You may not have even heard of negative SEO before, or you might think that it isn’t possible to do. No matter which way you lean, it’s best to be prepared and know just how negative search engine optimisation can affect your e-commerce website.
In this blog, we’ll explain what negative SEO is, if it’s a common thing to watch out for, and what it does to a site. Here’s the low down on negative SEO.
What is negative Search Engine Optimisation?
Negative SEO is something that isn’t discussed very often, and the definition is quite broad. Essentially, negative SEO is when someone attempts to harm your site’s rankings through malicious means.
It may not be that your competitors have been trying to rank above you when negative SEO has occurred; sometimes it’s the result of one nasty person who wants to harm your business. Some individuals know how to harness SEO for harmful purposes, and use them as part of their vendetta against you.
You don’t have to be ranking highly or be an older business either - you could be a brand new company that someone wants to exclude from specific keyword’s rankings.
What are some tactics for negative SEO?
Please note that we are telling you these so that you know what to look out for - we do not condone negative SEO attacks at all.
When someone is trying to affect your rankings, they may do things like hack your site, write fake reviews, build lots of spam links, send fake requests for link removal, or scrape content.
Is negative SEO a common thing?
Luckily, Google has plenty of measures in place to make it hard to achieve negative SEO. It also requires a lot of dedicated resources, ability and time to carry out a negative SEO onslaught against a site.
It can be easy to mistake normal SEO occurrences for negative SEO attacks, and you need to keep in mind that it’s pretty rare that your business would be targeted in this manner. It’s highly unlikely that an individual or business would be able to attack yours in this way, or even know how to.
What a negative SEO attack means for your e-commerce site
If someone has launched an attack against your site, you’ll find that you’re no longer ranking highly for certain keywords. A marked decrease in traffic follows on from this, leaving you missing out on reaching customers and getting more visitors to your site. This means your sales will quickly plummet, costing you money.
Have you been the victim of negative SEO?
If you need help determining whether you’ve been struck by negative SEO, or want to have it dealt with fast, talk to the team here at (insert business here).
We also handle regular search engine optimisation, as well as other aspects of digital marketing. Our team includes expert web developers and designers too! You’re in great hands with (insert business here).
Click here to arrange your free consultation to see how we can help you take your business to new heights.
