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Killing competitors with Negative SEO

by TheMaleRN
30 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I just read a report that Xpedia's rankings got slapped recently and negative SEO could be the one responsible. I'm just concerned about the effects negative SEO would have on all the honest marketers out there building their links and reputation the right way only to have their rankings brought down in an instant because of competitors.

I've also read at another forum about a thread of a person doing negative SEO to eliminate competitors' websites that are 5 or 6 years old. And he's bragging it to everyone. I know it's a "kill or be killed" world out there but must we really turn the guns on each other?

Furthermore, with all the Google updates like Panda, Penguin and hummingbird, with everything focused on quality, negative SEO can really have an impact on your site if you're unlucky enough to be targeted.

I'm not really an expert on SEO but as for as I know the odds are really not in our favor. And we can't do anything once a site gets targeted. What's your take on this?
#competitors #killing #negative #seo
  • Profile picture of the author welovetheshow
    Originally Posted by TheMaleRN View Post

    I just read a report that Xpedia's rankings got slapped recently and negative SEO could be the one responsible. I'm just concerned about the effects negative SEO would have on all the honest marketers out there building their links and reputation the right way only to have their rankings brought down in an instant because of competitors.

    I've also read at another forum about a thread of a person doing negative SEO to eliminate competitors' websites that are 5 or 6 years old. And he's bragging it to everyone. I know it's a "kill or be killed" world out there but must we really turn the guns on each other?

    Furthermore, with all the Google updates like Panda, Penguin and hummingbird, with everything focused on quality. Negative SEO can really have an impact on your site if you're unlucky enough to be targeted.

    I'm not really an expert on SEO but as for as I know the odds are really not in our favor. And we can't do anything once a site gets targeted. What's your take on this?
    I have a feeling if it was possible to completely destroy someones site via negative SEO it'd be everywhere and every black hatter out there would be doing it. I think the guy that was bragging about what he did was full of shit. I don't know how exactly Google would protect against this but I have yet to see any evidence of anyone actually doing this.

    I wouldn't worry about it. If it does end up becoming an issue I'm sure Google will roll out another update to fix it.
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  • Profile picture of the author V12
    It wasn't negative SEO.

    Expedia.com: A deep-dive into Unnatural Travel Link Schemes
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    • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
      Originally Posted by V12 View Post

      So basically another crappy looking network bites the dust. pretty stupid considering you should be getting great money to do SEO for expedia.
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    • Profile picture of the author stodog77
      Originally Posted by welovetheshow View Post

      I have a feeling if it was possible to completely destroy someones site via negative SEO it'd be everywhere and every black hatter out there would be doing it. I think the guy that was bragging about what he did was full of shit.
      Actually, most blackhatters despise the practice. Neg. SEO is in full effect though. It is everywhere. Especially in the big money making niches. You just don't hear a lot about it around these parts.

      Originally Posted by welovetheshow View Post

      I don't know how exactly Google would protect against this but I have yet to see any evidence of anyone actually doing this.

      I wouldn't worry about it. If it does end up becoming an issue I'm sure Google will roll out another update to fix it.
      You put way too much faith in Google. Google isn't going to protect anyone. They created the problem in the first place.

      Originally Posted by V12 View Post

      Even so, this shows that negative SEO is fully possible on a big brand site.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kevin Maguire
    It was the worst kind of negative SEO strike imaginable.

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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    There's no doubt negative SEO exist, WMT bad link warnings is enough proof. The question is how many link blast can your site tolerate before Google starts going medieval.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kevin Maguire
    Remind me of the great Heroin Conspiracy back in the day....People had thought that the government had..

    Introduced Heroin at a cheap rate into lower class society, (Easy Backlinks)...Got the population addicted..then restricted the supply (Easy To Get Sources)...

    Unemployment (Panda - Penguin) and crime (Hacking-Fruad) rates rose. The neighborhoods began to fill with guns (Bad Links). And desperate people start using them against each other. Murder rates where on the increase (Neg SEO Attacks), but leaders did nothing to stop the bloodshed. They where killing each other, and unemployment within afluent areas was on the decline.

    Nope I dont't see anything odd with it..
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    • Profile picture of the author yukon
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Kevin Maguire View Post

      Remind me of the great Heroin Conspiracy back in the day....People had thought that the government had..

      Introduced Heroin at a cheap rate into lower class society, (Easy Backlinks)...Got the population addicted..then restricted the supply (Easy To Get Sources)...

