Tips to keep your website safe from negative SEO
My technology site was hit with negative SEO attack. Suddenly I started getting backlinks from casino and betting sites and some spammy, low-quality PBNs and even the anchor text that were used to link my site were not relevant to my site’s topic which was about Apple iPhones and iPhone accessories. So I had to disavow such URLs and entire domains in GSC. But I learnt something from this and want to share with other fellow bloggers and website owners on how to safeguard your website from negative SEO attack. Negative SEO often involves spammy backlinks or duplicate content, and monitoring with regular audits plus disavows is the best defense.
What is Negative SEO actually?
Negative-SEO (Black hat SEO) is acutally a blend of the following techniques. It is used to harm the ranking position on search engines like Google or Bing, and also impact local SEO by negatively affecting GMB (Google business profile) listing.
- Toxic link blasts – pointing thousands of spammy or irrelevant backlinks (often with over-optimized anchors) to trigger Google penalties.
- Content scraping / duplication – copying your content at scale to dilute originality signals.
- Fake reviews / social spam – damaging your brand reputation with negative signals.
- Technical exploits – hacking or injecting malicious scripts to get your site blacklisted.
Ways to Safeguard your Website from Negative SEO
- Monitor backlinks regularly – Use GSC or tools like Ahrefs/Moz/Semrush to spot sudden spikes in low-quality links.
- Disavow harmful links – If you notice patterns of spammy links pointing at you, disavow them to signal Google you don’t endorse them.
- Secure your site technically – Keep software updated, use HTTPS, enable firewalls, and monitor for injected content or malware.
- Track content duplication – Tools like Copy cape can help catch scrapers copying your pages.
- Reputation management – Keep an eye on reviews/mentions and address false reports before they spread.
I use copyscape and similar services to check unauthorized copying of my articles and post on spam websites and send them DMCA to protect my own site. Many-a-time I’ve seen Google and Bing rank the copied content higher than my original work and thus my site is pushed down in search results affecting revenue. So I keep a watch on such spammy content farms and low-quality PBNs.