Is your website’s organic traffic dropping unexpectedly? Negative SEO can be one possible cause, but it should not be the first assumption.
Ranking and traffic losses can also happen because of Google algorithm updates, technical SEO problems, indexing issues, content changes or stronger competition.
In this article, we explain how to detect possible negative SEO attacks, identify the warning signs and take the right steps to protect your website. Before looking at individual attacks, it is important to understand what negative SEO actually means.
Last Updated: 13.08.2026
What is Negative SEO?
Negative SEO can still be a concern, but traditional attacks involving large numbers of spammy backlinks are generally less effective than they once were.
Google has developed systems that can identify and devalue many types of link spam rather than automatically treating every suspicious backlink as a reason to reduce a website’s rankings.
Google first launched its Penguin system in 2012 to combat link spam. In 2016, Penguin became part of Google’s core ranking systems and became more granular, meaning spam signals could be devalued without necessarily affecting an entire website.
Website owners should still watch for more serious threats such as website hacking, malicious redirects, unauthorised pages, fake reviews and fraudulent backlink removal requests.
Types of Negative SEO Attacks
Low-quality backlinks are the main reason for negative SEO, many SEO experts buy bulk links for low prices, and they do not bother about the spammy links. There is a number of websites that provides millions of backlinks for a price and a maximum of them will be spam links.
Other common SEO mistakes are,
- Submitting fake link removal request
- Leaving fake negative reviews
- Hacking sites and other forms of cyber security attacks
Does Negative SEO work?
Google officially says it’s no till 2021 but taking Goole’s words as a face value will not always work. Google professionals always call negative SEO as a meme, but negative SEO is still working for many websites.
Penguin is a part of Google algorithms that can detect spam links and directly affects the SEO ranking of the website. After 2006, Google introduced an update Penguin 4.0, which is very helpful for SEO experts, that detects link spam and remove those links from the websites, and this will not affect the ranking of the website.
How to Detect Negative SEO Attacks and Fix them?
Below listed are the common negative SEO attacks and we can see them briefly and how to fix them.
- Spammy Link Building
- Fake Link Removal Request
- Content Scrapping
- False URL parameters
- Fake reviews
- Hacking your site
Spammy Link Building
Building a number of low-quality links to a highly competing website result in negative SEO whether the link may be from cheap Fiverr Gigs, Scrapebox comments spam or from PBN.
How can spam links affect your site?
There are two ways to link spam that reflects in negative SEO, and unethical SEO can use both.
- The Volume Approach – It will affect thousands upon thousands of low-quality links on your site.
- The over-optimized anchor text approach – Pointing a number of links with exact match anchor texts will result in an unnatural anchor text ratio.
Both the approaches can affect your website ranking either algorithmically by Penguin or manually by the Google webspam team, but they can be identified easily so you can fix them.
How to detect Spam Link attacks?
You can detect these spam links in three methods,
1. Find Spam Links in real time
You monitor all your backlink reports and detect all the new links that are linked to your post using Ahrefs Alerts. You can do this by,
Alerts>Backlinks>New Alert>Enter Domain>New Backlinks>Set Email Interval>Add
If you fed up your domain by linking your email address in Ahrefs Alerts you can get daily email reports about the backlinks to your site.
With this history of new backlinks, you can have an idea about your daily backlink portfolio. If you detect several new backlinks abnormally, then it might be the negative SEO attack.
2. Check the Referring Domains and Page Graphs
Another easiest method is to analyse the graphs where you can get spikes when a number of backlinks occur. It may be a success for your campaign like your blog post could be viral or it may be a negative SEO attack.
You can check the links in the backlinks report by using the filters Dofollow, one click per domain, new backlinks, and choosing the time period when new backlinks occur.
3. Check the Anchors report
The above two methods are effective for the large number of spam links affecting your business website, this method is to find the anchor text ratio. Go to Anchors tab, select Dofollow links and check the Ref.domains with anchor texts.
If you found a high percentage of keyword-rich anchors, then it might the negative SEO attack or a sign of bad link building practices.
How to fix this Link Spam Attack?
Finding spammy backlinks does not automatically mean that you need to remove or disavow every link. Google says that, in most cases, its systems can determine which links to trust without additional action from website owners.
The Disavow Links tool should therefore be used carefully. Google recommends considering it mainly when a website has a considerable number of artificial, spammy or low-quality backlinks and those links have caused, or are likely to cause, a manual action.
Before using the tool, check the Manual Actions section of Google Search Console and investigate suspicious links. Where possible, try to have genuinely problematic links removed first.
Disavowing a link tells Google to ignore it when assessing the site; it does not physically remove the backlink from the other website.