      Unemployment (Panda - Penguin) and crime (Hacking-Fruad) rates rose. The neighborhoods began to fill with guns (Bad Links). And desperate people start using them against each other. Murder rates where on the increase (Neg SEO Attacks), but leaders did nothing to stop the bloodshed. They where killing each other, and unemployment within afluent areas was on the decline.

      Nope I dont't see anything odd with it..
      Can't win them all.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Google is stalking us.

    Who's paranoid now?




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  • Profile picture of the author petjelly
    Wow I never knew about the expedia penalty.
    Original Question. Competitors can have some effect on your website ranking by sending negative links but you can control it by disvowing links and informing google directly.
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  • Profile picture of the author online only
    I've had "neg" SEO attack 2-3 times in the last 12 months. I didn't notice any flux in SERP.
    Chill out and build/get real links. Nothing will ever happen...
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    • Profile picture of the author yukon
      Banned
      Originally Posted by online only View Post

      I've had "neg" SEO attack 2-3 times in the last 12 months. I didn't notice any flux in SERP.
      Chill out and build/get real links. Nothing will ever happen...
      Lol, one of my comp. built crap links & ended up buried in Google SERPs, his site/pages have been buried for months (still buried). The same site ranks good in Yahoo/Bing.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jesse Kemper
    I too see no reason neg SEO couldn't work. If blasting thousands of spammy links for your site can get you penalized, why can't blasting thousands of spammy links to the competition get them penalized?? No reason to see it wouldn't work, and they would have to be pretty "on there toes" to disavow them all quickly.
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  • Profile picture of the author PerformanceMan
    Originally Posted by TheMaleRN View Post

    I just read a report that Xpedia's rankings got slapped recently and negative SEO could be the one responsible. I'm just concerned about the effects negative SEO would have on all the honest marketers out there building their links and reputation the right way only to have their rankings brought down in an instant because of competitors.
    That's nothing to be concerned about. There are no honest marketers out there 'building links.'
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  • Profile picture of the author Sean DeSilva
    The owner of an SEO firm I use told me that negative SEO is overhyped compared to its actual threat. This isn't his opinion, he has other clients who've ran negative SEO campaigns, and generally they've had minimal to no effectiveness.
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    • Profile picture of the author stodog77
      Originally Posted by Sean DeSilva View Post

      This isn't his opinion, he has other clients who've ran negative SEO campaigns, and generally they've had minimal to no effectiveness.
      So wait, they hire an SEO company to do SEO for their website, but are running neg SEO campaigns on their own that aren't successful? Sounds legit....

      Negative SEO isn't over hyped. It is here and it is real. Trust me, I do a ton of link clean ups. I see it every day.
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    • Profile picture of the author Content Commando
      Originally Posted by Sean DeSilva View Post

      The owner of an SEO firm I use told me that negative SEO is overhyped compared to its actual threat. This isn't his opinion, he has other clients who've ran negative SEO campaigns, and generally they've had minimal to no effectiveness.
      Ok, so if I told you I just purchased 100,000 junk links from fiverr to my site, you'd probably warn me that my site would more than likely be penalized. Why wouldn't my competitor be penalized if I purchased 100,000 and linked it to them? It doesn't matter who created the links, Google will view them as spammy and penalize whomever they are linked to.
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      • Profile picture of the author zenichanin
        Originally Posted by Content Commando View Post

        Ok, so if I told you I just purchased 100,000 junk links from fiverr to my site, you'd probably warn me that my site would more than likely be penalized. Why wouldn't my competitor be penalized if I purchased 100,000 and linked it to them? It doesn't matter who created the links, Google will view them as spammy and penalize whomever they are linked to.
        I think Google can somewhat tell if you did that. There's several factors Google could look at to determine if it's a case of negative SEO or not.

        If the site already has a lot of spammy backlinks, then I agree, adding some more could get them penalized. However, if they have a pretty clean backlink profile, and have had it for years, then getting 100k spammy links in a few days would be pretty easy to detect and raise a flag.

        Another way negative SEO won't work is if you're trying to attack big authority websites. Google already knows they're authority websites and the algorithm isn't going to automatically penalize them. I think only manual penalties can be applied to authority sites.

