What is Negative SEO?
Is there a way to identify Negative SEO?
Do you have such questions?
SEO is a strategy to improve the ranking of your website on search engines, but Negative SEO is a different concept, and without understanding it, you cannot achieve an accurate evaluation of your SEO efforts.
In this article, we will explain the overview of Negative SEO, examples, and countermeasures.
If you want to achieve a proper evaluation through SEO or are looking to focus on SEO in the future, please refer to this article.
Table of contents
What is Negative SEO?
Negative SEO refers to the act of lowering the ranking of other companies’ websites.
SEO is originally about strategies to improve the ranking of your own site.
In contrast, Negative SEO is carried out with the purpose of lowering the rankings of other companies’ sites to relatively elevate your own site.
However, Google prohibits any act of manipulating search rankings unfairly.
Therefore, engaging in Negative SEO can lead to a drop in your own site’s ranking or even cause it to be excluded from search results.
Instead of lowering the rankings of other companies’ sites through Negative SEO, let’s engage in legitimate SEO strategies to elevate your own site’s ranking.
Difference from Reverse SEO
A concept that is often confused with Negative SEO is Reverse SEO.
Reverse SEO refers to the strategy of raising your own site’s ranking, thereby relatively lowering the ranking of other companies’ sites.
For example, if false reviews are posted on a restaurant review site, or if malicious reviews are written, the visibility of that review site can negatively affect sales.
In such cases, Reverse SEO is used with the goal of lowering the rankings of other companies’ sites.
The difference between Reverse SEO and Negative SEO is the target site.
In Reverse SEO, the target is your own site, while in Negative SEO, the target is someone else’s site.
Negative SEO directly affects other companies’ sites, but since Reverse SEO targets your own site, if proper strategies are employed, there is no risk of penalties.
Remember that Reverse SEO and Negative SEO are different concepts.
In the next section, we will introduce examples of Negative SEO.
Examples of Negative SEO
In Negative SEO, it is common to attach spam links to the websites whose rankings you want to lower.
A specific method involves posting a large number of links from spam-identified websites in a short period.
By posting a large number of spam links, the goal is to cause the linked website to also be labeled as spam, leading to a drop in its ranking.
When a website is classified as spam, not only does its search ranking decrease, but there is also a possibility that the website will not appear in search results.
Therefore, to avoid the impacts of Negative SEO, it is essential to identify and address spam links.
How to Identify Negative SEO
To avoid being affected by Negative SEO, it is essential to identify spam.
There are mainly four ways to identify it, so let’s use this as a reference to check if your company is experiencing Negative SEO.
- Unrecognized backlinks from overseas
- Websites with little to no content
- Anchor text unrelated to the content
- Dummy sites using copied content
Each will be explained below.
1. Unrecognized Websites from Overseas
A common link associated with Negative SEO is backlinks from unfamiliar overseas sites.
It is rare for companies not operating internationally to have links from overseas.
If you find that the source website is in a language other than Japanese and seems irrelevant to your business, you should disavow that link.
2. Websites with Little to No Content
Websites that have very little content also pose a potential for Negative SEO.
If links come from websites that only have a homepage or are rarely updated, you should disavow those links.
Additionally, if it is unclear whether links from pages with no content are related to Negative SEO, it is recommended to disavow those links as well.
Google employs a system where page rank, which evaluates a website, is passed to the linked website.
Pages with no content typically have low evaluations from Google, so even if they are not associated with Negative SEO, backlinks from them are unlikely to be effective.
Therefore, it is generally acceptable to disavow links from websites with no content.
For more details about page rank, please refer to another article on our site.
To improve the evaluation of your own site, please check this article as well.
What is Page Rank? Explaining the Relationship, Mechanism, and Evaluation Methods with SEO
3. Anchor Text Unrelated to the Content
Another important factor to consider when identifying Negative SEO is the anchor text.
*Anchor text refers to the text displayed for a hyperlink.
If the anchor text is unrelated to the linked page, Google may perceive it as an inappropriate link.
Therefore, check the anchor text of the source link, and if it is not relevant to your page, you should disavow that link.
We explain how to check backlinks in another article on our site.
To optimize your SEO evaluation, please check this article as well.
What are Backlinks? Explaining the Relationship with SEO and How to Increase Them
4. Dummy Sites Featuring Copied Content
In addition to spam links, Negative SEO may also utilize dummy sites that display copied content.
This method involves creating a dummy site and filing a false DMCA request to remove the corresponding site from search results.
The DMCA, or Digital Millennium Copyright Act, was enacted and implemented in the United States in 1998. It imposes strict liability for copyright infringement, making it punishable regardless of intent or negligence.
There are provisions for Internet service providers to avoid legal penalties by promptly addressing situations that lead to copyright infringement or actions that infringe on copyright.
If you find copied content or dummy sites, contact the website operator or file a DMCA takedown request.
How to Address Negative SEO
Preventing Negative SEO in advance is difficult, so ongoing measures are necessary.
There are two main countermeasures.
- Disavowing Links
- Filing a DMCA Takedown Request
Each will be explained below.
Countermeasure 1: Disavowing Links
The first method is disavowing links.
Use Google Search Console to disavow links by following these steps.
- Extract spam links
- Disavow the spam links
1. Extract Spam Links
With Google Search Console, you can extract a list of backlinks.
Identify spam links from the extracted data.
- Log in to Google Search Console
- Click on “Links” in the sidebar
- Click “Export External Links” at the top right of the page
Following these steps will allow you to extract a list of backlinks.
Write down the spam links in a text file, one per line.
If you only want to disavow links from a specific webpage, include the URL of that page.
If there are too many links to disavow, you can disavow all links from the entire website by stating the domain.
https://example.com/blog/1234
https://example.jp/contents/5678
https://example.co.jp
2. Disavow Spam Links
Once you have compiled the text file, disavow the links.
You can disavow links from the following page on Google Search Console.
After logging in to the page above, click on “Disavow Links,” upload the text file containing the links you want to disavow, and click the submit button.
By following this process, you can disavow spam links.
Although it requires some effort, it is recommended to perform this regularly to avoid penalties and receive proper SEO evaluations.
Countermeasure 2: Filing a DMCA Takedown Request
The second method is to file a DMCA takedown request.
As mentioned earlier, there is a law in the United States called the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) that regulates copyright infringement.
Since Google is a U.S. company, filing a DMCA takedown request could potentially lead to the removal of dummy sites from search results.
You can file a DMCA takedown request to Google from the following page.
Remove Content Due to Copyright Infringement
【Conclusion】Addressing Negative SEO to Optimize Evaluation
In SEO, malicious techniques referred to as Negative SEO may be employed to lower the rankings of other sites.
If ongoing measures against Negative SEO are not taken, there is a possibility that your site will not receive a proper evaluation.
If you have not yet addressed Negative SEO, please refer to the methods of identification and countermeasures introduced here.
If addressing Negative SEO does not lead to improved SEO evaluations, you may want to consider enlisting the help of an agency.
