- Aug 13, 2024
- 536
- 31
google has improved a lot at ignoring spammy backlinks. in most cases, negative seo isn t as effective as it once was, and strong websites are usually not affected by random toxic links
can negative seo still harm competitors effectively?
- Thread starter Grayson Vale
- Start date
-
- Tags
- black hat seo seo
simon39842
Newbie
- Aug 21, 2020
- 1
- 1
Recently, GSC reported tons of links to my main money page on my site. All the url slugs indicated they came from porn sites. Every link was an exact match money keyword that my page was targeting. I only lately noticed these but they've been happening for at least 6 months. That coincides with a 90% drop in impressions for that keyword. Coincidence? I think not. Correlation does not mean causation. I am surprised by almost everyone saying stuff like "Google is much better at filtering out spammy links now than previously". That is what Google wants you to believe. The reality I think is different.
Mohammad Kamran
Newbie
- Apr 10, 2026
- 26
- 0
That's an interesting case. A large number of spammy links appearing around the same time as a ranking drop is definitely worth investigating, but I'd still be careful about assuming they were the only cause. I'd also compare the timing with Google updates, review the page itself, and check whether competitors made significant improvements. Sometimes multiple factors can overlap.
makroyal
Registered Member
- Jun 16, 2021
- 51
- 17
In my experience, Negative SEO is not as effective as it once was, Ranking drops are usually caused by technical problems, content quality, or algorithm updates rather than spam backlink's alone.
Arthur seo
BANNED
- Apr 11, 2026
- 31
- 15
In my experience Google ignores most low quality spam links but a sudden wave of manipulative signals is still worth keeping an eye on.
Sophia Lorraine
Newbie
- Nov 10, 2019
- 49
- 11
hellobuyer
Newbie
- Jun 15, 2024
- 21
- 4
Everything in excess is bad.
- Jun 4, 2026
- 110
- 23
Yes ,negative SEO may still harm competitors effectively.
vonmaster
Registered Member
- Aug 24, 2022
- 65
- 14
I Think negative SEO is harder to pull off than it used to be, Especially with random spammy backlink's. That said, I Wouldn’t ignore it completely, particularly if there are unusual link spikes or other suspicious activity.
MarketSellCap
Newbie
- Jan 3, 2026
- 28
- 7
Spammy backlinks alone are much less reliable as a negative SEO tactic now because Google ignores a lot of obvious link spam.
The bigger risk is usually things like site hacks, indexation issues, or reputation attacks rather than someone blasting a domain with bad links.
The bigger risk is usually things like site hacks, indexation issues, or reputation attacks rather than someone blasting a domain with bad links.
makroyal
Registered Member
- Jun 16, 2021
- 51
- 17
I Think random spam links are mostly ignored these days, but I wouldn’t say negative SEO is completely dead, Large or unusual links patterns are still worth monitoring, especially on competitive sites.
- Oct 5, 2009
- 2,409
- 1,229
I’ve seen negative SEO still have an impact, but it’s much harder to hurt a well-established site with spammy backlinks alone. Google is generally better at ignoring obvious link spam.
- Jul 29, 2008
- 2,341
- 666
I think negative SEO is much harder to pull off today, especially with Google getting better at discounting obvious spammy links.
That said, large scale or highly manipulative campaigns can still create problems so monitoring backlinks and keeping a clean link profile is still important.
That said, large scale or highly manipulative campaigns can still create problems so monitoring backlinks and keeping a clean link profile is still important.