{"id":13738,"date":"2021-08-24T06:00:21","date_gmt":"2021-08-24T11:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/?p=13738"},"modified":"2024-03-18T08:09:04","modified_gmt":"2024-03-18T13:09:04","slug":"negative-seo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/negative-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Detect (and Deflect) Negative SEO Attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"intro-txt\">Has your organic search traffic plummeted in recent months, and you can\u2019t figure out&nbsp;why?<\/div>\n<p>While it\u2019s very unlikely these days, negative SEO <em>could<\/em> be the culprit.<\/p>\n<p>But before we talk about detecting, deflecting, and fighting negative SEO, let\u2019s make sure we understand what it&nbsp;is\u2026<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"#what-is-negative-seo\">What is negative SEO?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#types-of-attacks\">Types of negative SEO attacks<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#does-negative-seo-work\">Does negative SEO&nbsp;work?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#how-to-detect-avoid-fix\">How to detect, avoid and fix the most common types of negative SEO attacks&nbsp;<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"What is negative SEO?\" data-section=\"what-is-negative-seo\">\n<h2>What is negative SEO?<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Negative SEO is when a competitor uses black-hat tactics to attempt to sabotage the rankings of a competing website or web page. Not only is this practice unethical, but also sometimes illegal.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"Types of negative SEO attacks\" data-section=\"types-of-attacks\">\n<h2>Types of negative SEO attacks<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Building low-quality links at scale is perhaps the most common and unsophisticated type of negative SEO because it\u2019s so easy and cheap to do. There are plenty of websites selling thousands of spammy <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/what-are-backlinks\/\">backlinks<\/a>&nbsp;for next to nothing.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a site offering 60 million backlinks for $1,475:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/1-buy-60-million-backlinks-cheap.png\" alt><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s around 40,000 links per dollar!<\/p>\n<p>Other common types of negative SEO include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Submitting fake link removal requests<\/li>\n<li>Leaving fake negative reviews<\/li>\n<li>Hacking sites and other forms of cyber attacks<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"Does negative SEO work?\" data-section=\"does-negative-seo-work\">\n<h2>Does negative SEO&nbsp;work?<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Google\u2019s official stance on the matter as of 2021 is <em>no,<\/em>&nbsp;and it\u2019s been that way for many&nbsp;years.<\/p>\n<p>John Mueller, Search Advocate at Google, basically calls negative SEO a meme these&nbsp;days:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-173003\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Screenshot-2024-03-18-at-13.08.53.png\" alt=\"John Mueller calls negative SEO a meme\" width=\"1176\" height=\"662\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Screenshot-2024-03-18-at-13.08.53.png 1176w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Screenshot-2024-03-18-at-13.08.53-680x383.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Screenshot-2024-03-18-at-13.08.53-768x432.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1176px) 100vw, 1176px\"><\/p>\n<p>Gary Illyes, another Google\u2019s representative, has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.searchenginejournal.com\/gary-illyes-google-penguin-negative-seo-disavows\/296609\/\">made similar statements<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"small\"><div class=\"quote-content\">\n[I\u2019ve] looked at hundreds of supposed cases of negative SEO, but none have actually been the real reason a website was hurt. [\u2026] While it\u2019s easier to blame negative SEO, typically the culprit of a traffic drop is something else you don\u2019t know about\u2013perhaps an algorithm update or an issue with their website.\n<\/div><div class=\"quote-info clearfix\"><div class=\"quote-photo\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Gary Illyes\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/gary-illyes.jpeg\"><\/div><div class=\"extra-box\"><span class=\"quote-author\">Gary Illyes,<\/span> <span class=\"quote-author-job\">Webmaster Trends Analyst <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/methode\" target=\"_blank\">Google<\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/blockquote>\n<p>But many SEO experts will tell you that taking Google\u2019s words at face value isn\u2019t always the best idea. So here\u2019s what we&nbsp;think:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Negative SEO <\/strong><em><strong>can<\/strong><\/em><strong>&nbsp;still work, but it\u2019s much less of a problem than it used to&nbsp;be.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I realize that\u2019s a bold statement, so let me go through why we believe this.<\/p>\n<h3>1. Google now devalues link spam instead of demoting sites<\/h3>\n<p>Penguin is the part of Google\u2019s core algorithm designed to catch link&nbsp;spam.<\/p>\n<p>Before 2016, it worked like&nbsp;this:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Penguin sees an influx of spammy links to a website<\/li>\n<li>The website might get demoted in the organic search results (i.e., rankings and traffic loss)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>But then, Google released Penguin 4.0.<\/p>\n<p>Now, rather than demoting entire sites, Google devalues link spam (or at least tries&nbsp;to).