Want to work your way up in SERPs? Get and share ideas on link building, on/off page optimizing, social SEO and more.

Can competitors destroy your rankings with blackhat methods?
frankvue
Posts: 30
Joined: 02 Jun 10
Trust:
15 Jul 11 5:23 pm

Can competitors destroy your rankings with blackhat methods?

I'm just curious, since you're clearly visible on the front page of google, is it possible for your competitors to use bad link building methods to link to your site and have google flag it as spam or sandbox the site if it's new? If so, is there any way to prevent it?

For example, I have a about 1000 links from 1 international forum that I didn't do and they're all the same spam message.

Any thoughts?
  • 0
jcdean
Posts: 373
Joined: 24 Nov 09
Trust:
15 Jul 11 8:36 pm

 I don't see how you could be hurt in your rankings by someone unless they actually hacked your site.

The Consensus is that links either help or don't help. They can't hurt.

If you could crappy link someone out of the serps it would be like the Wild West on the web.

What do you mean by a spam message? Some one spamed a forum with a link to your site? It may have been done when your domain belonged to another.
  • 0
Respect,
JC Dean
 
frankvue
Posts: 30
Joined: 02 Jun 10
Trust:
15 Jul 11 8:49 pm

 Yeah someone spammed a link to my site on a forum.

I don't agree that links can't hurt. If that is the case, we shouldn't have to be so careful about building links slowly to avoid being sandboxed.

Someone who's malicious could look up your domain age and see that it's less than a year and prone to being sandboxed. They can simply just create hundreds of links to your page and get it sandboxed and out of the race for a good while.

What do you think?
  • 0
mrehan
Posts: 21
Joined: 06 Apr 10
Trust:
16 Jul 11 6:52 am

 In my short experience of one year, I have realized that someone can hurt you by bombarding you with links in a short space of time, only if your site is new. The idea of building links slowly is that we gradually rise up in the serps and at the same time the domain is getting aged too. And at the same time as things are happening slowly we are not in anyones' radar who can try to hurt a new site. If you build a new site and try to rank it within a month, you can attract attention and someone could create 100 's of backlinks to you and 'temporarily" make your rankings suffer. But the flip side is that the backlinks that hurt you initially, can actually help once your domain is aged. So the saying that a competitors can't "really" hurt you by creating 100's of backlinks. For an aged domain this is certainly the case. Also there is no such thing that crappy links can hurt.. Like jcdean said " The Consensus is that links either help or don't help. They can't hurt" ... So true. I wonder if anyone else has any opinion on this subject.
  • 0
PremiumMember
jmpruitt
Posts: 3918
Joined: 19 Jun 09
Trust:
16 Jul 11 8:15 pm

 I have to disagree that spammy links CANT hurt you. I just watched a video from Matt Cutts Here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/GoogleWebma ... 4dAWb5jUws that says it is difficult, but not impossible for someone to spam links to your domain and hurt your rankings.

However, its very unlikely that someone will succeed at doing that with your affiliate sites that are new. if anything, they would be focused on sites they want to beat out, not some no name site that doesn't have any rankings or authority that would interfere with them.
  • 0
Do you want to use your online content to Educate others, inspire them to action, and run a profitable business for yourself and your family? I can help you get started
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUvDlGM242pI2D5TUOCWd7A
 
carlmasure
Posts: 55
Joined: 24 Nov 09
Trust:
17 Jul 11 2:38 am

 I know for a fact that bad links can hurt you. I used bookmarking demon with wild abandon one time and got sand boxed for 6 months.
  • 0
frankvue
Posts: 30
Joined: 02 Jun 10
Trust:
18 Jul 11 2:54 am

 Ouch sorry to hear that, my site that got spammed on the forum got sand boxed for about a month.
  • 0
PremiumMember
jmpruitt
Posts: 3918
Joined: 19 Jun 09
Trust:
18 Jul 11 1:56 pm

 its one thing to do it to yourself using spam tools, its another when a competitor does it to you. I have seen sites sandboxed myself, but usually I could trace it to my own actions that caused it, not the efforts of someone else trying to harm my sites.
  • 0
Do you want to use your online content to Educate others, inspire them to action, and run a profitable business for yourself and your family? I can help you get started
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUvDlGM242pI2D5TUOCWd7A
 
cecille.l
Posts: 6369
Joined: 25 Feb 11
Trust:
18 Jul 11 10:51 pm

 Hi Frank,

You raise a very good point. I think links do affect a website's standing with search engines. This is why we label them "good" and "bad" links. They can either help boost your website's rank or, over time, get you booted out of the serps. But note that this takes time, and if your site has good standing and has been around for a long time, it would be difficult for a competitor to get you kicked out with just a 100 spam links.

My two cents. Have a good day!
  • 0
Cecille

Building affiliate marketing websites is a breeze: https://www.affilorama.com/affilojetpack
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/affilorama
 

This topic was started on Jul 15, 2011 and has been closed due to inactivity. If you want to discuss this topic further, please create a new forum topic.

Topic locked