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Introduction
There has been a lot of debate over negative SEO lately.
This has been especially true since all of the changes to Google’s algorithm have
taken place. The Penguin and the Panda updates have changed SEO forever, and
nearly all of our previously accepted white hat SEO tactics can now actually
penalize your site or even get it blacklisted.
What is Negative SEO?
Although most search engine optimizers are familiar with the
term “negative SEO” and know exactly what it entails, there are many confused
newcomers to SEO that haven’t quite grasped the concept. Where it gets
confusing is that many newbies are under the false impression that backlinks
are beneficial to the ranking of their site in the SERPs (search engine results
pages). These same newcomers are thinking in terms of “quantity” rather than “quality”.
With this being the case, it is hard for them to comprehend that thousands of
backlinks delivered to their site will harm them rather than help them gain
rank. Lesson number 1 is that Google cares about “quality”, not “quantity”.
So, Negative SEO refers to optimizers and webmasters that
choose to take what can be considered by many webmasters as a rather
questionable and unethical approach to getting ahead of their competition.
Essentially, the term can be defined as the process of building low quality
links to competing sites with intent of bringing the competitor sites down in site
rankings for the soul purpose of overtaking the position. In other terms, company
A builds bad links to their competitor’s site (company B). Company B then takes
a hit and drops in page rank (PR) and is replaced by company A in the rankings.
Disavow Tool
Google is aware of this scheme and does have tools in place
for webmasters to take action. The disavow tool is one of the ways that webmasters
can protect themselves from attacks. Unfortunately. The disavow tool does not
come with any guarantees that Google will reinstate a site’s rank simply
because a webmaster reports the unethical activity. It is simply a means of
communication between the webmaster and Google. It allows the webmaster to report
bad links to Google, but it does not mean that Google will reinstate the
webmasters site.
Is Negative SEO Real?
A lot of companies are quickly taking advantage of the hype
and wanting you to hire them to destroy your competition by juicing them up
with “low quality” or “spammy” backlinks. Just a simple search for the keyword
phrase “Negative SEO” will prove this very quickly. All of these companies are
making claims that your competitors will “go down”. The logic that these
companies are trying to preach is quite simple. They claim that your competitor
will be taken down and that you will take their place.
For anyone using these techniques
to get ahead of the competition or even considering this, there are a few
things to be aware of. First of all, you must remember that if your competition
has good PR for specific keywords that are tough to rank for in the SERPs, then
it is very likely that they are a trusted site. Although no website is immune
to Google’s algorithm updates, authority sites are definitely more immune than
new sites, or sites that have not made enough of an impression to be trusted. I
am not saying that every somewhat trusted site is an authority, but I am saying
that a highly trusted site is most likely an authority. If you bombard a new
site with thousands of bad backlinks then there is no doubt in my mind that it
will fall. However, if you bombard a trusted site with those same backlinks, don’t
be surprised to see that it gets a lot of juice and goes up even higher in the
SERPs. Can you imagine paying some company to help your competitor climb up
even higher and leaving you in the dust? Because that may very well be the
route that you are heading for if you engage in unethical ranking schemes. This
type of behavior has a name. That name is “black hat SEO”.
How Does Google Measure PageRank?
According to Google, a site’s
PageRank is a measure of that page’s importance. How exactly is PageRank or the
importance of a web page measured by Google? It is measured by links that are
coming in from other websites. This is where “quality” and “quantity” come into
play. The webmaster’s ultimate goal is to leave a lasting impression on Google.
Google’s opinion of a site is what earns it importance which is translated into
PageRank.
As Google states, PageRank is one
of approximately 200 signals that is used to determine a site’s relevancy. Nonetheless, it is a very important signal
and should be treated as such. A general rule of thumb is that each link a
website receives from another site can be compared to a “vote”. It is a vote
telling Google that the other website values the content on your website. With
that being said, keep in mind that Google’s opinion of the site that links to
your site has an effect on your site. Google clearly states that they work hard
to ensure that the actions taking place on 3rd party sites do not
have an adverse or negative affect on a webmasters site, but there are
circumstances that can cause incoming links to create a poor opinion of your
site in Google’s eyes. This is not a good thing and Google provides some
examples of actions that can cause a website to lose credibility.
Don’t Make a Bad Impression on Google
One example Google offers is that of the webmaster or
someone that the webmaster hires such as a search engine optimizer or SEO that
have proceeded to build bad links to the webmasters website. Common ways of building
bad links include the purchase of paid
links or similar link schemes. These link schemes will most certainly have
a negative effect on your site as they clearly violate the Google
quality guidelines. The way Google see it, ultimately, it is the webmasters
responsibility and duty to make sure that they follow the quality guidelines.