<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s how <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seroundtable.com\/disavow-file-google-penguin-22771.html\">Gary Illyes explained the difference between devaluing and demoting<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Demoting as in adjust&nbsp;the rank of a site. Devalue as in \u201coh look, some crap coming towards this site. Let\u2019s make sure it won\u2019t affect its ranking.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In short, Google tries to identify and ignore low-quality links so they don\u2019t affect your rankings.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why our <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/backlink-checker\">free backlink checker<\/a>&nbsp;gets an estimated 133,000 organic visits per&nbsp;month\u2026<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/2-free-backlink-checker-traffic.png\" alt><\/p>\n<p>\u2026 despite someone kindly linking to it from over a million spammy pages:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/3-free-backlink-checker-referring-domains-and-pages.png\" alt><\/p>\n<p>Google is clearly doing an excellent job of ignoring that blatant negative SEO attack.<\/p>\n<h3>2. Penguin 4.0 is \u201cmore granular\u201d<\/h3>\n<p>Penguin used to demote entire sites with link&nbsp;spam.<\/p>\n<p>So, if you experienced a negative SEO attack on one page, Penguin would penalize your entire site and rankings would drop across the&nbsp;board.<\/p>\n<p>But since Penguin 4.0, things don\u2019t always work that&nbsp;way.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s what Google said in <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/blog\/2016\/09\/penguin-is-now-part-of-our-core\">their official announcement<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Penguin is now more granular. Penguin now devalues spam by adjusting ranking based on spam signals, rather than affecting ranking of the whole&nbsp;site.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Confused? <a href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/google-updates-penguin-says-now-real-time-part-core-algorithm-259302\">Here\u2019s<\/a>&nbsp;Google\u2019s \u201cclarification\u201d of what this&nbsp;means:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It means it affects finer granularity than sites. It does not mean it only affects pages.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Still confused? Here\u2019s our best interpretation:<\/p>\n<p>Penguin tries to devalue (ignore) the unsophisticated link spam associated with most negative SEO attacks. However, Penguin still seeks to penalize those who intentionally build manipulative links algorithmically. That\u2019s the whole point of Penguin. If it sees link spam, it may decide to demote the page to which the manipulative links point, a subsection of the website, or the entire website. It depends.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, the chance of a negative SEO attack being successful is lower now than in the pre-Penguin 4.0 era. Moreover, if it is successful, Google <em>probably<\/em>&nbsp;won\u2019t demote your entire site\u2014so the real-life negative effect is likely to be much less catastrophic than it once&nbsp;was.<\/p>\n<h3>3. Google\u2019s business model relies on negative SEO not working<\/h3>\n<p>Negative SEO is a tactic usually employed by website owners that can\u2019t rank on merit&nbsp;alone.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of improving their site, they use negative SEO to shoot down the more deserving competitors that rank above&nbsp;them.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s kind of like competing with Usain Bolt in the Olympics and tying his shoelaces together.<\/p>\n<p>Nobody would watch the Olympics if that were allowed. There\u2019s no fun in watching a loser cheat their way to the top. Similarly, nobody would use Google if the top-ranking page was always spam. And if nobody uses Google, the company has no ad revenue. Their business would disintegrate.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why Google introduced Penguin 4.0. It\u2019s why it runs in real-time and aims to devalue link spam rather than demote entire websites. And it\u2019s why Google continues to invest in efforts to thwart negative SEO.<\/p>\n<h3>4. Link spam isn\u2019t the only kind of negative SEO<\/h3>\n<p>The three points above explain why link-based negative SEO attacks are much less of an issue than they used to&nbsp;be.<\/p>\n<p>But not all negative SEO attacks are link-based.<\/p>\n<p>Someone could hack your website and inject spammy links, post fake negative reviews online, or something much&nbsp;worse.<\/p>\n<p>This is an important point to keep in&nbsp;mind.<\/p>\n<p>Detecting and deflecting negative SEO isn\u2019t about finding and disavowing links from shady websites anymore.&nbsp;Now it\u2019s about keeping an eye on your entire online presence and employing positive security measures to keep the \u201cbaddies\u201d at&nbsp;bay.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"How to detect, avoid and fix negative SEO attacks\" data-section=\"how-to-detect-avoid-fix\">\n<h2>How to detect, avoid and fix the most common types of negative SEO attacks<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Below I\u2019m going to cover how to spot and defend against these seven types of negative SEO attacks:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Spammy link building<\/li>\n<li>Fake link removal request<\/li>\n<li>Content scraping<\/li>\n<li>False URL parameters<\/li>\n<li>Fake reviews<\/li>\n<li>Hacking your&nbsp;site<\/li>\n<li>DDoS attacks<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Let\u2019s start with the tactic most commonly associated with negative SEO.<\/p>\n<h3>1. Spammy link building<\/h3>\n<p>Building tons of low-quality links to a competing site is likely the most prevalent form of negative SEO\u2014and certainly the most unsophisticated.<\/p>\n<p>Whether those spammy links come from cheap Fiverr gigs, Scrapebox comment spam, or a PBN (Private Blog Network), the result is the same: a sudden influx of shady links pointing to your&nbsp;site.