Negative SEO

Negative SEO is any deliberate attempt to damage another website’s search rankings, usually a competitor’s. Common methods include pointing spammy links at a site, copying its content, posting fake reviews or hacking it. Google says its systems ignore most spammy links, so many feared attacks have little effect.

Written by Paul Hoda, SEO consultant since 2005. Last updated 8 November 2026.

Common types of negative SEO

  • Spam link attacks: building thousands of low-quality or toxic backlinks to a site, often with adult or gambling anchor text.
  • Content scraping: copying a site’s pages and publishing them elsewhere, hoping to cause duplicate content problems.
  • Fake reviews: posting negative reviews on Google Business Profile or review platforms.
  • Hacking: injecting spam pages, hidden links or malicious redirects into a site. See hacked site recovery.
  • Fake removal requests: contacting sites that link to you and asking them to remove the links while pretending to be you.
  • Crawl overload: sending heavy automated traffic to slow a server down.

How worried should you be?

Google has repeatedly said that negative SEO through links is rare, and that its systems, including SpamBrain, are designed to neutralise spammy links rather than punish the site receiving them. Since Penguin became part of the core algorithm in 2016, unnatural links are generally devalued rather than counted against a site.

Hacking and fake reviews are a more realistic threat. They cause direct, visible damage that does not depend on how Google weighs links, and they can hurt customer trust as well as rankings.

How to protect your site

  1. Keep your CMS, plugins and themes updated, use strong passwords and turn on two-factor authentication.
  2. Verify your site in Google Search Console, which alerts you to security issues and manual actions.
  3. Monitor new backlinks with a backlink tool and watch for sudden spikes in obviously spammy links.
  4. Set up alerts for copies of your content and file takedown requests where needed.
  5. Respond calmly and professionally to fake reviews, and report them through the platform’s tools.
  6. Use a firewall or bot protection to limit aggressive automated traffic.

When to use the disavow tool

Google’s disavow tool lets you ask Google to ignore specific links. Google advises that most sites do not need it. It is mainly worth considering if you have a manual action for unnatural links, or if you know of a large volume of paid or manipulative links pointing at your site. Disavowing good links by mistake can hurt rankings, so use it with care.

Diagnosing a ranking drop

Most sudden drops blamed on negative SEO have another cause. Before assuming an attack, check for:

  • A core update or other confirmed Google update around the date of the drop.
  • Technical faults, such as accidental noindex tags, robots.txt changes or server errors.
  • Lost links from important referring sites.
  • Stronger competitors or changes to the results page layout.

Key Takeaways

  • Negative SEO is a deliberate attempt to harm another site’s rankings.
  • Google says it ignores most spammy links rather than penalising the target.
  • Hacking and fake reviews are more realistic threats than link attacks.
  • Search Console alerts you to security issues and manual actions.
  • Most sites do not need the disavow tool.
  • Check for updates and technical problems before blaming an attack.

Related Terms

Browse more terms in the SEO Encyclopedia.