How to Protect Yourself from the SEO Dark Arts with @katobkato #vcbuzz

How much can your business be effected by your competitors’ SEO tactics directed against your site?

There have been lots of debates whether negative SEO can be effective, and Googlers tried to calm everyone down saying they could deal with that.

Well, it’s not always the case. We’ve seen lots of cases where online businesses were losing search visibility over their competitors’ actions. So can you protect your business?

About @katobkato

Brian Kato @katobkato has worked with countless businesses in order to improve their search engine rankings and overall marketing strategy.

Read more about Brian and connect to him through his site: Loveland SEO And Digital Marketing

Questions we discussed

Q1 How did you become an SEO? Please share your career story!

I started my SEO career as a project manager and developer. Having a background in coding definitely helps when it comes to diagnosing issues with websites.

In addition to SEO, I also enjoy neuromarketing and direct response. Blending these skills has allowed us to be nimble and adapt to a variety of circumstances.

that would be awesome! Neuromarketing is definitely a fascinating subject. interestingly enough, it's also used within some SEO dark arts as a soft skill, such as social engineering and information exploitation. There are both the light and dark sides to everything #vcbuzz

— Brian Kato (@katobkato) June 27, 2023

absolutely. that's what I find fascinating about this field of study. it involves any psychological trigger that could potentially sway or influence someone #vcbuzz

— Brian Kato (@katobkato) June 27, 2023

A1 #vcbuzz Had worked in sales, became a writer in the finance and real estate industries, heard about SEO and wanted to learn more – found it an attractive career move because there is always something new to learn

— Peter Mindenhall (@PeterMindenhall) June 27, 2023

Q2 Put simply, what types of “SEO dark arts” exist and how they may impact a website?

There are a number of “dark arts” that exist. A few examples:

entity poisoning
brand jacking
cloaking
nefarious link building
hacking and XSS injections

The purpose of dark SEO either to build a business up (artificially), or to disrupt a business.

it's definitely shocking, but I feel people should probably know about this rather than pretend it doesn't exist. Negative is SEO is a very real thing #vcbuzz

— Brian Kato (@katobkato) June 27, 2023

Entity poisoning has been a very interesting one I’ve seen recently. as we all know, entities and topical clusters are what help Google better understand a brand. However, entities can also be used to create confusion around a brand.

definitely. in most cases, it falls into one of the two categories: inflation of metrics or disrupting a business as day-to-day operations. #vcbuzz

— Brian Kato (@katobkato) June 27, 2023

I totally understand your perspective. However, consider a vertical like rec/med MMJ that has a market cap of $510 million – $2.1 billion. Follow the money and it's really simple to find people's motivation #vcbuzz

— Brian Kato (@katobkato) June 27, 2023

Q3 How to be proactive when it comes to negative SEO? How to get prepared?

Build your brand! One of the worst attacks I’ve seen recently involves brand poisoning. While entities aren’t anything new in the industry, I have recently seen them weaponized for negative SEO

It’s also important to understand the right mindset when considering how dark SEO arts work. While most content marketers are concerned with quality from the few, most dark arts are concerned with scale and volume.

I recommend any business taking audit of their links, mentions, and associated topical clusters (who’s linking to you). Look at the actual serp and see if there’s anything odd that pops up.

A3 #vcbuzz Maintain a solid site, hosting etc. Spammers are going to spam – learn about and know where and what to do about it (DMCA takedowns, cease and desists, handling forum owners tactfully etc)

— Peter Mindenhall (@PeterMindenhall) June 27, 2023

Q4 How to know if you are under attack? If there is a traffic dip, how to identify it is due to a negative SEO attack?

Oooh. This is a good question. The answer is “sometimes” you’ll get a heads up. If the person is an experienced negative SEO, you’ll see the attack once it’s far too late and the damage has already been done.

On a more obvious level, you can look for any anomalies in traffic or on the serp. I would not rely solely on an SEO tool. Take a look at how things are being rendered on the SERP from multiple locations.

Get familiar with reading source code. A good number of on-page exploits can be uncovered this way.

+10. It is key that marketers use their brains. Some things can't just be right. It ends up backfiring on your credibility #vcbuzz

— Montse Cano (@MontseCano) June 27, 2023

Take your website security seriously. I see a lot of people who have wide open gaps in their web security that can be exploited. One of the most common is leaving specific ports open or incorrect email records.

It frustrates me to no end, but nearly 80% of clients that I audit, have email records that can easily be exploited with just a simple line of code… leaving them wide open for phishing attacks and email spam.

87% of U.S. adults see cyber warfare being a threat to the safety and well-being of the next generation, more so than global warming (77%) and COVID-19 (81%)
Hari Ravichandran

A4 #vcbuzz A lot of the time you're probably not "under attack" – it will be something else entirely. Regular maintenance (periodic crawls – even if only partials) keep an eye on GSC and GA for erroneous urls etc

— Peter Mindenhall (@PeterMindenhall) June 27, 2023

A4. This is where regular audits and continuous monitoring can save the day, and more #vcbuzz

— Montse Cano (@MontseCano) June 27, 2023

Q5 What are your favorite SEO tools?

Google Analytics 4

@netpeaksoftware or @screamingfrog are absolutely MUST haves. I also frequently use @seopowersuite, @semrush, and @ahrefs

A good mix: Google Search Console for site/performance analysis, GA for conversions/channels, Ahrefs or Semrush for competitors, Screaming Frog for technical audits & other tasks, plus tools like Also Asked for topical analysis & chrome extensions (Ayima, Ahrefs, etc.). #vcbuzz

— Ethan Lazuk ? (@EthanLazuk) June 27, 2023

I’m also loving a number of AI tools for SEO. In particular, I’m really liking some of the browser extensions that enhance ChatGPT.

#A5 Also, you'll need @Majestic, especially when you're talking Dark Arts SEO, @oncrawl is good too #vcbuzz

— Remco Tensen (@RemcoTensen) June 27, 2023

A5 #vcbuzz Without question @screamingfrog been a user for years and it's paid for itself more times over than I can count to

— Peter Mindenhall (@PeterMindenhall) June 27, 2023