Whether you want it or not, Negative SEO is more real today than ever before, although it has always been part of the picture since the day it became clear that external factors can influence a site's standing with the search engines. In the future, it is not going away for sure - this is my take on where it could go, as well as some history and present day analysis.
5. Matt Cutts acknowledges the fact: 2007, Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/2007/06/28/negative-search-google-tech-ebiz-cx_ag_0628seo.html
“
”
Google acknowledges the fact again: webmaster
answer updated May 2012
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=34449
“There's almost nothing a “Google works hard to prevent
competitor can do to harm other webmasters from being able
your ranking“ to harm your ranking”
Cygnus: Stop Questioning Negative SEO
http://www.seobook.com/stop-questioning-negative-seo
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
6. Google Bowling
Google Bombs
Google Washing
SEO Sabotage
Negative SEO
…and even online reputation management
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
9. External factors have influence on a site’s
rankings
Poor attribution of duplicate content
Site owners make mistakes
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10. Take anything that potentially has a negative
effect and use it against a third party site
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11. The concept of links as votes is the
cornerstone of Google’s algorithm
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12. Use of anchor texts (Google bombs, Penguin)
Quality of links (spammy, bad
neighbourhoods)
Objectionable types of links (e.g. paid links)
Speed of link acquisition
Other unnatural patterns
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
13. Bonus: How to spot a possible negative SEO campaign using MajesticSEO:
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/how-to-use-majesticseo-to-identify-a-possible
-negative-seo-campaign-by-irish-wonder/56921/
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
14. Use of anchor texts can be subtler, e.g. more
aggressive use of commercially meaningful
anchor texts the site is already targeting
Pro: more difficult to spot, more difficult to
prove
Con: may work in favour of the victim site
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
16. As a result:
Complete case study by Danny Sullivan:
http://searchengineland.com/how-prweb-helps-distribute-crap-into-google-news-
sites-140597
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
17. My “click here” case study:
(the complete study: http://www.stateofsearch.com/a-click-here-case-study/)
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
19. What’s spammier?
vs
A comment spammer in local SERPs Interflora
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
20. A niche-specific criterion
Spammy links not stopping sites from ranking – multiple cases
(Complete case study: http://www.irishwonder.syndk8.co.uk/2013
/02/27/how-does-the-casino-bonus-spam-work/
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
21. Does the site have them already? -> spam/
paid links report
No bad links? -> acquire some!
Too cheap to acquire links on their behalf? ->
make it look like they are doing it! (forum
posts with their name/site asking for paid
links, etc.)
You can also make sure they get some links
from bad neighbourhoods
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
22. …Shitty infographic time!
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
23. (Imagine these animals, erm, shitting on each other’s head)
Niches known as PPC (porn, pills, casino)
Finance
Weight loss
Travel
Education
(Disclaimer: niche allocation is approximate and for
illustrative purposes only)
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
24. Result? Penalty due to a negative SEO campaign
Again, this is a niche specific criterion
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
25. Result? Ranking in top 10 of one of the most competitive niches
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
26. Or instead of building links, you can remove
them…
A spike of interest caused by Penguin
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27. Ever got one of these?
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
28. Do you see an opportunity for negative SEO here?
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
29. Historically: issue with content attribution
(e.g. scrapers outranking scraped sites)
Panda’s promise: fix the issue
Reality: Google is no better with the duplicate
content attribution today than it used to be
ages ago
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
30. Davi
David Naylor’s original post ranking below sites that scraped/aggregated it
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
31. Google announces that “we will begin taking
into account a new signal in our rankings: the
number of valid copyright removal notices we
receive for any given site” – August 2012
http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/2012/08/an-update-to-our-search-algorithms.html
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
33. Increase in takedown requests as a result:
Complete study by Barry Schwartz:
http://searchengineland.com/50-million-search-results-remove-from-google-this-year-by-dmca-
request-143763
Google Transparency Report: top reported domains http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/
removals/copyright/domains/?r=all-time
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
34. Year: 2011
A site scrapes another site’s content
Access to scraped content is password protected
(so not indexable)
The offending site files a DMCA against the
originating site
The originating site’s reported page is removed
from the SERPs, DMCA notice displayed
The originating site hires me to investigate the
case, contacts Google with explanation
The originating site is reinstated in the SERPs,
timeline: 2 weeks
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
35. Year: 2012
Site A scrapes site B
Site C buys a sitewide links on site A
Site A starts ranking for site B’s traffic rich
keywords above site B
Site B files a DMCA, contacts site A’s host (but
not Google)
Site A’s host takes action, now non-existent site
A still ranking in Google
Site C gets a penalty, tries to use the disavow
tool, sees 1,500 links in GWMT that cannot be
removed because they do not exist
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
36. Once more to visualise this better:
Site A scrapes Site C buys a
Site A ranks higher
sitewide link on site
site B than site B
A
Site C penalised,
Site A’s host Site B files a DMCA,
cannot disavow
suspends it, site A sends to site A’s
1,500 links because
still ranking host
they do not exist
This could be a perfect negative campaign if only site B did not suffer from it itself
Fictionalised account of this case: http://01100111011001010110010101101011.co.uk/
2013/02/50-shades-of-spam/
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
37. Indexable empty search results
Use of insecure plugins
Site structure causing duplicate onsite
content
Bad redirects
Etc.
