Can Negative SEO Affect Online Reputation?

The Internet makes it easy for companies to reach out to their global audience. Various social media and review sites allow people to share their views about the companies they interact online. With these things in mind, it makes it easier for you to commit a single mistake that can negatively affect your online reputation. One of the things that can affect your online reputation is the negative SEO. Search engine optimization is popular among website owners, like you. It’s the process of increasing your site’s visibility to the major search engines.

White hat SEO is good for your business as it creates a strong online presence naturally. However, the black hat SEO or negative SEO can push your presence down to the drain. Although this tactic can help you attain fast ranking, it can hurt your performance over time. The major search engines are penalizing sites that use black hat SEO by de-indexing them or pushing their domains away from the first page of the SERP.

Google said that business owners don’t have to worry about negative SEO. But, as a savvy online marketer, you know better. It’s easy to find an SEO specialist, but it’s difficult to hire a reputable SEO expert who meets the requirements of Google in boosting your site. Some spammers may send false traffic to your site. As a result, it increases your bounce rate and reduces user experience. Over time, your rankings would go down.

Has your site been attacked?

It’s difficult to tell if negative SEO has hit your site. One of the signs you can see is your site’s traffic. If it drops suddenly, then you’re likely attacked by a black hat SEO. When auditing your site, there are many things you can look into to find out if spammers have attacked your site. If it suddenly receives an increasing number of links, then it’s a sign that your site is a victim of a negative SEO.

Another thing to watch out for is if your site starts getting links from porn, gambling and other sites in different languages. However, not all those links are bad. Attracting some unnatural links is natural. The good thing is that the search engines know it.

How to recover from Negative SEO

So, what should you do? The first thing you can do is to use a disavow tool. It tells that search engine that those selected links are not related to your site. That said, it’s vital that you perform regular link audits so you can stay on top of your back link profile. Another way to fight negative SEO is to hire a web developer or an SEO specialist who’ll look into those links and implement strategies that can get rid of those links and prevent them from happening.