How to Recover from a Negative SEO Attack

Before you build a disavow file, establish whether the attack did anything. Google’s guidance on disavowing links says that in most cases Google can assess which links to trust without additional guidance, and that most sites will not need the disavow tool. So recovery starts with a test: did the spam links cause the drop, or did something else? If the evidence points to the links, the path depends on whether Google has taken a manual action. If the evidence doesn’t point there, the recovery work is somewhere else.

Test whether the attack caused the drop

Three checks, in this order:

1. The Manual actions report. Look for “Unnatural links to your site.” A green check mark means Google hasn’t taken a manual action against your site.
2. Three timelines against the drop. Put the date of the drop next to the date the spam links appeared, the entries in Google’s ranking update history, and your own log of deploys and content changes. Search Console’s Links report can export external links in date order (Latest links), which shows when the new links arrived. A drop that lines up with an update or one of your own changes, while the spam arrived weeks earlier or later, points away from the attack.
3. The shape of the loss. A decline limited to certain pages or one section points toward those pages, their queries and the competitors ranking there. Look at who now ranks for the lost queries and what their pages offer that yours don’t.

If all three point elsewhere, stop working on the links and follow the evidence.

Targeted, or industry noise?

Finding spam links in your profile doesn’t mean you were singled out. Link networks can point links at a whole vertical at once. Take a sample of the spam domains and look at where else they link: if they point at your competitors too, you may be looking at background spam rather than an attack on you. A campaign aimed only at your site, arriving in a burst, is the case that deserves attention, and it’s the case to document.

If you have a manual action for links

The Manual actions help sets out the steps for “Unnatural links to your site”:

1. Download the links to your site from Search Console, by top linking sites or in date order.
2. Check them against Google’s link spam policy. For a large list, start with the sites that link to you the most or links created in the last few months.
3. Ask the owners of violating sites to remove the links or qualify them with rel="nofollow".
4. Disavow the links you couldn’t get removed, using the domain: operator for multiple links from one domain, and don’t disavow organic links.
5. Once the issues are fixed, select Request Review and describe your fixes.

This is where documentation pays off. Keep the dates, exports and screenshots that show when the links appeared and what you did about them, so the review request can describe the fixes precisely.

If you don’t have a manual action

Google’s disavow guidance reserves the tool for a considerable number of spammy, artificial or low-quality links that have caused, or likely will cause, a manual action. Without a manual action, and without a targeted campaign of that scale, the disavow file isn’t where recovery lives. Look for another cause. The three checks (manual actions, timelines, shape of the loss) are the place to find it, and candidates include a competitor that improved, pages that aged, or a change on your own site.

Other attacks need other tools

Links are one kind of attack. Other kinds have their own fixes, and none of them runs through a disavow file:

• Scraped copies of your content are a duplication problem. Copyright removal goes through Google’s legal removal process, not link tools.
• Hacked pages or injected spam can show up in the Security issues report. Clean the site, close the hole, then request a review there.
• Fake reviews or listings are handled on the platform where they appear.

Frequently asked questions

Do negative SEO link attacks work?

Google’s disavow guidance says that in most cases Google can assess which links to trust on its own, and that most sites won’t need the disavow tool. Test the attack against the Manual actions report, the timelines and the shape of the drop before assuming it worked.

Should I disavow links from an attack?

If you have a manual action for unnatural links, disavow the links you couldn’t get removed, as part of the steps Google describes. Without one, Google’s guidance reserves disavowing for links that have caused or likely will cause a manual action.

How do I know whether I was targeted?

Check where the spam domains link besides you. If they point at competitors across your field too, it may be background spam. A burst of links aimed only at your site is the pattern to document.