<\/p>\n<h4>How spam links can harm your&nbsp;site<\/h4>\n<p>There are two approaches to link spam when it comes to negative SEO, and an unscrupulous SEO may use either (or indeed both) of&nbsp;them.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The volume approach<\/strong>: Blasting thousands upon thousands of low-quality links at your&nbsp;site.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The over-optimized anchor text approach<\/strong>: Pointing lots of links with exact-match <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/anchor-text\/\">anchor text<\/a>&nbsp;at a ranking page to give it an unnatural anchor text&nbsp;ratio.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Both approaches aim to get your site penalized\u2014either algorithmically by Penguin or through a manual action from Google\u2019s webspam team.<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, both of these tactics are easy to&nbsp;spot.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sidenote\"><div class=\"sidenote-title\">Sidenote.<\/div> For more information on spammy links and how they can harm your site, see <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/bad-links\/\">our guide to bad links<\/a>.<\/div>\n<h4>How to detect a spam link attack<\/h4>\n<p>Here are three methods you can use to detect spam links (that you did not build) pointing to your&nbsp;site.<\/p>\n<h5>Method 1: Find spam links in real-time<\/h5>\n<p>The simplest way to detect an active link spam attack is to monitor new backlinks pointing to your&nbsp;site.<\/p>\n<p>You can do that by setting up a Backlinks alert in <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/alerts\">Ahrefs\u2019 Alerts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>Alerts &gt; Backlinks &gt; New alert &gt; Enter domain &gt; New backlinks &gt; Set email interval &gt;&nbsp;Add<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/4-ahrefs-backlink-alerts.png\" alt><\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ll get a regular email notifying you of all new links Ahrefs has discovered pointing to your&nbsp;site.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/5-ahrefs-backlink-alerts-email.png\" alt><\/p>\n<p>The image above shows a standard daily distribution of new referring domains to ahrefs.com. Links from 0-30 DR domains will always be more prevalent. Some of them are spammy. It\u2019s normal and nothing to worry&nbsp;about.<\/p>\n<p>After setting up the alert and looking at the history of new referring domains, you should have an idea about your daily backlink portfolio influx. If you see an abnormally high number of new referring domains, it\u2019s almost certainly a negative SEO attack.<\/p>\n<h5>Method 2: Check the referring domains&nbsp;and pages graphs<\/h5>\n<p>Use the&nbsp;referring domains and pages graphs in Ahrefs\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/site-explorer\">Site Explorer<\/a>&nbsp;to quickly identify spikes in your backlink profile.<\/p>\n<p><em>Site Explorer &gt; Enter domain &gt; Overview<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Untitled.png\" alt><\/p>\n<p>Now, it\u2019s important to note that a sudden increase in referring domains could be a good thing. For example, one of your posts may have gone viral, or you could have had success with an <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/outreach\/\">outreach campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But it could also be a sign of a negative SEO attack.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s how to investigate further using Ahrefs <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/site-explorer\">Site Explorer<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Click the <strong>Backlinks<\/strong>&nbsp;report<\/li>\n<li>Change the mode to \u201cOne link per domain\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Click the Dofollow filter<\/li>\n<li>Click the New backlinks filter<\/li>\n<li>Select the period when the spike occurred<\/li>\n<li>Sort the results by ascending Domain traffic<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/6-new-backlinks-report.png\" alt><\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ll likely see some patterns in the referring pages and anchor texts. You can filter that too. In this example, I found some spam from blogspot.com:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/7-new-backlinks-blogspot-filter.jpg\" alt><\/p>\n<p>Most link spam is unsophisticated, so you\u2019ll quickly spot the trends if that\u2019s the&nbsp;case.<\/p>\n<p>However, I must warn you about clicking on fishy-looking websites and links. You\u2019re better off not doing it because it can pose security threats.<\/p>\n<h5>Method 3: Check the Anchors report<\/h5>\n<p>The first two methods are most effective for finding high-volume attacks, where someone blasts hundreds or thousands of links at your&nbsp;site.<\/p>\n<p>But it\u2019s also easy to spot an attempt to manipulate your <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/anchor-text\/\">anchor text<\/a>&nbsp;ratio.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s how to do it in <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/site-explorer\">Site Explorer<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Click the <strong>Anchors<\/strong>&nbsp;report<\/li>\n<li>Select Dofollow links<\/li>\n<li>Look at the Ref. pages column with anchor text usage percentages<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/8-anchors-report-dofollow.jpg\" alt><\/p>\n<p>If you see an abnormally high percentage of keyword-rich anchors, it could be a sign of bad link-building practices or, indeed, a sneaky link-based negative SEO attack.<\/p>\n<p>In this case, I found the following anchor text shared by multiple referring domains and&nbsp;pages:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/9-anchors-report-anchor-text.png\" alt><\/p>\n<p>Given that there\u2019s little chance multiple legitimate sites would link to us with such a long and specific anchor, this is likely some kind of link spam. We can investigate further by clicking the caret in the <em>Ref. domains<\/em>&nbsp;or <em>Links to target<\/em>&nbsp;column to reveal the linking sites and&nbsp;pages.