4 Simple Ways to Protect Your Site Against Negative SEO

If you have been overlooking the significance of negative SEO, you missing something important. Find out in detail how you can protect your website from its consequences.

Wondering if there are any SEO techniques which could be used to break the rules to ruin a site’s reputation? Can these decrease its rankings in search engine result pages (SERPs)?

Or simply, is Negative SEO real?

Well, the answer is YES. Not only negative SEO exists but also it has become a legitimate danger.

What is Negative SEO?

As per Search Engine Journal, “Negative SEO is the practice of implementing black hat SEO techniques on another site.”

While the entire SEO landscape has changed in the last 5 years, ranking in Google’s top 10 search results has become a big challenge. Definitely, black hat techniques don’t work anymore. And yes, these can damage your site beyond repair. And this lead to creation of a new type of SEO, called ‘Negative SEO’.

Here are some techniques that black hat practitioners can use to reduce your search rankings. Check in detail how to safeguard your website.

Google Search Console Email Alerts

Do you know you can use Google’s very own Search Console to prevent negative SEO attacks? You might have come across the email alerts sent by Google when:

#Your pages are not indexed

#You get a manual penalty from Google

#When your site is being infected with malware

#You have server connectivity issues

Hence, connect your website with Google Search Console and enable email notifications. So, now you’ll receive email alerts from Google whenever there is an issue with your website.

Site Speed

Of course, site speed is a critical ranking factor. In case you find your site has a high loading time, ensure it’s not because someone is sending thousands of requests per second to your server. If this comes to be true, you need to take an action as soon as possible. For this, monitor your site speed once a week at least. You can use any of the following tools:

#GTMetrix

#Varvy Pagespeed Optimization Tool

#Google’s PageSpeed Insights

#HubSpot’s Website Grader

Regular Backlink Audits

One of the most common negative SEO practice used by spammers is to build low quality links for your site. Hence, performing regular backlink audits can help you protect it from potential SEO attacks. You must monitor your site’s backlink profile on a constant basis to avoid any suspicious new links. Use reliable tools such as “Ahrefs” or “Serpstat”. With these you can set email alerts and these will notify you when your site gains or loses a backlink.

Duplicate Content

Another common negative SEO methods employed by spammers is content duplication. For this, you must check if your website has duplicate pages on the internet. Use Copyscape or simply add your website or the body of the article to any reputed tool of your choice. It will show you if your content is being published elsewhere, and you can take an action against it.

Remember, negative SEO is real. However, following essential and timely preventive measures will help mitigate the loss.

Ever dealt with negative SEO? Have any preventive steps to share? Let us know your tips and ideas.