Google’s Gary Illyes recently shed some light on how Google safeguards websites from negative SEO – the harmful effects of low-quality spam links. Essentially, he explained that Google’s advanced algorithms could detect and nullify these damaging spam links, ensuring the site’s ranking and integrity remain intact.
Negative SEO is an underhanded tactic often employed to overload a competitor’s website with spam links, in order to have it labeled as spam and subsequently removed from Google’s search results. This can severely impact a website’s reputation, visibility and traffic, especially in highly competitive sectors like the online gambling industry.
Despite the disputes surrounding the effectiveness of negative SEO, with some arguing it’s merely a myth, many businesses have reported experiencing sudden drops in their search engine visibility, often due to suspicious backlink activity. This has led experts to believe that negative SEO is indeed a real threat which calls for proactive measures.
When questioned about negative SEO’s harmfulness, Illyes referenced the Penguin update, stating that amongst a plethora of allegations, only one case might have been caused by negative SEO.
Countering negative SEO through Google’s algorithms
Even then, there wasn’t definitive proof of such.
According to Illyes, so-called “negative SEO links” fail to affect website rankings because Google’s algorithms can assess the relevance of these links. Irrelevant links are dismissed, proving a reliable filtering system in place to ensure only relevant links impact a site’s standing. This renders strategies intending to degrade website rankings by associating them with low-quality links ineffective.
Illyes concluded that concerns about negative SEO’s impact are generally unfounded. With Google’s defense system countering low-quality spam links and its method of disregarding irrelevant links, most negative SEO tactics are neutralized. This buffer provides website owners with some peace of mind, keeping them safe from the potential harm posed by underhanded SEO strategies.