<\/p>\n<h5>Method 4: Check the Referring IPs report<\/h5>\n<p>Having links from many referring domains on the same subnet IP can be another sign of a negative SEO attack.<\/p>\n<p>Why? Because this often indicates that the sites are hosted in the same location.<\/p>\n<p>If many sites are hosted in the same place, then chances are the same person owns&nbsp;them.<\/p>\n<p>And if the same person owns them, then it\u2019s probably a&nbsp;PBN.<\/p>\n<p>To see a breakdown of this, check the <strong>Referring IPs<\/strong>&nbsp;report in Site Explorer.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/10-referring-ips-report.jpg\" alt><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s important to note that having links from a few domains on the same subnet isn\u2019t that unusual. But having hundreds or even thousands of referring domains from one subnet is&nbsp;fishy.<\/p>\n<p>If we hit the carets and dig a little deeper, we see the same old blogspot spam:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/11-referring-ips-blogspot.png\" alt><\/p>\n<h4>How to fight back against a link spam attack<\/h4>\n<p>Getting spammy links removed is virtually impossible, so the only thing you can proactively do is&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/google-disavow-links\/\">disavow<\/a>&nbsp;them.<\/p>\n<p>This is where you upload a list of linking pages (or websites) to Google in a specific format, which effectively tells them, \u201cI don\u2019t vouch for these links\u2014please ignore them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But here\u2019s the&nbsp;thing:<\/p>\n<p>Since the introduction of Penguin 4.0, which devalues link spam and runs in real-time, the consensus amongst SEOs is that there\u2019s no need to disavow links unless you first experience the negative effects of them (i.e., ranking\/traffic drops).<\/p>\n<p>The reason being, Google is pretty good at ignoring obvious link spam, so disavowing is often just a waste of your&nbsp;time.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, <strong>disavowing the wrong links can do more harm than good<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s what Marie Haynes\u2014an expert on Google Penalties\u2014says about&nbsp;this:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"small\"><div class=\"quote-content\">\n<p>I would say that for most sites, if you are being attacked by an onslaught of spammy links, you can just ignore them. However, I would still disavow links if any of the following is&nbsp;true:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You have your own history of self-made links for SEO purposes in the&nbsp;past.<\/li>\n<li>You are in an incredibly competitive vertical. I believe there are tougher algorithms in place in these niches that can make negative SEO a little bit more effective.<\/li>\n<li>You see a drop in traffic that coincides with the onslaught of links and there is no other explanation for the&nbsp;drop.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><div class=\"quote-info clearfix\"><div class=\"quote-photo\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Marie Haynes\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/marie-haynes.png\"><\/div><div class=\"extra-box\"><span class=\"quote-author\">Marie Haynes,<\/span> <span class=\"quote-author-job\">Founder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mariehaynes.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Marie Haynes Consulting<\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/blockquote>\n<p>Keep in mind that you should only disavow whole domains if you\u2019re certain that none of the backlinks from them are legit. If you\u2019re unsure about this whole process, consult an expert like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mariehaynes.com\/services\/link-audits\/\">Marie<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"further-reading\"><div class=\"reading-title\">Further reading<\/div><div class=\"reading-content\">\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mariehaynes.com\/does-disavowing-links-work-2019\/\">Disavow case studies<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/google-disavow-links\/\">Google\u2019s \u201cDisavow Links Tool\u201d: The Complete Guide<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/google-penalties\/\">Google Penalties: How to Find, Fix, and Avoid (An Expert Guide)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/anchor-text\/\">Anchor Text: A Data\u2010Driven Guide (384,614 Web Pages Studied)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/bad-links\/\">An In-Depth Guide to Link Quality, Link Penalties and \u201cBad&nbsp;Links\u201d<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<h3>2. Fake link removal requests<\/h3>\n<p>This is a particularly sneaky form of negative SEO where unethical SEOs send emails like this to sites that link to&nbsp;you:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Dear Webmaster<\/p>\n<p>Our client\u2019s site X has links on your page&nbsp;Y.<\/p>\n<p>Due to recent changes in Google\u2019s algorithm, we no longer require these links and request that you remove them.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you,<\/p>\n<p>Some SEO Company<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>If their motive isn\u2019t clear from the email alone, they\u2019re trying to get sites to remove your best&nbsp;links.<\/p>\n<h4>How fake link requests can harm your&nbsp;site<\/h4>\n<p>There should be no doubts about whether a link spam attack on your site will work. Such attacks are rare, but their impact can be&nbsp;huge.<\/p>\n<p>Imagine losing many of your best backlinks overnight. That\u2019ll cause your rankings to drop like a&nbsp;stone.<\/p>\n<h4>How to detect a link removal attack<\/h4>\n<p>There\u2019s no way to stop the fake removal requests from going out\u2014that\u2019s out of your control.