Need Help my site got hit by Negative SEO!

Sorry, mickyfu, but Drogon is absolutely right. Even a gazillion links to non-existing pages that give a proper 404 won't hurt at all. We personally tested this on a very large scale with an own site, high six digit number of the spammiest links available to 10k made up URLs. 404 nightmare, but zero movement in the SERPs, neither up, nor down. Google ignores those links, Google ignores 404s and 410s. What Google doesn't like is existing, indexed pages often showing errors because of misconfigurations or similar, since they want realiable results.

Then again put your website where your mouth is. I'm sorry but I work on these kinds of subjects. I don't need hear say kids telling me what does and does not work, when I see it with my own eyes and experience. Again, put your websites where your mouth is. If not then keep believing your Charlie Floate blogs.
 
You can try Disavow Tool, that allows to remove certain URLs or domains as a ranking factor in the indexing of your site. You do this by creating a .txt file with a list of domains or URLs and submitting it to Google.
 
They generally don't cause SEO problems, I'd be redirecting them anyway though. Here's a quote taken directly from Google's support system...

"Generally, 404 errors don't impact your site's ranking in Google, and you can safely ignore them.....404s are a perfectly normal (and in many ways desirable) part of the web. You will likely never be able to control every link to your site, or resolve every 404 error listed in Search Console. Instead, check the top-ranking issues, fix those if possible, and then move on."
 
They generally don't cause SEO problems, I'd be redirecting them anyway though. Here's a quote taken directly from Google's support system...

"Generally, 404 errors don't impact your site's ranking in Google, and you can safely ignore them.....404s are a perfectly normal (and in many ways desirable) part of the web. You will likely never be able to control every link to your site, or resolve every 404 error listed in Search Console. Instead, check the top-ranking issues, fix those if possible, and then move on."

Correct 404s are normal, 100,000 404s are not.
 
Hello,

I am not looking to pick any fight here but, I think I have a better solution, if the problem is that you are getting tons of 404 errors from Webmaster tool from a spammy page what I would do is simple and solve this problem in 2 steps that are the following:

1) Create page that is giving 404 error so, you fix Webmaster errors

2) Make that page "noindex" and "nofollow" (you can use WP plugin All in One SEO Pack for it) so, all SEO done on that page will be ignored by Google robots even if there 4 billion spammy links on it and you don't even have to disallow them since Google knows now to ignore this page.

And if competitors does the same do it again just keep doing that, sooner or later he will give up.:cool:
 
Last edited:
The post url = exampledomain.com/2014/03/i-love-bhw.html
Targeted url = exampledomain.com/2014/03/i-love-bhw-2

I'm with Micky FU on this one. The guy who did this understands on a fairly deep level the implications of NSEO to those exact pages. Even understands a drop of Apache and how it handles dynamic page serving in WordPress if you ask me too. (I'm guessing WordPress because of date format in the URL)

IMHO, not even sure I would play in a niche where someone like that was operating in.

My advice, find a quieter niche to earn your cash from!
 
Correct 404s are normal, 100,000 404s are not.

I agree with that, I've always found a pretty strong correlation with my own websites rankings and the amount of 404 pages I have showing up. Obviously there are plenty of other factors that can have an affect on the rankings. I like to fix 404s so that you can start pinpointing other issues that could be negatively impacting.

I also fix them because I don't trust the way Google says "Generally," before they go into the fact that 404s don't have an impact.
 
They generally don't cause SEO problems, I'd be redirecting them anyway though. Here's a quote taken directly from Google's support system...

"Generally, 404 errors don?t impact your site?s ranking in Google, and you can safely ignore them.....404s are a perfectly normal (and in many ways desirable) part of the web. You will likely never be able to control every link to your site, or resolve every 404 error listed in Search Console. Instead, check the top-ranking issues, fix those if possible, and then move on."

The problem rests with the word, "generally". Generally is not absolutely, and opens the door for things, such as what's happened here, to harm you.

OP, have you taken care of this issue?
 
The problem rests with the word, "generally". Generally is not absolutely, and opens the door for things, such as what's happened here, to harm you.

OP, have you taken care of this issue?

I have disavowed the spammy links while the rankings seem to fluctuate around #17 - #25 spots.. Also did some onpage changes.. along with new post updates! I will be posting updates focusing on this keyword to counter the movement.. Let's see what happens! I am still open to suggestions from you Guys!

I am sure we are all getting lots to learn from the expert opinions!
 
Looks like you got hit with something sticky. Try looking exactly at what your competitor did to deindex your site and aim at negating whatever is pending clearance.

All I can say is this part of our job sucks so always keep ahead of competitors to hold value.
 
I have disavowed the spammy links while the rankings seem to fluctuate around #17 - #25 spots.. Also did some onpage changes.. along with new post updates! I will be posting updates focusing on this keyword to counter the movement.. Let's see what happens! I am still open to suggestions from you Guys!

I am sure we are all getting lots to learn from the expert opinions!

The main thing you did correct was to disavow the links. It takes a while for Google to finally sort everything out so don't expect results in a weeks time. (Or even a months time)

IMHO.

- Keep adding content.
- Focus on other traffic if that's a possibility.
- Keep a regular eye on Majestic / Ahrefs for further attacks.

The disavow tools takes a while to work but the magic does eventually happen, just keep working on the site and it will come back okay.

You might want to try and figure out who attacked you if that's a possibility too. Knowledge is power!
 
Spammy links > web 2.0

One other thing that was suggested was create the page and then nofollow and noindex it.

You can redirect that page to your competitor if you know who did it. giggle.
 
You can use Disavow tool to remove certain URLs. Use unique content relevant to your keyword and niche.
Update your website regularly. Build some quality backlinks.
Share your site on Instagram, Google+, Facebook etc.
It increase your sites traffic. Check your site frequently using Webmaster tool and check backlinks too.
It helps your site to get good ranking.
 
Update: My adsense account got banned due to invalid account activity.. maybe the one who built bad backlinks clickjacked my account as well.. terrible times! I don't know what I am gonna do now.. I have no knowledge of amazon or any CPA stuffs.. can anyone be my mentor plz..
 
Mates, @mickyfu is absolutely right. Been there suffered that, removed the 404s and bam, I was back. Till then kept contemplating and doubting the theories but man they were very right. Try it, you will realise it. Now I have made homepage my 404 page for all money sites.
 
Back
Top