        So while negative SEO most likely will work on small guys, it is simply a douchebag thing to do. If you have to resort to negative SEO, then you've obviously failed at your job. That's like saying, ahh crap, I can't make any money, so I'll just steal it from my neighbor.
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    • Profile picture of the author yukon
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Sean DeSilva View Post

      The owner of an SEO firm I use told me that negative SEO is overhyped compared to its actual threat. This isn't his opinion, he has other clients who've ran negative SEO campaigns, and generally they've had minimal to no effectiveness.
      Your SEO is one fiverr gig away from page #157 in Google SERPs.
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      • Profile picture of the author alerrandre
        So if you are on page 3 for a specific term, you just need to spend $5 for each of your competitors ($100) so you can rank on page one

        The only way to solve this issue is making the disavow tool work properly, negative seo on monday, links removed by friday...
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        • Profile picture of the author yukon
          Banned
          Originally Posted by alerrandre View Post

          So if you are on page 3 for a specific term, you just need to spend $5 for each of your competitors ($100) so you can rank on page one

          The only way to solve this issue is making the disavow tool work properly, negative seo on monday, links removed by friday...
          Doubtful your taking down really strong sites home pages (ex: ebay, amazon, etc...) with a single fiverr gig, but I'm sure every site has a breaking point. Some authority site internal pages would probably tank with a few blast. Look at ebay, they blast out thousands of internal search pages & rank those types of pages in Google SERPs.

          Ebay doesn't try to hide their internal search pages either (dedicated sub-domain for search, lol). These are the types of pages Google supposedly condemned (how's that working out?).

          Anyways, those thousands of ebay internal search pages that land on first page of Google SERPs include a bunch of weak pages that I'm sure can be knocked down the SERPs with some crap links If someone wanted to (it's still an authority site).

          Note I'm not suggesting anyone use negative SEO, I'm just saying bad links exist.

          BTW, If you follow that site: footprint for the ebay search sub-domain there's thousands of weak comp. keywords in there.
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      • Profile picture of the author Kevin Maguire
        Originally Posted by yukon View Post

        Your SEO is one fiverr gig away from page #157 in Google SERPs.
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    • Profile picture of the author netanel23
      Originally Posted by Sean DeSilva View Post

      The owner of an SEO firm I use told me that negative SEO is overhyped compared to its actual threat. This isn't his opinion, he has other clients who've ran negative SEO campaigns, and generally they've had minimal to no effectiveness.
      If only that were the case. Negative SEO does exist and for most sites they are at a real risk of seeing their rankings plummet if an SEO that knows what they are doing targets your site.

      Negative SEO really isn't that hard to do. Intentionally do blatant and low quality SEO courtesy of sites like Fiverr and before long that sites rankings will tank.
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  • Profile picture of the author yoangov
    If your website is somewhat authority, neg SEO might actually help you.

    I still don't understand these people, why would they want to help me rank my website for "cheap viagra"?
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  • Profile picture of the author Oranges
    If you still have a heart beating inside, you will never destroy something someone has built by working his/her heart out. I WILL NEVER DO THAT!
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  • Profile picture of the author gearmonkey
    This wasn't negative SEO, it was Expedia's own doing. Anyone who actively builds links is breaking Google's TOS and is vulnerable to getting penalized. That said, SEO isn't dead. You can link bait; write kick ass articles that people want to link to and share to the point it goes viral. I'm personally big on brand building and email marketing.

    Is link building dead? Nope. Just don't get greedy and get caught. I wouldn't subscribe to a monthly plan that is the does the same thing over-and-over again, like building 20 crappy WEB2.0's per month. That's so 2009 and will be what Google will be targeting next is those crappy WEB2 link building schemes. I see a few in the WSO area that are going to go down in flames and take all their clients with them. And for the love of god stop using SPUN articles!!!
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  • Profile picture of the author sourabhkumar
    no this is not right we should never done something like that, go with your own labour and please do not destroy someone's business.
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  • Profile picture of the author Matthew Anton
    Negative ad campaigns make sense if you are one of a handful of auto mechanics in town. The problem (which is actually great) is the internet gives access to every option possible, so while you may suppress some competition, you're ultimately wasting your time trying to push others down, then build yourself up. There are hundreds of competitor's that will take the place of a site you negative SEO'ed. It's worse than whack-a-mole if this is your "strategy".
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  • Profile picture of the author ydraw2011
    I was hit pretty bad by Negative seo. We help run Ydraw.com, Whiteboard Video Company. I checked my links one day with Majestic and saw in influx of 1900 links in one day, this was back in November. It happened for 3 days in a row and I could not figure out what was going on. I started to check the links and realized that someone was spamming me and my competitors sites all over the web. It actually hurt our traffic. We did the whole disavow thing and we are waiting to recover. Luckily it has not affected the bottom line of our business, just the traffic.

    Here is the Lesson. Do not put your business in the hands of Google. The system can be manipulated. If your website is wiped out, you better have a different way of getting customers.

    Good Day
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