<\/p>\n<p>But what you can do is look for signs of an active link removal attack and take action as soon as possible to protect your backlinks.<\/p>\n<p>For this, you can use <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/alerts\">Ahrefs Alerts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>As well as showing you all new links pointing to your site, Ahrefs\u2019 backlinks alerts can also tell you about lost backlinks.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/12-lost-backlinks-alert.png\" alt><\/p>\n<p>You will then receive periodic emails alerting you to lost backlinks like&nbsp;this:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/13-lost-backlinks-alert-email.png\" alt><\/p>\n<p>If you notice quality backlinks disappearing, you should investigate this further regardless of any negative SEO attack suspicion.<\/p>\n<p>Often, there will be a legitimate reason for the removal.<\/p>\n<p>For example, the page might have been removed, redirected, or the content updated.<\/p>\n<p>But if you can\u2019t see any apparent reason for many lost links, then it could be a sign of a link removal attack. In that case, it\u2019s worth reaching out to the (previously) linking site and asking why your link was removed.<\/p>\n<p>If someone did indeed send a fake link removal request, you\u2019d quickly find out this way. And even if there was a legitimate reason for removing the link, they might consider adding it&nbsp;back.<\/p>\n<h4>How to fight back against fake link removal requests<\/h4>\n<p>Once you know that a link removal attack is in progress, there are two courses of action:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>If your link has already been removed, <\/strong>reach out to any sites that have already removed your link, let them know that the request did not originate from your company, and ask them to reinstate the&nbsp;link.<\/li>\n<li><strong>If the site is still linking, <\/strong>keep an even closer eye on your backlink alerts and take appropriate action should you lose any more&nbsp;links.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3>3. Content scraping<\/h3>\n<p>Content scraping is when someone copies your content and posts it verbatim on another site.<\/p>\n<p>Most of the time, it isn\u2019t done with malice. People who scrape your content are usually just trying to get free content. They\u2019re not trying to hurt your site, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.diyphotography.net\/this-photography-website-steals-content-and-outranks-everyone-else\/\">it can still happen<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h4>How content scraping attacks can harm your&nbsp;site<\/h4>\n<p>Google doesn\u2019t like it when content is duplicated across multiple sites on the&nbsp;web.<\/p>\n<p>They will typically pick one version to rank and ignore the&nbsp;rest.<\/p>\n<p>I should point out here that there\u2019s nothing wrong with <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/content-syndication\/\">syndicating your content<\/a>&nbsp;on high-authority sites with a link back to your original post.<\/p>\n<p>But when&nbsp;someone copies your content without attribution, that can be bad&nbsp;news.<\/p>\n<p>You would hope that Google would be smart enough to recognize your site as the original source of the content. And most of the time, they&nbsp;do.<\/p>\n<p>But not always.<\/p>\n<p>This is most often the case when your content is scraped and posted on an authoritative website. Sometimes Google sees that authority as meaning the content must have originated from&nbsp;there.<\/p>\n<p>And if the person scraping and republishing your content also does&nbsp;this\u2026<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/14-dmca-request-facebook.jpg\" alt><\/p>\n<p>\u2026 then you\u2019ve <em>really<\/em>&nbsp;got a problem.<\/p>\n<h4>How to detect a content scraping attack<\/h4>\n<p>The quickest and easiest way to find out if your content has been scraped is to simply copy a paragraph from your page and paste it into Google (with quotation marks).<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/15-content-scraping-serp-check.png\" alt><\/p>\n<p>Beware that Google only searches for up to 32 words and will ignore anything in the query above that&nbsp;limit.<\/p>\n<p>If you suspect that some of your URLs may have been harmed by content scraping, you can always verify their status in <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/google-search-console\/\">Google Search Console<\/a>. What you\u2019re looking for is something called a \u201cGoogle-selected canonical.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ll find it after pasting the URL into the GSC address bar under the Coverage section:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/16-google-search-console-canonical-check.jpg\" alt><\/p>\n<p>You want to see the Inspected URL there. It means that Google considers the inspected URL as the most authoritative version of the content. If you see another internal URL there, you have a <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/duplicate-content\/\">duplicate content<\/a>&nbsp;issue. If you see an external URL there, you\u2019re facing negative SEO.<\/p>\n<p>For multiple pages, that\u2019s going to be a time-consuming task. So instead, you can use tools made explicitly for finding scraped content at scale, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.copyscape.com\/\">Copyscape<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If you have a list of duplicate external URLs, you can then use the <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/batch-analysis\">Batch Analysis<\/a>&nbsp;tool and check if any of those URLs receive organic traffic. Sort the URLs by traffic:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/17-ahrefs-batch-analysis-traffic-check.jpg\" alt><\/p>\n<p>If you find any URL that gets organic traffic, then their content scraping was successful.<\/p>\n<p>However, as I\u2019ve already mentioned, there\u2019s a very low chance that this tactic would&nbsp;work.