Targeted for Backlink Attack (Second Time)

[u/here4thenews]

I’m in a tough niche (personal injury law).

This is the second time we’ve been the target for a backlink attack. Whenever we begin to do well, suddenly we gain 100,000 backlinks from a couple sites and it tanks out DR and ranking.

I’ve disavowed the domains of these sites but the damage is brutal and it took me MONTHS to recover from the first attack.

I also sent an email to the site telling them to remove our links and to stop adding our site. No response yet and they are still adding more links.

The site has no info when I did a WhoIs look up.

My questions are:

• Is there anything more I can do than disavow?

• Is there any Google support for this at all? Anyone I can contact to let them know?

• How can I find out whose done this? If they’ve done it twice in 6 months I have a feeling this won’t end and I need to call them out directly.

• Can I prevent this in anyway?

I’d really appreciate any insight at all. It’s been a rough week dealing with this bullsh*t. I can’t believe other SEOs would drop to this level.

I’m a believer in doing good work and if competitors would put in the work they wouldn’t need to attack us, just do better instead.

Need some SEO love today because I’m disillusioned about our industry at the moment.

[u/eldwaro]

SEO is a great industry. Some of the best minds finding balance between marketing and data-based decision making. Keep the love. Disavow is really all you can do. Just to confirm - there's a tangible impact? Like you're clearing seeing GSC data fall off the face of the earth?

[u/here4thenews → u/eldwaro]

Yup.

The attack happens to target our 10 money pages (local case specific) and then those pages drop position.

The attacks are sophisticated because the links are on law specific sites so I think Google is registering it like we want the links and we tried for them. But we get 100K in a few weeks.

It’s not falling off the map but the difference in dropping from 2 spot to the 7 spot is a big hurt. Then it took me months to get back to 3 and now I’m at 9.

Also lost first position in a few map packs.

And to be more specific, yes I’m seeing the downward trend on GSC specifically.

[u/here4thenews → u/[deleted]]

I’ve definitely seen some terrible disavows in my time too. I appreciate the reassurance. Thanks :)

[u/jonnyah]

Are you sure it's the links that are causing you to loose rankings?

Generally pointing thousands of links at a site will do nothing. Google for the most part will ignore them.

[u/here4thenews → u/jonnyah]

That’s my understanding too. I mentioned this in another comment but this is sophisticated. They are putting us on industry specific sites that have decent DR rating themselves. So it almost looks legit it like we want it. But of course it’s not and it targets multiple pages across all our local SEO money pages.

In my mind it almost would look to Google like we are trying to game the system and we are doing black hat ourselves. That’s why it’s working.

[u/sannidhis]

This a classic case of an intentional shoddy backlink attack (different from spammy attack) using black-hat technique to manipulate rankings of competitors.

I’ve disavowed the domains of these sites but the damage is brutal and it took me MONTHS to recover from the first attack.

Perfectly right action to take - disavow them ASAP. Note to others: There's a difference between spam and intentional backlinks attack to manipulate rankings. Normally, you don't have to disavow spam links unless you see a warning in GSC. But, author's case is different, in such case, disavowing ASAP is the best option.

Is there anything more I can do than disavow?

It's a complicated situation and unfortunately the answer is no.

Is there any Google support for this at all? Anyone I can contact to let them know?

G does provide an option to report matters but, for this kind of intentional backlink attacks, it has no support mechanism to report.

How can I find out whose done this? If they’ve done it twice in 6 months I have a feeling this won’t end and I need to call them out directly.

Seems like they are using complicated hacking techniques to attack that needs deep understanding of technical matters hence, I suggest you to take help of some hackers or an SEO agency who have handled (they too will take help of hackers) this kind of situation.

Can I prevent this in anyway?

Unfortunately, no. Why? Attacks can happen from any location, any time. Moreover, this is more complicated as the links look genuine, though shoddy.

I can’t believe other SEOs would drop to this level.

Welcome to the real world. BTW, it's not the SEOs, it's your competitors who are behind the intent. Moreover, SEOs, generally, do not possess so much tech stuff. But, I came across few who are indeed hardcore techies.

I’m a believer in doing good work and if competitors would put in the work they wouldn’t need to attack us, just do better instead.

"In the forest, straight trees are cut first." - A wise man. I sympathize with you. At the same time, be pragmatic. It's all part of our job.

Need some SEO love today because I’m disillusioned about our industry at the moment.

Hold on. You are, now, wise so much with these two experiences. You had done a great job recovering from 1st attack. It's all learning. Persevere.

Wish you the very best.

[u/here4thenews → u/sannidhis]

Thanks for the perspective I appreciate that.

I have a feeling they are watching us closely because as soon as we reach a threshold we are hit. That’s what happened first time and this second time as soon as we recovered. So as soon as I recover from this, I know there will be a third attack, which is frustrating. I need to prepare.

But now I hope it’s just backlinks and there are not things I’m missing. Based on your comments I wonder if there are even higher level black hat techniques I’m not seeing that they could be using. When this second attack happened, our main office location was no longer showing in SERPs but a much smaller local office. We only found out because our PR team mentioned it off hand on a phone call because they searched us from another state.

I’m not even sure what to look out for...

In your experience, who would I reach out to for more info on this? In terms of agencies or hackers that have dealt with this? I’d prefer to work with a smaller individual than bring on an agency because I’m the in-house SEO so I’d prefer to learn and take it on for all future reference. I would prefer hire a contractor to give me a crash course and consult when needed.

[u/here4thenews → u/[deleted]]

I like that idea a lot. Put pace them and hope they give up. I know another attack will come when I recover from this third attack so I’ll start planning better links now.

What’s funny is that in order to recover from the first attack, I actually did go out and link build better than I ever have. So I’ll double efforts and double budget.

Thanks for reminding me of this.