Negative SEO

Rankings are infamous for their unsteady behaviour; one minute we can be on top of the world and the next, we can find ourselves sitting in the black abyss of page 48…it really can change within seconds. Those who find themselves dropping SERP positions will often be able to pick themselves up again in no time however on occasion doing so can be a lot more difficult then it seems; leaving businesses to question whether they have been hit by negative SEO.

Negative SEO is a broad term referring to a mischievous act conducted by someone in an effort to badly harm your rankings; to put it simple, someone has gone in and 'shoved' a mass amount of poor quality links into your link profile to make you suffer a ranking drop…yes, it actually happens.

It is easy to immediately panic when your site drops in rankings but before you begin assuming that you are victim to an unsavoury act; why not analyse just what has happened? If you have hired an online marketing agency, or someone in house is working on your link building profile why not take a look at what they have been doing? A large proportion of the time bad links can occur as a result of your own mistakes, if this is the case then fear not as you can take action and keep on top to ensure it does not happen again; by keeping a track of the links that are coming in you can keep your profile right up to Google's standards.

If the occasion arises that an outsider has damaged your link profile there is unfortunately not much that can be done. It may be tempting to want to protect your business by increasing your onsite defence but that really won't be anything but an unneeded cost. The best thing that any site can do is continuously maintain a high quality link profile; the better your profile, the less likely it is for a quick attack to have much effect.

Negative SEO is not a myth but it isn't always the main reason for a decline in rankings. Keep on top of your link building and ensure you continuously maintain a high quality profile and your business should be protected from the evils of the lawless net.