<\/p>\n<h4>How to fight back against a content scraping<\/h4>\n<p>You only need to \u201cfight back\u201d against content scraping if it\u2019s causing problems.<\/p>\n<p>That said, theft is theft. So if you\u2019re not happy about someone stealing your content, then you can do three things:<\/p>\n<h5>1) Ask for an attribution link<\/h5>\n<p>This rarely happens, but if the site that has scraped your content is high-quality, and you feel that a link from them may help your rankings, then reach out and ask them to add an <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/unlinked-mentions\/\">attribution link<\/a>&nbsp;to the scraped post.<\/p>\n<h5>2) File a DMCA complaint<\/h5>\n<p>You\u2019ll need to escalate things if the scraped content steals your organic traffic. Just make sure that there is malicious intent behind it with no chance of getting a <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/canonical-tags\/\">canonical<\/a>&nbsp;attribution link before doing&nbsp;this.<\/p>\n<p>To get Google to remove the duplicates, you\u2019ll have to file a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) complaint against each page that has copied your content.<\/p>\n<p>You can do that using Google\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/webmasters\/tools\/dmca-dashboard\">DMCA dashboard<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/18-google-dmca-dashboard.png\" alt><\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, it\u2019s not a quick process.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to go through it, head to <a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/legal\/troubleshooter\/1114905?hl=en#ts=1115655%2C1282900%2C1115846%2C1117010%2C1697925\">Google\u2019s legal help resource<\/a>&nbsp;and click through the options describing your problem. Once you get to the \u201cCreate request\u201d step, it\u2019s&nbsp;important to provide as much detail as possible to ensure each takedown request is successful.<\/p>\n<p>For more information on the DMCA takedown process, see <a href=\"https:\/\/copyrightalliance.org\/education\/copyright-law-explained\/\">this guide from The Copyright Alliance<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommendation\"><div class=\"recommendation-title\">IMPORTANT<\/div><div class=\"recommendation-content\">\n<p>A DMCA removal request should be your last resort in protecting your copyrighted content online. You should only use it when a site blatantly infringes your copyright (without attribution) and will not respond to requests to remove (or attribute) the content.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<h5>3) Ensure proper internal linking structure<\/h5>\n<p>If the scraped content is identical to the original, it points back to your website with its original internal links. These links won\u2019t bring you any link equity, but they are good at signaling that it\u2019s scraped content.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, if they deleted all the links, it should still be easy for search engines to figure out the original because it usually has much better internal and external link profiles. A <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/internal-links-for-seo\/\">proper internal linking<\/a>&nbsp;structure is one of the most important on-page SEO&nbsp;tactics.<\/p>\n<h3>4. False URL parameters<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/url-parameters\/\">URL parameters<\/a> are values set in a page\u2019s URL string. In the example below, the parameter \u2018size\u2019 is \u2018small\u2019:<\/p>\n<p><code>http:\/\/www.example.com\/<strong>?size=small<\/strong><\/code><\/p>\n<p>These parameters are commonly used in ecommerce (and other) systems to filter and sort&nbsp;pages.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/19-url-parameters-ecommerce.png\" alt><\/p>\n<h4>How false URL parameters can harm your&nbsp;site<\/h4>\n<p>URL parameters can cause all sorts of indexing issues if your site is not well configured.<\/p>\n<p>One page can end up getting indexed multiple times, with only slight variations in content.<\/p>\n<p>The shady SEO can use this to their advantage.<\/p>\n<p>How? By linking to pages on your site using fake parameters.<\/p>\n<p>Google can follow these links and\u2014if the site isn\u2019t set up correctly\u2014index the&nbsp;pages.<\/p>\n<h4>How to detect a false parameter attack<\/h4>\n<p>Perhaps the easiest way to spot this kind of attack is to check the Coverage report in Google Search Console.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/20-google-search-console-coverage-report.png\" alt><\/p>\n<p>If you see a significant spike in indexed pages, then it could indicate an attack.<\/p>\n<h4>How to fight back against false parameter attacks<\/h4>\n<p>The best way to \u201cfight back\u201d against such attacks is to take preventive measures in the first&nbsp;place.<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, this is easy to&nbsp;do.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve added a fake parameter to the URL of our SEO tips&nbsp;post.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/21-url-parameter-ahrefs.png\" alt><\/p>\n<p>The page loads at that&nbsp;URL.<\/p>\n<p>But\u2026<\/p>\n<p>We have the self-referencing <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/canonical-tags\/\">canonical tag<\/a>&nbsp;in place that lets Google know what the de-facto version of this page&nbsp;is.<\/p>\n<p><code>&lt;link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/seo-tips\/\" \/&gt;<\/code><\/p>\n<p>This tells them they should only index the root URL and ignore any additional parameters.<\/p>\n<p>In most cases, deploying these self-referencing canonicals should be enough to prevent this kind of SEO attack.<\/p>\n<h3>5. Fake reviews<\/h3>\n<p>You probably check online reviews when you\u2019re about to visit a restaurant or buy stuff online. <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/rich-snippets\/\">Google\u2019s rich snippets<\/a>&nbsp;can directly show ratings and review metrics in the SERP, which help catch attention and make an impression on people\u2014positive or negative.