Google’s John Mueller On How To Handle Negative SEO Attacks

John Mueller, Google’s SEO expert, offers tips on what to do when you are the loser of a hostile SEO attack.

Google Search Advocate John Mueller shares a simple way to combat negative SEO attacks, such as spammy links built by competitors to your domain.

Mueller responds to a Reddit thread. A user in the r/SEO forum believes they are victims of a negative SEO campaign. They are seeking advice.

Mueller advises that you ignore the problem. It’s that simple.

Here is his complete reply:

“I would ignore them.

This is how it works: If your competitors are competent, you won’t be able to build links for them. Links will only work if your competitors are capable.

Mueller’s direct response was to the point. Negative SEO attacks are unlikely to be used against a competitor competent enough to create links that Google will recognize.

Why would anyone build links to a competitor’s website?

Google ignores many links.

Website owners and SEOs need to ignore these attacks, as Google doesn’t consider links to a site’s ranking.

Although this topic is often brought up, Google’s guidelines regarding negative SEO are worth revisiting.

Mueller’s Reddit advice is in line with his advice from the past. He has also previously stated that you should use disavow if you are concerned about negative SEO.

Google ignores spammy links, so you don’t need to remove them. This tool is used to recover from manual actions penalties.

According to a Twitter poll, most SEO professionals do not use the disavow feature on spammy links. Google has a lot of trust in its ability to handle them automatically.

If you’re more at ease with the disavow option, it’s okay.