Have you been hit by negative SEO?

**johan_s** · 17 February 2021, 4:59 am

Hi fellow webmasters

So the question is, has your affiliate site been hit with negative SEO?
I just got my first hit last week with 20.000 links coming from the same domain...
I disavowed the domain in GSC of course.
Is there anything you can do to dodge these negative SEO hits? Or is it just to be attentive and disavow those links?

**PaulEchere** · 17 February 2021, 5:34 am

I personally haven't yet had to deal with negative SEO, but just out of curiosity - did this have any negative effect on your traffic and positions?

**johan_s** · 17 February 2021, 5:37 am

I can't see any signs of negative effect yet.

**Former Member 11** · 17 February 2021, 5:41 am

I can see the same with our site last week, except the links are no-follow. That's good as we don't need to disavow for now.

**Cash Bonus** · 17 February 2021, 9:55 am

I haven't suffered any negative seo effects either. Everything seems to be going alright at the moment.

**Casinomentor** · 18 February 2021, 1:10 am

I used to have links like that to my website too. I later disavowed that link. However, the level of influence is not very clear.

**Nocturnalant** · 18 February 2021, 2:32 am

Are you sure that negative SEO was the reason of your drop? After all, Google update was rolling out last week...
Anyway, yes disavow and reindex those 20k links

**Growth-Sven** · 18 February 2021, 10:12 am

I agree, we had a lot of spam links etc but I think most people has it and I don't really think it effects SEO that much.

But if you want to be sure just disallow

**gil.langelaan** · 18 February 2021, 10:20 am

Our sites weren't hit too but I got an email from somebody with an update that they have built 50k spam backlinks for us because we didn't reply to them and didn't like their Youtube videos. That's ridiculous but we are seeing a drop now. I hope it's only because of Google core update.
But again, the disavow file is the best suggestion in that case.

**Strider1973** · 18 February 2021, 3:04 pm

I don't know it because I've stopped checking backlinks long time ago. And honestly I feel much better without knowing it, because if you have X websites then for sure there will be some links you don't want. Not to speak of content that has been stolen and knowing of such theft always gives me "collywobbles" - I now just try to avoid that by don't looking at it too closely.

But what happened to me this year and where I had to take action:
- DMCA notice from a french TV station about a 5+ years old soccer article written in hungarian (I'm sure it's a false positive but you need a new email address each time you want to know more details and reply to the case, so I just deleted the article)
- forwarded email from webhost from Western Union about trademark infringement (since when am I not allowed to mention casino deposit methods? Anyway, what do I want to discuss with their legal department, so again I just deleted the article)

While it's certainly not the perfect strategy to grow my websites, this gives me a lot of peace of mind and keeps me long-term sane.

**universal4** · 18 February 2021, 8:25 pm

Originally Posted by gil.langelaan

Our sites weren't hit too but I got an email from somebody with an update that they have built 50k spam backlinks for us because we didn't reply to them and didn't like their Youtube videos. That's ridiculous but we are seeing a drop now. I hope it's only because of Google core update.
But again, the disavow file is the best suggestion in that case.

Gil, if you want to disclose who this is if you happen to know, just drop me a PM.

That is not cool at all.

Originally Posted by Strider1973

- forwarded email from webhost from Western Union about trademark infringement (since when am I not allowed to mention casino deposit methods? Anyway, what do I want to discuss with their legal department, so again I just deleted the article)

This is not a surprise at all, and in fact was EXTREMELY common many years ago, with them as well as a few other payment methods.

I know of one case where PP had a list of websites that had their info or even just brand name, (mostly payment method pages) and they cross-referenced site owners with email addresses and made connections from those email addresses and if any connections to the email also had connections to PP accounts, they would send the boilerplate letter about removing the brand name and logo's etc from their lawyers, as well as close the PP accounts.

In order to get the PP accounts opened, site owners had to sign statements to never use the brand name or logo ever again on a gambling website in perpetuity.

