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Types of Negative SEO to Watch out for

According to Google, 53% of consumers research before they decide on a purchase, which is why SEO is extremely important. But even if you work hard to rank high on Google, competitors can attack your site with negative SEO practices and lower your ranking. 

Although negative SEO is not very common these days, it still exists, and sometimes it can come from within your company. Hiring inexperienced SEO specialists or writers who plagiarise content are just some of the reasons you should closely watch out for such threads. Luckily there are negative SEO tools that can help you monitor and protect your ranking. 

But first, let’s see the types of negative SEO you need to watch out for.

Different Types of Negative SEO shapes

Negative SEO refers to actions taken by competitors that aim to lower your site's ranking. While this is usually done off-page, it can also happen by hacking and modifying the page’s contents. But note that not all drops in ranking can be ascribed to negative SEO, as there are other reasons for it unrelated to competitors’ foul play.  

Let’s take a look at some of the most common negative off and on-page SEO.

Negative Off-Page SEO

The negative off-page SEO refers to actions by third parties that intend to lower your site’s ranking. Here are the most common ones. 

  • Link farms are a negative off-site SEO practice that is connected to spammy links. It is not about a single spam link but multiple links from a group of sites that are interconnected. It is a link scheme that usually uses the same anchor text. 
  • Forceful crawling is closely connected with the speed of your site. The aim is to cause a heavy server load, and this is just another example of negative SEO.
  • Content duplicating can ruin your rankings when it is duplicated across various sites. Google is wise enough to detect the original copies of content only in the cases when they come across the duplicated version of the content first.

Negative On-Page SEO 

Negative on-page SEO means hacking and changing content on your site. Here are the most common ones. 

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  • Modifying your page involves using tactics that can be difficult to recognize and identify. They can change your content, redirect visitors to their site, and the aim usually is to increase their site's rank and lower yours.
  • Hacking the site can affect your SEO even if the hacker is not doing it with the intent to ruin your ranking. 
  • De-indexing the site means clicking in the disallow rule, and Google starts ignoring your website. Regularly check if your site has been de-indexed. 

SEO Defend - Defend your SEO, Defend your Business

Negative SEO can lower your page’s ranking, and all your hard work and SEO practice will be in vain. That’s why it’s imperative to protect it, and we’re here to help. At SEO Defend, we offer services to improve and defend your SEO ranking with access to negative SEO tools for monitoring your site’s health. 

Aside from SEO, we also offer website development, content marketing, and brand design services. Start your 30-day trial and get a month of negative SEO monitoring for free.Contact us today for more details on our services.