There is no excuse!
When to Use the Disavow Tool
First, Google recommends that the
webmaster removes as many poor quality (spammy) links from their website as
they possibly can. Not only should webmasters attempt to remove these
low-quality links from their own site, but it is also encouraged that
webmasters report low-quality links on other websites if discovered.
The webmaster should do everything
in his or her power to remove as many poor quality links from his or her
website as possible before attempting to use the disavow tool and involving
Google. Once the webmaster reaches the point where further progress is no
longer an option, employing the disavow tool is acceptable. In other terms,
after the webmaster does everything in his or her power to remove bad links
from his or her site, he or she will then disavow the remaining links from the
web. What exactly does it mean to disavow links? It means that the webmaster is
essentially asking Google to not take the remaining low-quality links into
account when assessing the site.
What Can You Do If You Are The Victim of Negative SEO?
Earlier, I mentioned the disavow
tool. Now, I will go into more detail about this tool and how to use it if you
need to remove bad links from your site. Disavowing bad backlinks consists of 2
steps. The very first thing that a webmaster should do is download a list of
all the links that are linking to his or her site. This first step will prepare
you for the 2nd step which simply involves creating a file that will
contain the links to be disavowed. In other words, the webmaster should go
through the main list of links and choose only the links that should be
disavowed for the 2nd list.
For example, if the webmaster has
contacted the owners of the sites that have bad links to his or her site, and
cannot get confirmation that these links will be removed, he or she would then move
these links from the primary to the secondary list of links. These are the
links to be disavowed. If a webmaster is the victim of negative SEO, then
chances are that the site owner being contacted may not be responsive and
remove the bad backlinks as requested.
Step 1: Download a list of all
links to your site
Step 2: Create a secondary list
containing only the links to be disavowed
How to Download a List of All the Links to Your Site?
This process consists of 4 steps.
1. Go
to the Webmaster Tools home page and locate the website in question.
2. Go
to the Dashboard and click on the term “Search Traffic”. From here you will
click on “Links to Your Site”.
3. Look
for “Who Links the Most”, and under this click on “More”.
4. Finally,
you will click on “Download more sample links” (to view dates you can click on “Download
latest links”.
There are a few things that webmasters can do to expedite
the process. It is important to note that the “www” and the “non-www” versions
of a domain in the Webmaster Tools account are treated as separate entities by
Google. In other terms, Google looks at these as 2 completely different
websites. Bearing this information in mind, the webmaster should closely
examine the data for both of these entities to verify that all of the bad links
will be removed.
After downloading a file that contains all pages that are linking
in to the site, the webmaster should create a text document (.txt) which
contains the links to be disavowed. It is important to list each link on a
separate line. Webmasters can also choose to have Google ignore every link
coming from a specific domain by simply adding the domain to the list. The
domain should be added just as if it were a bad link (on its own line).
However, the term “domain:” should be placed in front of it. For example, "domain:baddomain.com".
The more information that the webmaster
shares with Google the better the chances of Google honoring the disavow
request. Webmasters can leave additional feedback or comments by simply starting
the line with the # character. This character will let Google know that the
line contains comments. Although comments and extra information is not a
necessity, taking the time to provide Google with as much information as
possible may seriously increase your chances of Google disavowing the links.
Will Removing Bad Links Restore My PageRank (PR)?
Removing “spammy” or poor links from your site will almost
guarantee that your sites ranking will be restored, or any penalty removed.
However, it is important to keep in mind that good PageRank could have been the
direct short-term result of the low-quality backlinks in the first place. These
poor links tend to have that effect on a site. Sure, they will help a site reach
new lengths. Unfortunately, cheating never pays and while these bad links may
seem like they are helping at first, ultimately, Google will catch up and severely
penalize those that are caught cheating. It is not a matter of “if”, but “when”.
Removing bad links is a lot of work. First, the webmaster
must look up the site owner of each link. Then, the webmaster must make an
attempt to contact each of the site owners asking them to remove the link. Once
every site owner has been contacted, only then can the webmaster use the
disavow tool to disavow the remainder of the links (if Google chooses to
listen). Can you imagine having 10,000 bad links linking to your site and
having to contact several thousands of webmasters in order to see if they will
remove the bad links? Documentation of the attempts must be kept and presented
to Google. This can create enough work to last a lifetime. With that being
said, be careful how you manage your sites and who you hire to manage your SEO.
