Many, if not all, website owners aspire to get on top of the pages of Google. After all, the better your Google search ranking is, the bigger your chance of getting more online visibility and attracting potential customers can be. However, experts warned that getting good Google rankings should not be your only priority when running a website. According to them, it is also important to protect your online assets from negative SEO.
James Parsons, CMO at the US-based AudienceBloom.com, said negative SEO can undo everything you have done to get your website’s search rankings up. According to him, negative SEO works by simulating unnatural link building activity against other sites. Then, if Google notices that thousands of junk links are being connected to your site, it can penalise you or “deindex” your site completely even if you haven’t done anything wrong.
For this reason, it is very crucial that you implement preventive measures against negative SEO, whether you’re building a new website or running a much
older site. For starters, James said you should establish strong website security.
According to him, the most dangerous and the most “insidious” negative SEO attacks are those performed by hackers. These hackers can insert a few hidden spam links on your pages and/or install themselves as an admin user. Oftentimes, these actions go unnoticed by many site owners. As a result, everything remains undetected until they start receiving penalties from Google for bad links or hidden text. Fortunately, this is something having a solid web security can prevent. By keeping your passwords strong and your web security updated, you can prevent hackers from messing up with your site.
Establishing authorship can also protect your site from negative SEO. James explained that authorship helps you establish yourself as a legitimate blogger or webmaster. So when your site has become a victim of negative SEO, you can maintain authorship as a sign of legitimacy. He said it’s like basically telling Google that what happened to your site isn’t entirely your fault.
Aside from setting up strong web security and establishing authorship, improving content volume is also something you should do. Citing WordStream.com, James explained that websites with fewer pages are more prone to negative SEO attacks. Therefore, if you don’t want your website to be a victim of negative SEO, you should take the time to build and/or improve your site’s content volume.
However, you shouldn’t just post anything on your site. To avoid penalties and ensure high Google ranking, James stressed out that your content should meet web standards. Also, they should be relevant, as well as long and deep enough to provide value and insight.
