If you own a CBD Oil manufacturer and rank, or at one time ranked well in Google for popular CBD terms then there’s a chance your brand has been attacked by negative SEO. While Google claims nothing really needs to be done to defend against a negative SEO attack, data shows otherwise.
What is Negative SEO?
Negative SEO can come in various forms but the goal us the same — to de-rank a website in Google.
Attacks can range from illegal tactics such as hacking a website and injecting it with malware or spammy links. Many times, these links, or files can be difficult for the webmaster to notice. For example; the files or pages may be hard to find, or see by users or by the website owner but easy for Google-bot to find resulting in demotion, or removal from their search engine result pages. Other, more common tactics include spamming a website with thousands, if not millions of links. These links the be designed to dilute good links or relevant anchors, or even be deployed to trick Google into thinking the webmaster is executing a poorly, spammy SEO campaign triggering an algorithmic or manual action (penalty).
Which CBD Companies Have Been Attacked?
Here are several CBD Companies attacked by what appears to be the same or similar negative SEO attack:
- NuLeaf Naturals
- CBDistillery
- Royal CBD
- Fab CBD
- Kats Botanicals
- & others who’ve already fallen past the first 3 pages of Google…
How Do You Defend Against a Negative SEO Attack?
Defending against a successfully negative SEO attack is a costly experience both from the drop in search engine traffic and hiring an expert who has proven experience in various types of negative SEO defense. In short, defending against negative SEO can take various forms. You first have to determine what type of attack it is. For example; if it’s a hack, you’ll have to discover the vulnerability, patch it, remove the hack, and request a reconsideration request. If it’s a link attack, you’ll need to use various tools to uncover the offending links and then build a disavow. At times, attackers use ‘networks’ that block various research tools making it even more challenging to uncover the attack itself.
WHO’S BEHIND THESE WIDESPREAD NEGATIVE SEO ATTACKS?
According to our research, a competitor is likely behind the attack. Over the past six months, we’ve gotten anonymous tips from employees at various businesses claiming they’ve overhead conversations about attack competitors, or staff ‘joking’ about about rolling out these attacks. In addition, we’ve narrowed down a list of potential attackers based on who’s been attacked, and who hasn’t been. Over the years we’ve learned to identify patterns among attackers and have a handful of potential attackers in mind. As we learn more, we’ll update our blog.
Will we get attacked for reporting this? Maybe. There’s always a risk to this business. Luckily, we’re REALLY good at defending against them.
