Hacking of your website or Negative SEO attack: your online reputation can sometimes be put to the test.
In this article, we give you a simple trick to keep a watchful eye on the proper management of your online reputation.
In a previous article, we address the question of the pirates quest who want to board on your tub.
The attack by insertion of mini-sites
An attack mode is the insertion of mini-sites. Invisible in your architecture, your website can host “invisible” folders dedicated to spammy mini-websites (for escort recruitment, pharmaceutical drugs, …).
Your site can be found, in this case, as the target of spammy NetLinks (backlinks). The NetLinks are the links that come from the web. They are indispensable in any SEO strategy. But their quality and authority are essential. It must be in good entourages.
The Pirates are building large networks of “infected” sites to distribute their links (and promote their content in the search results). By default, Google trusts your website and so it gives credit to those spammy pages in a first round.
The problem is a bit like grappling hooks used for collision of tubs in pirate movies; these bad links will remain hooked to your website even after cleaning intruders mini websites.
The unmanageable dual problem: These links come from uncontrollable sites, and they are harmful. They come from bad sites. And they destroy your reputation in the ranking algorithms.
Tip: It is, therefore, essential to be able to identify those links and to denounce them.
The Negative SEO attack
In some cases, it is just possible that you undergo a Negative SEO attack.
Competitors have decided to spoil your reputation in the eyes of Google. They organize attacks by injecting dozen of spam links from sites on networks designed specifically for it.
Jealousy, competition, … some are desperate to get their way.
And without your active vigilance, your website can suffer the pangs of manual penalties. Google considers you as being in a too bad company to continue to trust you! Zou, look elsewhere if your rankings will be better.
A manual penalty to deviate your pages from Google rankings. Without wishing you the throes of Manu and Billy that tell a funny way of life after a penalty:
Tip: proactivity is always a strategic key to managing your online reputation.
Follow regularly the new links that arrive on your site using dedicated services
New NetLinks at Majestic
The principle is to check any “abnormal” activity in getting links to your website. In the example below, the graph helps to detect hundreds of fresh links came in two weeks.
We can conduct further analysis:
- Check the labels of anchors links
- Whether those links come from a small number of IP addresses
- Watching compatibility of thematic between departures sites and yours
- Identify commonalities among these websites (spam blogs, same theme layout, …)
What services used to check your web reputation?
There are many services that are fully dedicated to the analysis of links on the internet:
- www.linkresearchtools.com
- www.ahrefs.com
- www.moz.com/researchtools/ose/
- www.cognitiveseo.com
With Majestic SEO, you have two useful indicators to measure the quality of a website and a link:
- Confidence level (Trust Flow)
- Volume of citations (Citation Flow).
The ratio Quotation / Trust must be greater or equal to one to ensure a sufficient level of quality.
Who to contact for help in case of doubt?
Without having to call us, but it is always an option, you can trust SEO experts (independent or agencies) that have experience in the cleaning of such mishaps. Some have made a specialty.
Photo: drawing of Mr. Durand Brager, abduction, and looting of the Pauline-and-Victoire, Bordeaux, by Malay pirates