Negative SEO is both Highly Effective and Extremely Misunderstood

Negative Search Engine Optimization (NSEO) has been hotly debated in the SEO sector for well over a decade now, but despite all the noise made by Search Engine Optimizers around the globe it is still one of the most misunderstood SEO tactics of all.

That’s because the majority of professionals in the sector still see Negative SEO as little more than link-spam, malicious linking attacks (Googlebombing,) and/or “Hacks” without ever considering the true scope of possible attack vectors. What’s more, Google has deliberately downplayed the efficacy of Negative SEO attacks for at least a decade now, thus helping to muddy the waters for those of us whose task it is to clean up the damage caused by NSEO used against legitimate enterprise.

Doctor Evil: "Hacks"

Add to that the “Code of Silence” in the SEO sector, because most ethical professionals “don’t want to give ideas to the bad guys…” and what you have is the perfect storm to create a rapidly expanding field of malicious actors using an array of underhanded techniques unchallenged.


It’s Time to Take the Lid Off Negative SEO

What follows is an overview of the various NSEO attack vectors. It’s not exhaustive, because the field is expanding constantly, but it’s a more comprehensive resource than you’ll find anywhere else online. And we’re constantly adding to it as we discover new Negative SEO tactics. Where ways to mitigate or prevent an attack exist, we also provide a brief breakdown of these in the expanded details for each approach.

Types of NSEO Attacks:

Reads: Negative Search Engine Optimisation - Venomous Phoenix. Description: A bird like creature, rising up with outstretched wings, head facing to the right. It's coloured in shades of green. It's sat in front of a digital backdrop of two horizontal plains of characters and random bits of data, converging in the far distance, top to middle, bottom to middle.

Venomous Phoenix

Deliciously Simple: Take a dropped domain that’s been hit by a Google’s Algorithmic markdown, or better still, a manual action – revive it with some trashy AI content, then…


Reads: Negative Search Engine Optimisation - Bad Links. Description: A looped length of silvery steel chain, folded as if around the letter "u". Some of the links are bright red, signifying danger or risk. It's sat in front of a digital backdrop of two horizontal plains of characters and random bits of data, converging in the far distance, top to middle, bottom to middle.

Bad Links

Build bad links with the intent of triggering a link manipulation flag/penalty, including “Masquerade Posting” (guest posting, impersonating the target)…


Reads: Negative Search Engine Optimisation - Comment Pollution. Description: A speech bubble, coloured in shades of toxic green, containing a bio-hazard warning symbol in white (kind of like three "u" characters, with the bottom curves connecting, the stems pointing outwards, sat atop two concentric circles. It's sat in front of a digital backdrop of two horizontal plains of characters and random bits of data, converging in the far distance, top to middle, bottom to middle.

Comment Pollution

Abuse comments on your target’s site. This can be used to trigger safe-search, so the target site only shows in SERPS for a much smaller percentage of searches…

Sadly, there’s over 20 other types of Negative SEO you can learn about,
including NSEO attack vectors like Directory Edits, Fanning the Flames and DDoS Attacks.


Negative Digital Marketing (NDM)

While the following malicious behaviors do not actually fall under the heading of NSEO, they are nevertheless real threats against your online business which can impact both ROI and the accuracy of your company data.

Reads: Negative Search Engine Optimisation - Venomous Phoenix. Description: A bird like creature, rising up with outstretched wings, head facing to the right. It's coloured in shades of green. It's sat in front of a digital backdrop of two horizontal plains of characters and random bits of data, converging in the far distance, top to middle, bottom to middle.

Venomous Phoenix

Deliciously Simple: Take a dropped domain that’s been hit by a Google’s Algorithmic markdown, or better still, a manual action – revive it with some trashy AI content, then…