Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Flipboard 0 The other day, I read a well written but old article that explored the possibilities of what the next version of penguin could entail. The main guess, Google will become even stricter regarding bad links. Minor points in the article included the idea that social will become a stronger signal and that the importance of varying anchor text in link profiles will be increased. I found myself agreeing with all these ideas even though the article was talking about an update that already happened. Then, I read the following comment left by a reader: This logical and edgy comment delivers a punch. In it, there is a passion and frustration that rings true. Would Google really punish a website for external factors that are open to the public to utilize at any given time? The sad answer is, yes. This is an experiment that shows negative SEO can be effective. There are many people who have been hit by negative SEO. If you have a story, please share it in the comments below. For those of you unfamiliar with black hat SEO tools, let me educate you. There are automation tools of all kind that are available for purchase. There are tools that create forum profiles and insert forum profile signatures at lightning speeds. There are tools that spam websites with comment link spam. There are tools that setup blogs and spam the blogs with links. It is very possible for one person to create millions of links in one day using these tools. Now a days, entrepreneurial black hat folks have setup websites where they offer NSEO, negative SEO services. I run a site where I feature some really cool stuff. It’s my baby. I have put so much time, energy, worry, and work into this the site. I have had great success via social media and in Google’s search results. It would tear me up if someone destroyed my link profile by pointing thousands of bad links to my site. It’s really brutal that Google allows people to have such power over things that they don’t own. One of Google’s answers to the problem of NSEO is the disavow tool. This tool would be helpful if the black hat people would calm down a little and only build a few naughty backlinks. But, the reality is that this tool forces someone to manually sift through, potentially, millions of links. I find it hard to believe that the bright minds at Google can’t come up with a better solution. Maybe the true purpose of the disavow tool is to help Google collect information regarding bad domains? A rebuttal to the effectiveness of NSEO is the idea that NSEO can’t harm large domains and goes something like this: “Oh yeah? Let’s see someone NSEO Pandora from ranking #1 for the ‘radio’ search term.” The common consensus is negative SEO can’t harm Pandora. Why? Pandora is an authoritative and established website. Pandora has been mentioned and linked to numerous times from the cream of the website crop. Authoritative websites have given Pandora authority. If I had my wish, bad links would have no negative and no positive results. Let the black hat world spin, churn, and turn without getting any traction from their efforts. They aren’t going to find a shady way to get links from established and authoritative websites, short of hacking established and authoritative websites. The same is true of getting social mentions from established, popular, or authoritative social accounts. However, this is not the way Google is currently operating. NSEO is real. If a site is not authoritative and established, it is open to the damages of a NSEO attack. The best course of defense is to work towards gaining links, mentions, and social signals from established places which can act as a shield from possible NSEO attacks. This article first appeared at DragonBlogger. Twitter Tweet Facebook Share Email This article was written for Business 2 Community by Kane Pepi.Learn how to publish your content on B2C Author: Kane Pepi Kane Pepi is an experienced financial and cryptocurrency writer with over 2,000+ published articles, guides, and market insights in the public domain. Expert niche subjects include asset valuation and analysis, portfolio management, and the prevention of financial crime. Kane is particularly skilled in explaining complex financial topics in a user-friendly … View full profile ›More by this author:VoIP Basics: Everything Beginners Should Know!Bitcoin Investment, Trading & Mining: The Ultimate Guide for BeginnersIs This a Better Way to Set Your 2020 Goals and Resolutions?