Negative SEO is the practice of using unethical techniques to sabotage a competitor's search rankings. The most common form is a negative SEO backlink attack, where someone deliberately creates thousands of toxic backlinks pointing to your website.
How negative SEO attacks work:
The attacker uses automated tools to create links to your site from spam domains, link farms, adult sites, gambling sites, or foreign-language content mills. The goal is to make Google believe that you are engaging in link scheme manipulation, triggering a penalty.
Signs of a negative SEO attack:
- Sudden spike in new backlinks (dozens or hundreds in a short period) - Links from completely irrelevant websites in foreign languages - Exact-match anchor text manipulation (your keywords stuffed into spam links) - Links from known link farms or PBN networks - Backlinks from adult, gambling, or pharmaceutical spam sites
What to do if you are under attack:
1. Run a backlink audit immediately to identify the new toxic links 2. Build a disavow file with all the attacking domains 3. Upload it to Google Search Console 4. Set up weekly monitoring to catch new waves of attack links 5. Document everything in case you need to file a reconsideration request
How Disavow helps:
Our New filter shows links that appeared recently, making it easy to spot sudden spikes. The Smart Risk Engine automatically classifies attack links as Toxic. Bulk disavow lets you add all toxic links to your disavow file in one click. For a detailed guide on identifying and responding to attacks, read <a href="/blog/someone-pointing-spam-links-at-your-site" class="text-amber-400 hover:text-amber-300 underline">how to tell if someone is pointing spam links at your site</a>.