What Negative SEO Actually Is
Every so often a client comes to us convinced they’ve done something wrong. Their Google rankings have quietly slipped away over months, sometimes longer, and they assume it’s their content, their website, or something they forgot to update.
Lately we’re seeing a different cause more often: negative SEO.
It’s an attack, not a mistake. Someone, a competitor, a bot network, sometimes just automated spam with no target in particular, builds hundreds of low-quality links pointing at a website on purpose. Google’s ranking systems see a site suddenly attracting a flood of spammy, irrelevant backlinks and start trusting that site less, even though the business did nothing to cause it.
It’s more common against small, local business websites than people realise, because they’re an easy target and rarely being watched closely.
The Pattern We Look For
A few signs tend to show up together:
Warning signs of a negative SEO attack:
– Rankings and traffic falling steadily with no obvious cause
– A sudden spike in the number of websites linking to you, often over a matter of weeks
– Those new links coming from domains with nothing to do with your industry
– Domain names that look like spam networks themselves (think “backlinkbuilders”, “rankbox”, that sort of thing)
Individually, none of these prove much. Together, they’re a pretty clear signature.
What Can Be Done About It
The fix is a disavow request, a formal file submitted to Google telling it to ignore the spam links. It’s not instant, and it’s rarely a one-time job either, since whoever’s behind the attack can keep building new links. Ongoing monitoring matters as much as the initial cleanup.
Worth Checking, Even If Nothing Feels Wrong Yet
Most business owners never look at their backlink profile until something’s visibly broken. By then, months of rankings and enquiries have often already been lost.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know if my website is being targeted?
The clearest signal is a sudden jump in the number of websites linking to yours, especially from domains with no connection to your industry, arriving over weeks rather than building up naturally over years. A backlink audit will confirm it either way.
Can I fix this myself?
Technically yes. Google’s disavow tool is free to use. In practice, most business owners don’t have the time to sort genuine links from spam, or the experience to know what a normal backlink profile should look like for their site.
Will this keep happening once it’s fixed?
Sometimes. If the attack is still active, new spam links can keep arriving after the first cleanup, which is why ongoing monitoring is usually part of the fix rather than a single one-off job.
About Sites By Design
Sites By Design has been building and maintaining websites for Sydney businesses for over 15 years. If it’s been a while since anyone’s actually looked under the hood of your site’s SEO, we’re currently offering a $99 SEO audit, including a full backlink and spam-link scan. Book yours here for $99.