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
38. Bingo – your site is now about Viagra!
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
39. And it will get indexed…
…because…
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
40. Sites get hacked
According to Stop Badware, the three most
common types of badware affecting sites are:
◦ Malicious scripts
◦ .htaccess redirects
◦ Hidden iframes
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
41. My post on how to get rid of malware on a site: http://www.irishwonder.com/blog/
2012/07/20/site-infected-by-malware-heres-what-you-should-do/
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
42. Sometimes these will get your site banned
even without a negative SEO campaign
High profile example: in April 2012 SEER
Interactive got deindexed for 12 hours
because, in Wil Reynolds’ words:
“ We relaunched our site and spiked our 404′s but since we were
ranking for our brand and a lot of our blog posts, I said who
cares, but as my friends dug through my site they found a LOT
of architectural issues, lazy crap I never thought would impact
us (and still don’t) but it is sloppy.
”
http://www.seerinteractive.com/blog/7-lessons-i-learned-while-being-banned
-in-google-for-12-hours
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
51. As long as there are negative factors, they
will continue to be exploited
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
52. Faking social presence – from squatting
unclaimed profiles to hacking existing social
accounts
Using any objectionable links (advertorials,
other kinds of paid links, guest posts when
they become the synonym of spam, anything
else Google dims as bad
Hijacking AuthorRank
Fake DMCAs (already happening but will likely
keep increasing)
Fake disavow submissions
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
53. Ranking your own site by dropping sites
above it – was possible several years ago but
more difficult now (unpredictable results)
Negative SEO for online reputation
management – still works (with caveats)
Negative SEO as hate campaign – possible but
not a business strategy
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
54. You cannot make your site 100% secure
If it’s not economically viable to run a
negative campaign against a site, it will likely
not happen
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
55. Example: BBC.co.uk
How do you hijack this link profile?
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
56. Matt Cutts acknowledges the fact: 2007, Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/2007/06/28/negative-search-google-tech-ebiz-cx_ag_0628seo.html
Google acknowledges the fact again: webmaster answer updated May 2012
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=34449
Cygnus: Stop Questioning Negative SEO
http://www.seobook.com/stop-questioning-negative-seo
How to spot a possible negative SEO campaign using MajesticSEO: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/how-
to-use-majesticseo-to-identify-a-possible-negative-seo-campaign-by-irish-wonder/56921/
PRWeb case study by Danny Sullivan:
http://searchengineland.com/how-prweb-helps-distribute-crap-into-google-news-sites-140597
"Click here" case study: http://www.stateofsearch.com/a-click-here-case-study/
Casino bonus spam case study: http://www.irishwonder.syndk8.co.uk/2013/02/27/how-does-the-casino-
bonus-spam-work/
Google DMCA announcement: http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/2012/08/an-update-to-our-search-
algorithms.html
Complete DMCA case study by Barry Schwartz:
http://searchengineland.com/50-million-search-results-remove-from-google-this-year-by-dmca-
request-143763
Google Transparency Report: top reported domains http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/
copyright/domains/?r=all-time
Fiction story covering a DMCA case: http://01100111011001010110010101101011.co.uk/2013/02/50-
shades-of-spam/
How to get rid of malware on a site: http://www.irishwonder.com/blog/
2012/07/20/site-infected-by-malware-heres-what-you-should-do/
SEER Interactive 12-hour ban: http://www.seerinteractive.com/blog/7-lessons-i-learned-while-being-banned
-in-google-for-12-hours
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013
57. All images are mine, except for the following:
Slide 11 - http://www.lunametrics.com/
Slide 30 - http://www.davidnaylor.co.uk/
Slide 32 - http://www.rainingpackets.com
Slide 33 - http://searchengineland.com/
Slide 47 - http://gizmodo.com/
Slide 48 - http://www.businessinsider.com/
@irishwonder ThinkVisibility, March 2013