Many times you might notice that despite your extensive SEO efforts you are not able to gain any tangible benefits even after working relentlessly for many months. In some cases, you might even discover that your ranking is negatively affected without any solid reason. It could be possible that you are being a victim of negative SEO. It is high time you should act fast.
What is negative SEO?
As the name suggests the negative SEO is malpractice preferred by unethical competitors as well as malicious elements like spammer and hackers to hurt a specific website. In this method, various corrupt methods are being used to hurt your search engine rankings. There can be different objectives behind the negative SEO.
Your competitor can practice negative SEO against your site to rank higher than you while the malicious elements can use the method to harm your site for their vested interests. Right from building low-quality backlinks to injecting dangerous malware or harmful bots - there are multiple ways in which the negative SEO is practiced. In this article, we will suggest you some best ways to confidently combat the negative SEO.
Set up automatic alerts
One of the easiest ways to combat negative SEO is to set up the alerts so that you should take a quick action as soon s a negative SEO campaign against your site starts. It will help you to defend your site well before your site gets affected.
Google webmaster tool helps you a great way here. All you have to do is to setup the email alerts and you will be instantly notified whenever any instance of negative SEO practice against your site starts, including, but not limited to:
· Malware attacks
· WebPages not being indexed
· Server connectivity issues
· Google penalty
All you need to do is to get your site connected to the Google webmaster tools through a simple process.
Guard the high quality backlinks
High-quality backlinks add a distinct authority to your site offers you tons of SEO benefits. Spammers and malicious elements try to drain this SEO juice by removing such high-quality backlinks. You might be wondering that how can they do it? The answer to this question will also provide you the tip to protect your website from such practices.
It is very easy for the spammer; all they do is to send the email request to the link owners asking them to remove the links. Some may go even a mile further and would make sure to destroy your relations with that site by forbidding them to link to your site in the future.
It is very easy for the spammers as they can easily register a free email with your business name that sounds authentic to the site owner.
· Never use the free or third party emails like Yahoo, Rediff or Gmail for contacting the site owners. Such communication should be conducted via your registered business email only. To be on the safe side also mention that further communication will be continued via your business email only. It will eliminate the possibilities of some spammer creating a free email account under your name and misuse the same.
· Use the tools like Monitor backlinks for monitoring the status of your high-quality backlinks with the help of page rank sorting option.
· To make the things easier and more streamlined you can also tag your high-quality backlinks that make the process shorter and quicker.
Keep an eye on low-quality back links
Many spammers prefer to harm your Site SEO with the help of low quality or objectionable links that will alert Google and place your site in the negative light.
The best way to combat this practice is to regularly monitor the recent link building exercises associated with your site without your prior knowledge or approval. For that, you need to use the tools like Ahref and open site explorers.
However, it can get pretty stressful if you do it on a manual basis. Besides it is also prone to human errors. There is another better way to do the same. You can use the automated tools like monitorbacklinks.com that will send you the automatic alert as soon as new link building exercise starts. Thus you can identify such low quality links and confidently fight against this practice.
· Just register on monitorbaclinks.com and add your URL
· Now connect it to your Google analysis account using a super easy process.
· You would be able to see all your backlines almost immediately and from that time any new backlinks made to your site are monitored and sent to you automatically in an email
Guard your site against content duplication
Duplicate content is one of the major reasons behind Google penalties and SEO damages. That is the reason why it is among the best techniques used by the malicious elements to harm your site SEO. Besides, it is also one of the easiest methods of harming your site.
The spammer will just visit your site, copy your content and paste it everywhere on the internet, i.e., on every website, forum, group, blog, etc. that they can easily find. As a result, your site rankings can be affected and you also stand a chance of being penalized by Google.
· You can effectively fight against the content duplication using the tools like Copyscape that lets you check if your original site content is being used on other platforms as well. All you have to do is to enter your website address in the Copyscape and click go.
· Every instance or the duplicate content will be displayed with the URL on the resultant page.
· You can contact the site owners and tell them to remove the content with an immediate effect.
Check overall SEO effects
The ultimate objective of any negative SEO practice is to lower down your rankings and negatively affect your visibility. Regular alerts on the keyword rankings can help you keep updated with any negative SEO practices.
· Authority labs are the best tools to get a quick email alerts on your keyword ranking.
· It can be a great way to keep a tab on the negative SEO and the best thing is that along with the negative SEO it will also help you to improve your SEO endeavor in case if you are naturally losing the SEO benefits due to your negligence
Protect your site from spammers
Spamming is unstoppable but you can choose to remain on the safe side by using best security practices and a well-managed monitoring process.
· Don’t create the passwords that can easily be guessed like your birth date or your pet’s name. It is always best to use the numbers and special characters that are completely irrelevant or unrelated to your public profile
· Use the auto backup tools and services to minimize the harm even during the worst situations of hacking. Many reputed web hosting providers also offer complimentary backup services on specific plan types. So you can also check with them.
· Install the antivirus and anti-malware software to prevent your site from being attacked
Conclusion
Negative SEO can deeply affect your online reputation. The best solution is to proactively monitor any suspicious changes in your SEO health/activities like getting too many low quality backlinks or numerous spam comments. Opt for email notifications for any changes that directly affect your SEO and take a quick reformative actions before the negative SEO starts hurting your online reputation.