Google update

Google has updated their previously issued guidance for SEOs and site owners fearing a negative SEO attack. In the newly updated article and animated video, Google reiterates that there is no evidence of anyone using negative SEO tactics to harm another site, publisher or user. All three Google employees – John Mueller and Gary Illyes from Google and Matt Cutts from Google (in 2014) – insist that there is simply no case to be made for negative SEO. They tell us that if you are worried about a competitor trying to hurt your site by pointing bad links at it, the pages those links are pointing to, or your server — feel free to use the disavow tool.

Negative SEO is such a waste of time that not even Google pays it much mind. If you want to get rid of those icky links, the industry-accepted method is to “disavow” those links. When you disavow links, you’re telling Google which links don’t count against you and, therefore, are worth ignoring.

…John [Mueller] said they haven’t seen anything like that, and that Google sees no evidence of any major sites being attacked. On top of that, negative SEO requires a lot of effort, so it’s kind of hard to see why anyone would bother doing it for no reason such as a grudge…