In a recent interview, Google’s Gary Illyes addressed a question about the impact of negative SEO, offering valuable insights into how Google defends websites from harmful spam links. This explanation, which was provided in May, had largely gone unnoticed until now.
What is Negative SEO?
Negative SEO refers to the tactic of attempting to harm a competitor’s site by bombarding it with low-quality links. The idea is that Google will associate these links with spammy behavior and penalize the competitor’s site, potentially removing it from search engine results altogether.
This method gained notoriety in competitive industries like online gambling, where high rankings are highly valuable. I first encountered this concept in the mid-2000s (likely before 2010) from someone involved in the gambling sector.
It’s important to note that almost every website ranking for relevant search terms will inevitably attract low-quality links. This has always been the case. However, the idea of negative SEO gained more attention after the launch of Google’s Penguin update, which made site owners more aware of the quality of their inbound links.
Does Negative SEO Actually Cause Harm?
During the interview, the host asked Gary Illyes if negative SEO—specifically the use of spammy link-building to attack a competitor—still posed a threat or if Google had effectively mitigated the issue.
Gary began his response by referencing the Penguin update and its role in changing how Google handled link spam. He shared his experience reviewing numerous reported instances of negative SEO. According to Gary, out of hundreds of cases he analyzed, only one might have potentially involved negative SEO. However, even in that case, the web spam team was not entirely sure.
Gary explained:
“Following the release of Penguin, we received countless complaints about negative SEO, particularly link-based attacks. In response, I asked for examples to understand how it worked. I received hundreds of alleged negative SEO cases, but in nearly every instance, they were not actually negative SEO. The cases were so far removed from the concept that I didn’t investigate further—except for one, which I forwarded to the web spam team for confirmation. We’re still undecided on it, but it could have been negative SEO.”
He continued, emphasizing that the concern about negative SEO is often overblown, stating, “We actively neutralize large volumes of problematic links.”
Why Negative SEO Links Don’t Have an Impact
Gary went on to explain why “negative SEO links” have little to no effect. Around the 30-minute mark of the interview, he shared an interesting point regarding how Google evaluates links.
Google has long considered the context of both the linking site and the linked-to site. If there is no relevance between them, Google will disregard the link and not pass any PageRank value. He added:
“If a link is coming from an entirely irrelevant site, like a porn site or a purely spammy page, you can be sure that we’ve already disabled the link. Google always tries to match the topic of the linking site with that of the target page. If they don’t align, there’s no reason for us to trust the link. For instance, if your flower page is linked to by a Canadian casino selling Viagra without a prescription, why would we give that link any weight?”
Gary reassured site owners, saying, “Don’t stress about it. Find something else to focus on.”
Google Prioritizes Topic Relevance Between Pages
In the early days of SEO, it was possible to boost rankings by acquiring large numbers of links from unrelated topics. Some link builders even used tactics like providing “free” traffic counter widgets to universities, which contained links back to their client sites in the footer. But Google has since cracked down on such link-building practices.
Gary’s statement about the importance of relevance in links supports what many seasoned link builders have understood for over two decades. The idea that off-topic links hold little value has been known since the days of reciprocal linking.
While this explanation from Gary may be rare in its detail, it provides a clear rationale for why negative SEO doesn’t work, helping to debunk the myth that spammy links can harm a site’s rankings.
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