Rick
Universal4

**Nocturnalant** · 19 February 2021, 2:01 am

Originally Posted by gil.langelaan

Our sites weren't hit too but I got an email from somebody with an update that they have built 50k spam backlinks for us because we didn't reply to them and didn't like their Youtube videos. That's ridiculous but we are seeing a drop now. I hope it's only because of Google core update.
But again, the disavow file is the best suggestion in that case.

WTF? What a scum! What did they want?

**PaulEchere** · 19 February 2021, 2:13 am

Originally Posted by gil.langelaan

Our sites weren't hit too but I got an email from somebody with an update that they have built 50k spam backlinks for us because we didn't reply to them and didn't like their Youtube videos. That's ridiculous but we are seeing a drop now. I hope it's only because of Google core update.
But again, the disavow file is the best suggestion in that case.

That's not good... But it is hilarious.

**buyonaut** · 19 February 2021, 2:17 am

I have been hit with negative SEO attack few years back and the domain never recovered, however that was not related to links.

The scenario was as follows;

1.) Attacker embedded my website in iframe pretending to be original source of the content. Google was stupid enough to take a bite and could not differentiate who is the original content owner/creator. Eventually, my domain just dropped out of the index and I could never get my positions back. I decided to drop it and made a new site. My problem was that I didn't realise what is going on on time - it can take months for google to drop you and you have no idea why.
That is bigger issue than bad links. There are techniques you can use to prevent others to steal your content with htaccess. If you put this code in your htaccess it will prevent stealers to present your content as theirs.

set X-Frame-Options DENY
Header append X-FRAME-OPTIONS SAMEORIGIN

2.) Attackers where stealing my posts through RSS - the problem was that google picked up their fake posts before indexing mine tagging my site as a content stealer. Bizzare, eh?
This also can cause serious issues but this one is sorted out easier - either you block access to RSS or insert your domain name in title of the post . The second option might or might not work, depends how strong your domain is.

Bad links have some influence, but are not crucial - they will be reflected in losing DA but you will not lose your rankings - from my experience that is not connected.

As my colleagues said, just disavow and don't worry too much.

**buyonaut** · 19 February 2021, 2:21 am

Forgot to add - links pointing to you site in general are not so important to Google anymore - it is far more important that you have original and high quality content, clean and fast site and no technical errors.

**xecutable** · 19 February 2021, 7:29 am

I'm pretty sure on several occasions in the Google Webinars where John Mueller answers questions this has been asked. His answer has always been the same: Google simply ignores irrelevant links these days, as if they are not there. Whether that's true, it's for you to decide.

Three years ago, when I redirected my old domains to my new ones, I got slapped with a manual penalty for unnatural linking. After sending a review request explaining that the domains are mine, hosted on the same IP, it was removed. During that time I didn't see any changes in my rankings whatsoever.

Could easily be a placebo as well. You are told you are hit with negative SEO, core update hits, your ranks drop, you assume it was the negative SEO, when in reality could be 50 other things.

**artrust99** · 22 February 2021, 6:11 am

One of my sites is under pressure constantly (TOP2-3 positions). Every day my site gets 50-60 DA0 RD0 PA0 dofollow backlinks, not related to my GEO, nor topic.

Didn't use any disawow tool for them. Still holding my ranks.

**loucosporapostas** · 1 March 2021, 11:02 am

I used to publish daily, but not during the lockdown. Can this lead to negative SEO?

I lost a lot of hits in March 2020 and it lasts until today. I believe that this happened because I did not publish many things as before. The absence of sports because of the coronavirus hindered me.

**wonderpunter** · 1 March 2021, 2:40 pm

I get hit all the time and it always seems to fix itself on every update, the negative seoers seem to work pretty hard at it... it can only be one of 9 sites that targets me..

**Tex Holdem Questions** · 1 March 2021, 3:30 pm

I don't know if I am specifically targeted but I recently had several hundred "automated" visitors on my site in 1 minute, appearing to come from many different countries.

I suspect this is a way to harm a site as they presumably bounce instantly and weaken your average time on page. Have any of you experienced this?

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