Article

Sanjana Singh
Sanjana Singh 4 January 2016

6 Simple Tricks To Prevent Negative SEO

Unethical techniques to negatively affect a competitor's rankings in search engines, it is termed as negative SEO.

Obtaining and maintaining a higher rank for competitive keywords on Google is no more a cakewalk. With the implementation of black hat SEO techniques, deriving favorable results has become a hard nut to crack. Such a scenario has given way to the emergence of negative SEO.

So, what does negative SEO mean?

In simple words, when a competitor uses black hat and other unethical techniques to negatively affect a competitor’s rankings in search engines, it is termed as negative SEO. It is the result of negative actions undertaken to bring your competitor’s ranking down, rather than doing SEO the right way to take your rankings up. Below are the few signs which tell that your website is a victim of negative SEO.

  • Many spam-embedded links being directed to your website
  • Links with objectionable keywords such as porn, Viagra, poker online etc. being pointed towards your website
  • Maligning your reputation online by creating fake social profile in your name

It is important to note that post the Penguin update, it has become easier to create spam backlinks, thus resulting in increase in the number of incidents related to negative SEO.

So, how to deal with negative SEO?

The best way to deal with any disaster is to follow ways to prevent it. The same stand true for negative SEO as well. Though a few top-notch SEO companies in India are well-equipped to combat the bad effects of negative SEO, but it is still better to prevent negative SEO by implementing these seven simple tricks given below. Further, it should be noted that recovery from negative SEO takes at least 15 to 30 days, which might translate into possible business losses. So, why take that risk? Go through these seven key steps which would help in keeping negative SEO at bay.

1. Use Google Webmaster Tools and Set Email Alerts

Email alerts from Google Webmaster tool will keep you updated in the following cases:

  • Malware attach on your website
  • Manual penalty from Google

To connect your website to Google Webmaster tool, log in to your account and click “Webmaster Tools Preferences.”Enable email notifications and choose to receive alerts for all types of issues. Click “Save.”

Further, you can also utilize Google alerts and keep yourself informed whenever somebody uses the name of your company/brand online.

2. Monitor your Backlinks Profile at Regular Intervals

Many times spammers try to build or redirect low quality links to your website. To tackle such issues, you can use tools such as Open Site Explorer, Ahrefs or Monitorbacklinks.com. These tools enable you to manually keep a track in case any bad links are built towards your website. It is advisable to use tools which have the feature of email alerts, for e.g. monitorbacklinks.com, an easy to use tool that sends an email alert when your website loses or gains important backlinks. Also, a regular clean-up of your backlink profile is also advisable to prevent negative SEO.

3. Protect Your Best Backlinks

It is of vital importance that you keep track of your best backlinks and prevent spammers from removing these. Whenever you communicate with webmasters, use an email address with your domain instead the one with Yahoo or Gmail. This authenticates you as a genuine entity working for a particular website. When a person with suspicious email id will try to implement bad SEO, webmaster will send an alert immediately and you can take immediate action before damage to your website goes out of hand.

As mentioned above, use tools like monitorbacklinks.com and add tags to the links which are most valuable to you. This way you can verify if there are any attempts to remove these best links. In case, the link is already removed, you can contact the webmaster and ask why the link has been removed.

4. Secure Your Website from Malware and Hackers

Malware attack or unethical hacking are the two most dreaded digital mishaps that can affect your website. In order to secure your website, you can implement the following steps:

Install Google Authenticator Plugin in case you are using Word press. This would create a 2-step verification password and raise the level of security for your website. Whosoever will login will be required to enter the code sent by Google Authenticator on your smartphone (available on iOS and Android).

 

Also, don’t forget to create a password which is a mix of alphabets, numbers and special characters. You must create a back-up of your database at regular intervals and request your hosting company to install an antivirus in case external users are allowed to upload files on your website.

5. Sudden increase in website loading time

In case your website now takes more time to load, it is time to take a prompt action and check if someone is inundating your server with thousands of requests per second. Leaving this unchecked would allow spammers to put your server down. Tools like pingdom.com are useful for monitoring your server uptime and loading time. If you receive information that your website is down as a result of a spam-attack, it is time for you to contact your hosting company and seek their help on an immediate basis.

6. Be in control of your social media presence

Often, spammers create fake accounts on social media channels in order to defame your company or website’s name. The first step is to report these bogus social media accounts as spam as soon as you come across these. The idea is to take action as soon as possible to prevent digital audience from getting influenced through these accounts. Mention.net is among the tools which would let you know about where somebody has used your brand name as a social media mention.

It facilitates instant alert at the moment somebody mentions your brand’s name on any social media channel or a website, and one can take an action, if required.

Worried about what’s wrong with your website? Look for SEO companies in India which also guide you to take preventive measures to protect your website from the adverse effects of negative SEO, rather than simply convincing you to directly pay money for getting your website recovered from the repercussions of bad SEO.

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