes

2. Delete all plugins and themes

3. Reinstall only from WordPress repository

4. Use Theme Authenticity Checker plugin to verify themes

5. For malware: Restore from pre-attack backup

6. Without backup: Contact hosting provider for server backup

Lecture: Analyze Backlink Profile

Tools for Backlink Analysis

• SEMrush: Best premium option

  • Displays toxicity score for backlinks

  • Built-in cleanup workflow

  • Shows recently lost/acquired backlinks

Using SEMrush for Backlink Audit

1. Start backlink audit for your domain

2. Select appropriate domain option (root domain recommended)

3. Configure brand settings and target countries

4. Optional: Connect Google Search Console

5. Wait for audit completion

Understanding Toxicity Scores

• 60+ score: High toxicity

• 46-59 score: Potentially toxic

• Below 45: Non-toxic

• Focus on fixing highly toxic links first

Additional Audit Findings

• Error pages affecting backlinks

• New toxic domains

• Potential toxic domains

Lecture: What's Not Negative SEO

Situations Often Mistaken for Negative SEO

1. Analysis/Directory Sites:

   • Domain information websites

   • Web directories like DMOZ

   • Traffic analysis sites like Alexa

2. Site-Wide Links:

   • Multiple links from same domain with same anchor text

   • Check trustworthiness on Web of Trust (WOT)

   • Green indicators suggest safe links

3. Old SEO Services:

   • Previous SEO providers still building links

   • Friends/family using your domain name

4. Site Hacking:

   • Hackers creating pages for redirects

   • Building spammy links to hacked pages

   • Not competitor-driven but still negative SEO

True Signs of Negative SEO Attack

1. Sudden influx of links from spammy websites

2. Multiple backlinks with identical unrelated anchor text

3. Backlinks from adult, gambling, or illegal sites

Lecture: 1st Line of Defense

First Steps for Protection

1. Set up Google Search Console alerts:

   • Search for "search console" in Google

   • Sign in to Google Search Console

   • Enable email notifications

   • Select your property

2. Regular monitoring:

   • Check "Security and Manual Actions" section

   • Look for manual actions

   • Check for security issues

   • Monitor notifications via bell icon

3. Review backlinks:

   • Expand "Legacy tools and reports"

   • Click "Links"

   • Check "Top linking sites"

   • Export to Google Sheets if needed

   • Review "Top linking text" (anchor texts)

4. Understand Google's perspective:

   • Only worry about backlinks Google has indexed

   • Unindexed spammy links don't affect rankings

5. Establish monitoring schedule:

   • Check external links, linking text, security issues

   • Recommended: 1-2 times per month

Lecture: Protect the Best Backlinks

Identifying Valuable Backlinks

• Use SEMrush Backlink Analytics tool

• Focus on links from high authority sites (91-100 score)

• Dofollow links are more valuable than nofollow

Finding and Recovering Lost Backlinks

1. Navigate to "Lost" section in backlinks tab

2. Verify if links are truly lost:

   • Click to open the page

   • Search for anchor text (Ctrl+F)

   • Check if link still exists

3. Prioritize recovery efforts:

   • Focus on links with authority score above 25

   • Especially valuable: links from sites with higher authority than yours

4. Contact site owners:

   • Find contact information (email, contact form, LinkedIn)

   • Reach out from official email address (@yourdomain.com)

Email Template for Recovery

[Start with genuine compliment about their site]

However, I was wondering if you could add back the link that you recently removed. I think it's a valuable resource for your visitors.

Thank you for your time and I hope you will consider my request.

Sincerely,
[Your name]

[Include: URL of their page, URL of your page, previous anchor text]

Lecture: Find Low Quality Backlinks

Analyzing Toxic Backlinks

1. Use SEMrush backlink audit

2. Filter by toxicity score

3. Further filter by authority score (0-20)

4. Manually review suspected toxic links

Manual Review Process

• Check if page appears spammy

• Count external links on page

• Verify if site is legal/relevant

• Look for suspicious anchor text

Common Toxic Markers

• Malicious page

• Non-indexed domain

• Deindexed domain

• Community error

• Spam top-level domains

• Page comment spam

• Link networks

Important Considerations

• Normalize expectations: 1-2% toxic links is common

• Distinguish ranking fluctuations from negative SEO:

  • Normal: 1-2 position changes

  • Negative SEO: Page 1 → Page 2 → Page 10 → Page 20+ in weeks

• Focus on most toxic links first

• Add confirmed toxic links to removal list

Lecture: Remove Toxic Backlinks

Using SEMrush Removal Process

1. Access removal list via "Remove" tab

2. Click "Send" under "Send Email"

3. Add your professional email (@yourdomain.com)

4. Find contact email for backlink site:

   • Check website contact page

   • Use WHOIS lookup

5. Use default email template:

   • Subject: "Please remove links to our website [domain]"

   • Body explaining cleanup efforts

   • List of sample backlinks

6. Follow proper timing:

   • 500 emails per day limit

   • Wait one week for response

   • Send follow-up if no response

   • After two weeks, add to disavow list

Email Status Tracking

• Not sent → Sent → Delivered → Read → Replied

• Follow up after one week if no response

• Move to disavow after two weeks of no response

Lecture: Disavow Links

Creating and Submitting Disavow File

1. Go to "Disavow" tab in SEMrush

2. Export disavow links to text file

3. Access Google's Disavow Tool

4. Select property (URL prefix, not domain property)

5. Upload disavow list

6. Confirm submission

Best Practices

• Only disavow after attempting removal

• Follow Google's recommendation to contact webmasters first

• Use with caution as incorrect disavowals can harm rankings

• Regularly monitor and update disavow list

Managing Disavow Lists

• Download existing disavow list

• Replace list if needed

• Cancel disavowals if mistakes are made

Lecture: Bad Practices You Shouldn't Do

Content-Related Violations

1. Thin content:

   • Minimum 300 words per post

   • Prioritize quality over artificial length

2. Cloaking/doorway pages:

   • Showing different versions to users vs. search engines

   • Serious violation of Google guidelines

3. Keyword stuffing:

   • Adding keywords unnaturally (5-10 times per 100 words)

   • Recommendation: 1 exact keyword per 100 words

   • Use related terms instead of repeating exact keyword

   • Limit to one H1 tag per post

4. Hidden text:

   • White text on white background

   • Tiny font sizes

   • Hiding keyword-stuffed content from users

5. Content piracy:

   • Copying content from other sites

   • Instead: Read, understand, rewrite in your words

   • Add unique value and personal perspective

Technical/Link Violations

1. Excessive ads:

   • Too many ads above the fold

   • Pop-up or interstitial ads

2. Paid links:

   • Buying dofollow links

   • Selling dofollow links

   • Both buyer and seller can be penalized

3. Link spam:

   • Mass-submitting links to forums, blogs

   • Building low-quality backlinks

   • Ignoring the quality of linking sites