The Dangers of Negative SEO and How to Avoid It
Mastering Search Engine Optimization is the key to get more traffic for your website. It’s not enough that you want keywords to use and how to optimize them. You must learn all elements of SEO Cheshire. You don’t want to unknowingly apply negative SEO in your marketing campaign.
What is Negative SEO?
Negative SEO, also known as Blackhat SEO, refers to SEO techniques aimed at unethically forcing out a competitor through manipulation of the algorithm. Google has set some stiff punishments for those who could be detected using blackhat SEO.
What are the most common kinds of blackhat SEO Cheshire practices? Here are a few examples:
- Hacking your website and violating Google’s policies
- Linking spam to your website
- Creating fake websites that emulate yours
- Using inappropriate keywords that point to your website
- Copying your content and pasting it everywhere
Taking out backlinks from your site
All of these SEO practices can seriously harm your website if you don’t do anything. Luckily, there are a few things you can do to prevent falling victim to a blackhat SEO attack. Here are 4 things you can do:
Register with Google Webmaster Tools
This is easiest way for you to know whether or not you’re about to fall victim to a blackhat attack. Google Webmaster Tools will alert you if there are problems with your website in the search engines, if there are problems related to your server, if Google has penalized you, or if you’re under a Spyware attack.
Communicate with Websites Hosting Your Backlinks
As mentioned, one way blackhatters can attack you is to destroy your backlinks. The best way to deal with that is to keep in constant communication with the webmaster who hosts those backlinks. Tell them that you are using only one email and one website. The others are fakes.
Regularly Check For Plagiarism
It’ll be a big problem if a competitor re-distributes your content everywhere. That said, you should regularly check Copyscape if there has been anyone copying your content. If you detect a lot, you can file a complaint to Google for violation of the Digital Millenium Copywrite Act.
Track Your Backlinks
Aside from communicating with the webmaster that hosts your backlinks, you can also track your backlinks to see if any are removed. Programs like Monitor Backlinks can help you keep track of them so you can act immediately.
Conclusion
Whether you like it or not, negative SEO techniques can be done to you anytime. It’s up to you to know how to prevent being a victim of one. Know how to identify them then prevent them by following the tips above.