Negative SEO is a sneaky move where a company or business owner tries to steal the rankings of other businesses by using their keywords so that their competitors’ sites won’t pop up when a person searches for information concerning their business.
It is the process of hijacking other sites to get them penalized or bringing them to ruin.
There are different forms of negative SEO, such as bad reviews, aimed at tearing down companies or businesses, duplicating content and putting them on numerous sites, hacking into sites, and much more.
So, how do you protect your business from these malicious attacks?
Monitor Your Backlinks
Backlinks are links in pages other than your business page that lead to your connection. For example, when you browse the best stores in your neighborhood, that page is likely to have links that lead to each store’s private page; those are backlinks.
Most times, your site is attacked by negative SEO when they create weak or lousy quality links leading to your site, or they make redirects. While these redirects and links are forming, you may be unaware of it, which is very dangerous to your business site; you need to be aware of the links that direct to your website.
You can use online tools to check your backlinks daily, and some send information about the activities revolving around your backlinks directly to your inbox.
Shield Your Most Effective Backlinks
Your attackers carry out a successful negative SEO attack when they eliminate your most effective backlinks. They do this by impersonating you and informing the webmaster of that backlink to delete it. To prevent this from happening, you should monitor your backlinks using online tools.
Another preventive measure is to constantly communicate with the webmaster using an email address with your domain; instead of using any of the email apps, use an email with your domain on it so the webmaster can distinguish your messages from ones sent by imposters.
Secure Your Site From Hackers
Hackers slip into an insecure or poorly-secured website easily and wreak havoc while you watch helplessly. To prevent that from happening, you need to secure your website from spammers and hackers by:
- Creating a strong password, mixing in numbers and special keys.
- Make sure you have a backup for all your files and the entire database. Make sure you create backups every day.
Look For Replicas On The Internet
Duplicating your content all over the internet is a way to get your search engine’s attention and a way to get your site taken down. It would be best if you were wary of duplications. Various sites help you detect repeated content coming from your site to be on track and combat negative SEO.
If you believe you’ve been a victim of negative SEO, do well to contact an expert by calling or filling our contact form. We’ll ensure that every bad SEO targeted at your business website is rendered void and null, without you having to break the bank.