Can a competitor (e.g. the “friendly” chap next door, who just launched a similar outfit to yours) harm your website or blog rankings using the rules set by Google and other engines? If you said NO, you’re in danger of getting a rude shock one of these days, because it could just happen to you.

The Internet generally provides a level playing field for competition to happen. Those who use it must however play by the rules for the benefits to be consistent.

A good example is the very important matter of achieving search engine visibility. Too many occurrences of manipulation by naughty SEO specialists have recently created the need for an overhaul of search algorithms used.

Sadly, Innocent High Quality Content Websites – Like YOURS – Can Now Get Wrongly Penalized!

With Google’s Panda (content quality) and Penguin (links quality) algorithm updates, so much has changed in terms of what works in getting a website to appear on Search Engine Results Pages(SERPs).

Websites that used to dominate top positions in first pages of search results now languish way down on other pages.

But the annoying thing – and my reason for writing this piece – is that not all of those websites are guilty of wrong doing. This implies that other innocent high quality content websites are probably getting hurt too!

This has led me to a conclusion that may be at variance with what so-called experts will say about SEO that: No one really knows what will happen next. No one is really sure what will continue to work and what will not. NOT EVEN THE EXPERTS! The only people who seem to be able to consistently make headway towards their own goals these days, seem to be those willing to break the rules as they are re-written by Google!!

And this is why (if you are not already aware) I’d like to impress upon you the importance of dedicating quality time, effort and resources to monitoring your website.

Monitor your web logs etc to see what’s being done by “visitors” who stop over. Also stay on top of what’s happening in terms of back links to your website: This is important because Google now ranks websites based on the perceived quality of websites linking back to your website.

Why It CAN Happen To Anyone – Even YOU!

Can you imagine what would happen if someone got say hundreds of porn (and similar low quality) websites to link back to different pages on YOUR website? (Keep in mind that you would NOT be aware this was happening.)

Actually, don’t bother to imagine it. It’s already happening. In other words, Google’s efforts to punish bad guys (the ones I call SEO Provider Scoundrels) has created a line of business for them called NEGATIVE SEO!

And some dirty minded business owners do not mind hiring such individuals to apply negative SEO techniques against their competitors. But these guys may not even need to get hired to implement negative SEO against a client’s competitor.

I have a hunch that they profit from doing it in other ways:

For instance, they could choose a specific website or blog to DO IT to, and let the drop in search engine visibility persist for a while. Then they would contact the owner to offer their paid services in helping to get into the top of SERPs. Sound unbelievable? I say, you never know! Anyway, it’s a theory I have. I cannot prove it. But careful reflection on my recent experiences suggests I could be right.

NB: Those I believe operate in the above manner typically send their offers via gmail and yahoo email addresses, and NEVER offer a website address you can check them out on. But better established providers who lack ethical restraint could also choose play dirty out of greed.

But you could ask, “Why would ANYONE want to do that to MY website? After all, I haven’t done anything to offend anyone!”

My response: In a recent post titled “Six Potentially Useful Measures of Your Blog’s Performance” (see item no. 2) I mentioned that my website has already been a victim of negative SEO. And I’ve been forced to embark on specific corrective measures prescribed in certain quarters. Hopefully, by the time you read the rest of this piece, you’ll have learnt why it CAN happen to you, and that if it does, it won’t be about YOU!

Preventive Steps You Can Take

Like I stated earlier, I honestly do not believe anyone knows exactly what to do to achieve consistently stable visibility under the new search engine dispensation.

I’ve done a lot of reading up on this subject. At the end of this piece there’s a list of hyperlinked articles and blog posts that you can explore for further reading.

The strategies I outline below (based on my research) have stood the test of time as valuable ways to simultaneously win share of mind, and attract search engine “favour”. You therefore have more to gain, than lose, by putting them to use – like I’m doing already

I believe it is reasonable to expect that a competitor or two may decide they need to "fight" you for search engine visibility. Some may choose to fight dirty. Others may not.

Whatever happens, be prepared to defend your turf.

1. Aggressively Create Quality Content

Aim to establish yours as an authority website/blog via aggressive content creation and multiple back links building on high profile websites in your niche or market. That will minimize any negative SEO impact.

If competitors who turn to Negative SEO lack in-house expertise, they’ll outsource to SEO Provider Scoundrels – and most of the latter can be quite cheap.

So, you must commit to a rigorous new content publishing schedule by way of new posts/articles, videos, slideshows, special reports, white paper, and even pod casts.

Believe me when I say your creativity/passion is crucial to defeating negative SEO!

Everything I say here is from personal experience. Resolve to turn your website or blog into a relentless content publishing machine that Google and other engines will be unable to resist – even if negative SEO is done by competitors. Work hard at it now, and you’ll be able to rest easy later

I now publish at least ONE new post per day on my blog – apart from my weekly newsletter on Public Speaking Ideas. My email subscription rates, website traffic have grown over time as a result. And that’s apart from sales leads for products I offer.

A minimum of one 500 to 1,500 word quality content article per week is good. But MUCH MORE (like four per week) can dramatically attract useful interest from people and friendly search engine bots!

Decide who’s going to be responsible for researching new topics or for publishing content on your website or blog. Your posts or articles, as mentioned above, must capture the attention and interest of potential clients.

Without good quality new content produced regularly, this strategy may not work for you.

Work towards achieving "critical mass” to feed the search engines with good "index-able" material. The results won’t happen overnight, so you must apply tenacity.

2. Diligent Search Engine Optimisation & Backlinks Building

Proper keyword research, and use of meta tag descriptions can get your website/blog found/visited by more of your target audience. Backlink profile building is also another. As you successfully guest post on decent ranking websites, your domain’s backlinks status will be further enhanced. Quality content will also eventually get other sites to link to your posts or pages on their own, over time.

Google’s webmaster tools offer a useful starting point to coordinate your efforts. Do a search to learn how to carry out keyword research. Then apply what you learn to publishing new content on your website and/or blog.

Make sure to read the most recent articles that come up in your searches to be sure you are up to date. I used to be lazy about this before, because I saw a trend in which it seemed not to make much difference for small players.

But with recent developments from Google and others, keyword research has become much more influential in dictating where one ends up in search results. One hint I’ve gotten is to find a niche that’s not as actively competed for, as others, and dominate it.

Search engine results are not static. The reality is that you’ll continually have to work hard to maintain your position or improve on it for keywords you choose. It’s a learning process. But like any other skill, if you keep at it long enough, you’ll get the hang of it.

If/When You Discover Negative SEO Against You

We all hope to be spared the agony of this nasty experience. But just in case it does happen (and with the due diligence advocated, you should detect it early enough), here’s one powerful step you can take where it matters most i.e. with the search engines:

Use the DISAVOW services provided by Bing.com, and more recently (due to popular demand) by Google.com.

Further Reading

1. How to Protect Your Site from Negative SEO – Kaiserthesage.com

2. To Catch a Spammer: Uncovering Negative SEO – Seomoz.org (describes a real life case study in which a Negative SEO practitioner is unmasked. Very interesting read!)

3. Were You Hit By Negative SEO? – Seomoz.org

4. How To Get Rid Of Unwanted Back Links – Searchenginewatch.com

5. Can Competitors Harm Rankings? – Google.com (According to a post on Seoroundtable Google initially said “there’s nothing a competitor can do to harm your ranking or have your site removed from our index”, then later updated it to read “Google works hard to prevent other webmasters from being able to harm your ranking or have your site removed from our index”. And now, it offers a special DISAVOW service to help you fight such attempts. I believe that’s enough to show how REAL the danger is! Don’t you?