If black hat SEO can hurt rankings, why don’t people use it on competitors?

SEO
1

This just popped into my head. Couldn’t someone use black hat SEO to mess up their competitor’s rankings?

2

My competitors are already doing black hat SEO against my site. If you saw the lengths they’re going to, you’d be shocked.

3

ever said:
My competitors are already doing black hat SEO against my site. If you saw the lengths they’re going to, you’d be shocked.

You’ve got to share what they’re doing.

4

Brandy said:

ever said:
My competitors are already doing black hat SEO against my site. If you saw the lengths they’re going to, you’d be shocked.

You’ve got to share what they’re doing.

They’ve spammed our backlinks with nonsense links and weird anchor texts. It’s crazy.

5

@ken
Wow, I’ve seen bad SEO attacks, but this is on another level. Sorry you’re dealing with this. On the bright side, if it’s so obviously fake, Google might already be ignoring it. We had a similar attack, and ironically, it boosted our rankings because the spam shifted our anchor text ratio.

6

@ken
I really doubt Google would penalise a site for something so blatant.

7

Brandy said:

ever said:
My competitors are already doing black hat SEO against my site. If you saw the lengths they’re going to, you’d be shocked.

You’ve got to share what they’re doing.

Sounds like a bunch of clowns doing this stuff.

8

Brandy said:

ever said:
My competitors are already doing black hat SEO against my site. If you saw the lengths they’re going to, you’d be shocked.

You’ve got to share what they’re doing.

I shared some examples in the chat, take a look.

9

@ever
Don’t just lock the info away in a chat. Share how you’re dealing with it so we all can learn.

10

Gregory said:
@ever
Don’t just lock the info away in a chat. Share how you’re dealing with it so we all can learn.

Alright, check the chat again.

11

Gregory said:
@ever
Don’t just lock the info away in a chat. Share how you’re dealing with it so we all can learn.

Trying to upload images here, but this forum doesn’t allow it. That’s why I shared it there.

12

@ever
Here’s an example of what they’re doing: https://placehold.co/600x400.png

13

@ever
Wow, that’s wild.

14

J.cole4 said:
@ever
Wow, that’s wild.

It’s a competitive niche with no budget limits for link-building.

15

@ever
Looks like whoever did this was not only lazy but also weirdly desperate.

16

Why waste time dragging someone down instead of focusing on growing your own site?

17

This is called Negative SEO. People on forums like this often see it as the lowest form of strategy.

18

BillSmith said:
This is called Negative SEO. People on forums like this often see it as the lowest form of strategy.

I’ve heard it referred to as ‘Google bowling’.

19

Yes, people do this. It can work, but it falls apart once the bad links are disavowed.

20

UpvoteVoyager said:
Yes, people do this. It can work, but it falls apart once the bad links are disavowed.

Disavow tools are being discontinued, though.