Negative SEO - Banned Topic

There's no need ban anything.

If the forum feels strongly against Negative SEO and all its implications and repercussions, then the forum can and should show noobs and the selfish shits that want to do Neg SEO why it's crap and not a welcome tactic or discussion around here.

Banning any topics short of illegal activities (for which BHW might get implicated) is contrary to what this place is about, which is to learn and take your IM, and SEO activities to the next level. Why not take the opportunity to educate someone that opens a thread about How to Do Neg SEO, about just why it is so fucked up, and hurts everyone in the longterm. You never know, you just might change their minds and save a site or two.

personally I think this forum should discuss all blackhat marketing topics, even if they happen to be morally questionable. email spamming, cookie stuffing, craigslist, negative seo.. the list goes on. we shouldn't be censoring any of that info. just my 2c.

Click to expand...

All the methods you mentioned does not affect you and me as members or our industry like
negative SEO does. Completely different.

Click to expand...

Actually 2 of those topics are completely banned here, as they should be because they are not only blackhat, they are serious felonies, and BHW owner and staff could face legal attention if they allowed such topics discussed here.

BHW should ban it when Google does first.

Even the texts the roman catholic church confiscates and considers sinful are kept and study. In order to be experts you have to know all areas. I feel banning one area because a member could be hurt is ignorant. If you protect yourself correctly, i.e not posting your URL's, I don't see how discussing negative SEO can harm someone who has an account on BHW sites.

To ignore a topic is to give it power.

This entire discussion seems to presume that people are only using negative SEO against competitors. What about dealing with things like Ripoff Report, Pissed Consumer, and deliberate attack sites against your company? It's one thing to handle legitimate complaints and customer service issues, but I see every day people posting on these sites that are just plain stupid, ignorant, unwilling to take responsibility for their part in what happened, and will never be satisfied. And then that ONE complaint (yes, in some cases just one single Ripoff Report) gets ranked for a company with an otherwise exceptional reputation and excellent customer service record.

Sure, you can do "positive build" reputation management, but in the meantime, that one bullshit report can cost the company tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Under those circumstances, I have absolutely NO qualms about using "negative SEO" -- or just about any other tactic -- to help my client defend against a completely unfounded attack on an unlevel playing field.

Negative SEO is just like a gun -- it's not the weapon itself that's inherently bad -- it's how it's used. If your opponent isn't playing fair, and the referee (Google) isn't calling them on it, and it's not just a game, but a matter of the life or death of your business, what would you do?