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/22-star-review-rich-snippets.png\" alt><\/p>\n<h4>How fake reviews can harm your&nbsp;site<\/h4>\n<p>Imagine that users see bad review ratings for your business in the SERP. You don\u2019t want this kind of influence on their buying process.<\/p>\n<p>If you are in SaaS or any other B2B industry, fortunately, the most famous review platforms like G2 or Capterra have review authenticity processes in place. Your review won\u2019t be published until it\u2019s approved. So it would be hard to leverage such platforms for a negative SEO attack.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re a local business, like a restaurant, people research you on Google My Business, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and other local review services. It\u2019s much easier to manipulate these, but it\u2019s in their best interest to keep the reviews as objective and neutral as possible.<\/p>\n<p>However, review platforms are not the only options here. Google can also display review rich results for editorial reviews.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/23-ahrefs-review-rich-snippets.png\" alt><\/p>\n<p>Anyone can publish a bad review of your product or service, and it may rank well in SERP. It can also be seen as a rich result if the <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/structured-data\/\" data-ahr=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/what-is-structured-data\/\">schema markup<\/a>&nbsp;is set up correctly.<\/p>\n<h4>How to detect fake reviews<\/h4>\n<p>Keep an eye on what appears in the SERPs for your brand reviews. Any monitoring would be overkill here; just run the search once a month and see for yourself. If you want to make sure you\u2019re also covering local SERPs, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.searchenginejournal.com\/see-google-search-results-different-location\/294829\/\">search from more locations<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h4>How to fight back against fake reviews<\/h4>\n<p>If you\u2019re dealing with fake reviews on review platforms, <a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/contributionpolicy\/answer\/7445749?hl=en&amp;ref_topic=7422769\">report them<\/a>. Don\u2019t expect the platforms to take them down right away. It can be a rather slow process. If the problem is urgent, trying to get in touch with someone from the review platform will be your best&nbsp;bet.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sidenote\"><div class=\"sidenote-title\">Sidenote.<\/div> Always make sure that those reviews are fake. Don\u2019t try to report and take down genuine negative reviews. Deal with them, say sorry, offer compensation. Adopt review response processes.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<p>You can also fight back by encouraging more of your clients to leave reviews. Again, keep this genuine. Prompting promoters of your service is fine; buying your clients off in exchange for a positive review is&nbsp;not.<\/p>\n<p>Testimonials and reviews are powerful weapons. The more of them you have, the more difficult it is to be influenced by fake reviews. Be responsive, emphasize the undeniably genuine ones, and you\u2019ll be&nbsp;fine.<\/p>\n<h3>6. Hacking your&nbsp;site<\/h3>\n<p>Hacking and cyber-attacks are forms of negative SEO that cross the line into criminality.<\/p>\n<h4>How hacking can harm your&nbsp;site<\/h4>\n<p>Google wants to protect its users and takes a dim view of any site hosting malware (or linking to sites that&nbsp;do).<\/p>\n<p>If they don\u2019t bowl it straight out of the SERPs, they will add a \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/websearch\/answer\/190597?hl=en\">this site may be hacked<\/a>\u2019 flag to any results for the site, as Google shows&nbsp;here:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/24-hacked-warning-google-serp.png\" alt><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m sure you wouldn\u2019t click on a result like that. So if your site gets flagged as hacked, expect to see your rankings tank.<\/p>\n<h4>How to detect a website hack<\/h4>\n<p>Of every negative SEO attack on our list, this is often the easiest one to detect.<\/p>\n<p>Hacking usually wreaks havoc on your website. You can\u2019t miss&nbsp;it.<\/p>\n<p>But if you feel like you might have, head over to the \u201cSecurity issues\u201d tab in Google Search Console. What you want to see is a screen like&nbsp;this:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/25-security-issues-google-search-console.png\" alt><\/p>\n<p>Not this:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/26-security-issues-google-search-console.jpg\" alt><\/p>\n<h4>How to fight back against website hacks<\/h4>\n<p>Prevention is the key. The strength of your website depends on your server settings and security.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re unfortunate enough to have already been hacked, then I\u2019m sorry to say that you probably have a big task on your&nbsp;hands.<\/p>\n<p>So prevention is the best cure&nbsp;here.<\/p>\n<p>Now, I\u2019m not going to attempt to explain everything you should be doing to secure your site against hacking here. That\u2019s a post in its own&nbsp;right.<\/p>\n<p>But I will share a few tips to get you off the ground:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Install a security plugin.<\/strong>&nbsp;Check this <a href=\"https:\/\/kinsta.com\/blog\/wordpress-security-plugins\/\">plugin selection for WordPress<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Use strong passwords. <\/strong>Sorry, but \u201cpassword1\u201d isn\u2019t going to cut it for your WordPress login. Using a strong password will help prevent brute-force attacks.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Keep your CMS (and plugins) up to date.<\/strong>&nbsp;Enabling automatic updates is your best&nbsp;bet.