In today’s search query (in Swedish), Aaron and I take a brief dive into the phenomenon of negative SEO. Where does it come from, how did it start, and what does it look like today?
I mention the wrong year in the clip – we were, of course, aware of the phenomenon at the time, but I was hesitant to write about methods of sabotage. It’s definitely not something I want to encourage.
Back in 2010, I wrote for the first time about what was then called Google Bowling. By simulating “spammy” link-building, it had long been possible to knock competitors down in the search results. In recent years, the topic has gained more attention and has come to be known as negative SEO or negative search engine optimization.
In this episode, we talk a bit about how it has evolved, what it looks like today, and what turned it from a niche curiosity into a popular topic of discussion. Naturally, it was the Penguin update that made negative SEO a topic for casual conversation. Because Penguin got so much attention—and because cleaning up a site’s rankings could take a long time, even after removing bad links—negative SEO became something people genuinely feared (and something that was tested by the shadier corners of the industry).
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Magnus Bråth
CEO
Magnus is one of the world's most prominent search marketing specialists and primarily works with management and strategy at his agency Brath AB.