Negative SEO Is Mostly a Con. Here's What Actually Hurts You

Somebody is going to tell you your competitor is attacking your SEO, and then offer to protect you for a monthly fee. That's the con. But there are real attacks, and they're not the ones being sold to you. Hi, I'm Nikki Pilkington. My site is https://nikki-pilkington.com/ and in this episode of "SEO F**king What", I'm taking apart negative SEO: the idea that someone else can deliberately damage your rankings. It's one of the most effective fear sales in this industry because it does two things at once. It explains away a drop that might be your agency's fault, and it justifies a new line on an invoice. I'm going to tell you what's mostly rubbish, and then I'm going to tell you what's real, because there are ways someone can do you harm, and no one's selling protection for those. Funny that. Here's what I'm covering: — Why dumping thousands of dodgy links on a competitor used to work, and why it doesn't now (Google moved from punishing the site to ignoring the rubbish around 2016) — The disavow tool: the one situation it genuinely belongs in, and why the monthly "backlink monitoring" line on your invoice is probably protecting you from nothing — Why "a competitor attacked you" is such a convenient explanation for someone whose work you're questioning, and the three questions to ask before you accept it — The real threats nobody sells protection for, starting with the fact that anyone can suggest an edit to your Google Business Profile, including that you're permanently closed — Hacked sites, fake copyright complaints that get your pages removed from Google, review bombing, and the ex-agency that still holds your logins — Four free checks you can do this week, plus my favourite kind of homework: cancelling something I also give you a proper piece of homework. Four checks, all free, and one thing to cancel. Not the "might do that one day" kind. The actual do-it-this-week kind, including a 10-second look in Search Console that tells you whether anybody has penalised you. If you know someone who's just been told they're under attack, send them this. It might save them a monthly fee. Get found. Make money. Stop stressing. And go and check your opening hours. Chapters: 00:00 — Somebody's about to sell you protection 02:30 — The disavow tool: where the money is 04:03 — The real threats nobody's selling you protection for 07:55 — Homework: four free checks 09:43 — The negative homework: cancel the protection Links mentioned: Non-Wanky SEO Courses (the On-Page SEO Toolkit is now free): https://nonwankyseo.com Google on the disavow tool (and why most sites don't need it): https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2648487 Search Console manual actions report: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9044175 Search Console security issues report: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9044101 Google's spam policies (including hacked content): https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies Episode 2, on who actually owns your Google accounts: https://seofuckingwhatpodcast.co.uk/episode/your-seo-sht-who-actually-owns-it The review side of things: https://seofuckingwhatpodcast.co.uk/episode/handle-your-reviews-legally-or-risk-a-300000-fine Follow Nikki: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikkipilkington/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikkipilkington/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/nikkipilkington.bsky.social Mentioned in this episode: ICN Network