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That\u2019s a very basic overview, mind. So here are some of the best website security tutorials on the&nbsp;web:<\/p>\n<div class=\"further-reading\"><div class=\"reading-title\">Further reading<\/div><div class=\"reading-content\">\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/intl\/zh_TW\/webmasters\/hacked\/\">How to Fix A Hacked Website - Google Webmasters<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.sucuri.net\/2018\/11\/10-tips-to-improve-your-website-security-2.html\">10 Tips To Improve Your Website Security<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpexplorer.com\/recover-hacked-wordpress-site\/\">How To Recover A Hacked WordPress Site<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/kinsta.com\/blog\/decline-seo-rankings\/\">Kinsta case study about manual action with multiple causes<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"recommendation\"><div class=\"recommendation-title\">pro tip<\/div><div class=\"recommendation-content\">\n<p>If you have the budget, I would also recommend securing your site with services such as <a href=\"https:\/\/sucuri.net\/\">Sucuri<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Install the software on your site, and Sucuri will actively monitor for hacks, changes, brute-force login attempts, and&nbsp;more.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ll get an alert if anything looks untoward. Even better, if you do get hacked, they will clean up your site for you as part of the service.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<h3>7. DDoS attacks<\/h3>\n<p>This may also count as hacking, but instead of messing up your website, DDoS attacks aim to shut it down completely. DDoS stands for distributed denial-of-service, a malicious attempt to prevent legitimate requests and traffic from reaching your website by flooding your server or its surrounding infrastructure until its resources are exhausted.<\/p>\n<h4>How DDoS attacks can harm your&nbsp;site<\/h4>\n<p>Generally speaking, your server and, therefore, your website won\u2019t work unless you have services capable of preventing and mitigating DDoS attacks.<\/p>\n<p>Having your website or a few pages unavailable due to server maintenance is fine. Google considers the 503 Service Unavailable error as a temporary thing. However, if this lasts for a more extended period, it may <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seroundtable.com\/google-503-status-code-hours-23968.html\">cause deindexation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A sneakier form of a DDoS attack might be one that doesn\u2019t shut your site down entirely but instead slows it down. Not only would it make the user experience worse, but there is a chance that it would harm your ranking as well since <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/core-web-vitals\/\" data-ahr=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/advanced-pagespeed-guide\/\">page speed<\/a>&nbsp;and related <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/core-web-vitals\/\">Core Web Vitals<\/a>&nbsp;are ranking factors.<\/p>\n<h4>How to detect a DDoS attack<\/h4>\n<p>Make sure you or your engineering team&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.loggly.com\/blog\/ddos-monitoring-how-to-know-youre-under-attack\/\">monitor incoming traffic and requests<\/a>. It helps detect the sneakier DDoS attacks, but the huge ones can shut down your website within a few seconds.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cloudflare.com\/en-gb\/learning\/ddos\/famous-ddos-attacks\/\">The largest recorded attack reached 2.54 Tbps<\/a>. That\u2019s a bandwidth ballpark comparable to some video and streaming platforms.<\/p>\n<h4>How to fight back against DDoS attacks<\/h4>\n<p>This is something that you or your team can\u2019t take care of directly in the vast majority of&nbsp;cases.<\/p>\n<p>Your best bet is to use CDNs, dedicated servers, and other services with huge network infrastructures that often have their own <a href=\"https:\/\/geekflare.com\/ddos-protection-service\/\">DDoS protection solutions<\/a>. These services also usually offer <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Load_balancing_(computing)\">load balancing<\/a>&nbsp;and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdnplanet.com\/guides\/origin-shield\/\">origin shielding<\/a>&nbsp;for the best possible protection against traffic and request spikes on your web hosting server.<\/p>\n<h3>Final thoughts<\/h3>\n<p>I\u2019ve listed the most common types of negative SEO attacks. This list is not exhaustive, but it should reflect the most negative SEO use cases you can encounter.<\/p>\n<p>As said multiple times throughout the post, negative SEO is very unlikely to work these&nbsp;days. However, it\u2019s good to be vigilant, so keep a close eye on your website, its traffic, and backlinks.<\/p>\n<p>If you have any experience with negative SEO, questions, or comments, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/michalpecanek\">ping me on Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While it\u2019s very unlikely these days, negative SEO could be the culprit. But before we talk about detecting, deflecting, and fighting negative SEO, let\u2019s make sure we understand what it&nbsp;is\u2026 What is negative SEO? Types of negative SEO attacks Does<span class=\"ellipsis\">\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\">Read more \u203a<\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":149,"featured_media":134968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[329],"tags":[],"coauthors":[375],"class_list":["post-13738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technical-seo","odd"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to Detect (and Deflect) Negative SEO Attacks<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Negative SEO is when a competitor uses black-hat tactics to attempt to sabotage the rankings of a competing website or web page.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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