Fake Link Removal Requests
Many website owners are facing this issue and it is common in this SEO field, without proper research you should not remove any link from your websites.
If you removed the links by accepting the fake removal requests, then you might miss your strong backlinks, this can be found easily by Ahrefs Alert emails.
When your link is removed by a website owner reach out to them and explain the removal request is not from your site and ask them to reinsert your link.
Content Scrapping
Content scraping happens when another website copies and republishes your content without permission. However, copied content appearing elsewhere does not automatically mean that your original page will lose its rankings.
Google uses different signals to identify duplicate pages and determine which URL should be treated as the representative or canonical version. In most cases, the original page should not be affected simply because another website has copied its content.
Problems may require further investigation if a copied page begins outranking the original, Google chooses the wrong canonical URL or large amounts of your content are being reproduced across other websites.
You can investigate suspicious copies by searching for distinctive sentences from your article and checking important URLs through Google Search Console’s URL Inspection tool. This can help you see which URL Google currently considers canonical.
How to fix this Content Scraping?
You can fix and improve your traffic using these methods,
- Ask for an attribution link
- File a DMCA complaint
- Ensure proper internal linking structure
False URL Parameters
False or Manipulated URL Parameters
URL parameters are commonly used for functions such as filtering, sorting, tracking and displaying different versions of website content. They do not need to contain the target keyword of a page.
Problems can occur when large numbers of unnecessary parameter URLs become crawlable or indexable. This can create several URLs containing identical or very similar content and make it harder to manage crawling, indexing and canonicalisation.
An unexpected increase in unfamiliar URLs can also be worth investigating because, in some cases, unauthorised pages, redirects or URL changes may be associated with a compromised website.
How to Fight Back Against URL Parameter Problems?
Monitor Google Search Console for unexpected changes in indexed URLs and inspect unfamiliar URLs individually. Use consistent internal links, include preferred URLs in your XML sitemap and apply appropriate canonical signals where duplicate URLs exist.
If large numbers of unfamiliar parameter URLs suddenly appear, also check the website for security problems, injected pages, unwanted redirects or unauthorised changes.
Fake Reviews
If you are running a business, reviews are the first impression that attracts more clients. It will be displayed in the Google snippet when a user searches for your service.
The fake reviews will affect your business reputation directly and it also reduces your productivity, profit. and conversion rates. It is important to monitor all the reviews about your business, and if you find any negative or fake review report immediately.
Ask your customers and clients to post more positive reviews about your business that can attract audiences.
Hacking your Site
Hacking is one of the negative SEO attacks that can harm your business reputation and your website traffic. Google always detects all the websites and if there are any malware functions then Google automatically flags your website as hacked.
It is important to avoid these kinds of negativities to prevent your business reputation, and you should install all the safety certificates, use strong passwords, and keep your CMS like WordPress and Shopify updated to avoid hacking.
Conclusion
Negative SEO should not be the first explanation for every sudden drop in organic traffic. Changes in Google rankings can also result from algorithm updates, technical SEO problems, indexing issues, content quality or increased competition.
However, website owners should still watch for suspicious backlinks, fake link removal requests, copied content, unusual URLs, fake reviews and security breaches.
Regularly checking Google Search Console, backlink data and website security can help identify unusual activity before it becomes a larger problem.
The best approach is to investigate the cause of a traffic or ranking decline carefully before taking action. In particular, avoid automatically removing or disavowing suspicious links unless there is clear evidence that they are causing a genuine SEO problem.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is negative SEO?
Negative SEO is an attempt by another party to damage a website’s search visibility, reputation or performance using manipulative or malicious techniques.
Can spammy backlinks hurt my website rankings?
Google can identify and discount many spammy links automatically. However, unusual backlink activity should still be investigated, particularly if there are signs of deliberate manipulation.
How can I tell if my website is under a negative SEO attack?
Check for unusual backlink spikes, unexpected indexed URLs, suspicious ranking changes, fake reviews, unauthorised website changes and security warnings in Google Search Console.
Should I disavow every toxic or spammy backlink?
No. Most websites do not need to disavow every suspicious backlink. The Disavow Links tool should be used cautiously and mainly in serious cases involving manipulative links.
Can copied content damage my SEO?
Copied content does not automatically cause your original page to lose rankings. However, you should investigate if scraped versions begin outranking your original content or create indexing and canonicalisation problems.
Can hacking cause a sudden drop in organic traffic?
Yes. Hacking can introduce malicious pages, redirects or malware that affect crawling, indexing, user trust and search visibility.
What should I check first when organic traffic suddenly drops?
Start with Google Search Console and check indexing, manual actions, security issues and search performance. Then review recent website changes, Google updates, backlinks and competitor movements before assuming negative SEO.
