Negative SEO - Case Studies Prove Results. De-rank your competitors

[dean1986]

Reading these two articles made me feel sick. People are actually offering a service to de-rank a website.

I could have swore I heard Matt Cutts say this was not possible, well the results are in.

This really opens up a whole new can of worms for google.

http://trafficplanet.com/topic/2369-case-study-negative-seo-results/

http://trafficplanet.com/topic/2372-successful-negative-seo-case-study/

This is only going to get worse as news like this will spread like wildfire. In one sense, its good these people have done this to prove it to google its just a pity they did it on real business's that rely on traffic.

[MattJanaway]

Scary stuff indeed...

I don't care how effective it may or may not be, I could never do this to a competitor... My motto would always be to beat them on merit and not cheating.

I have no doubt that this currently works but I also have no doubt that Google will close the loophole and instead of devaluing a website for "un-natural links" it will simply ignore the links - it is only a matter of time.

Lets cross our fingers that we don't have immoral competitors until that time comes.

[Aran_Smithson]

Agreed Matt, that is scarey. though a years worth of work to deindex one competitor seems like a lot of hard work for little gain.

I'd rather spend the year doing something positive and not being a complete git.

After looking over the site in question, it may not be down to the negative SEO, theres an awful lot that could be improved on that site.

[MattJanaway]

Definitely. I think that example was way OTT and not needed for most websites. I think it looks like it would be pretty easy for small businesses with smaller websites.

Unfortunately there seems to be plenty of to55ers around. It worry's me that some people have no remorse... It could mean jobs lots and life's destroyed! Shame on Google!

[Aran_Smithson]

On reflection, this is the kind of story that is going to gain some momentum in the business/marketing world and will probably generate a bucket load of nice authority links for the site...could this be a double bluff?

either way mr negativeseo might have undone all his hard work simply by boasting about his exploits! I hope so.

[MattJanaway]

Oh absolutely, the backlinks generated from the story will make it worthwhile. Not sure if it was intended but it will benefit the site in the long run Im sure. Also, they did state a few times that his website was non-profit so it certainly wont hurt his lifestyle.

Yeah I think that thread will be closely watched by big G... Probably not something to boast about on an online forum. However, he definitely knows his stuff so fair play to him - he has thought about it in great detail.

[dean1986]

Its nothing got to do with the site in question. Its purely negative SEO. Read the case study about "Dan Thies" who says he is the SEO to Gurus and knows Matt Cutts on a personal basis. They targeted his website and got it off the ranks in about 1 week. He was ranked page 1 for "SEO" and "SEO services" now he is nowhere to be found.

[MattJanaway]

Yeah I know, I read the full forum thread... Im not sure what you mean?

Edit: Do you mean your post was not about the actual site it effected but more about Negative SEO? If so, we understand that, thats why we said it was scary. We were just pointing out the other issues in the forum thread.