Fighting black SEO in 2023: Practical recommendations

The use of black SEO is considered shameful among web specialists and experts in the field of online advertising. However, such techniques still remain highly effective in the struggle for a place in the sunshine. For this reason, black SEO continues to be used by malicious competitors, using increasingly sophisticated tactics. But the owners of companies have the opportunity to defend the interests of their organizations. Recommendations that are relevant in 2023 can help them in this.

Brand competition

Many advertisers lose their conversion due to their rivals who are trying to use trademark for their own selfish purposes. They do it covertly. Competitors set up the operation of their websites in such a way that popular phrases of similar brands are used as keywords. As a result, the donor brand loses its identity and begins to look like a dishonest player. As a result, the target audience gradually switches to another service provider, and an honest player begins to lose customers. Because of brand bidding, you can also miss your target audience, which has been devoted to your company for many years.

Some companies use direct brand bidding when keys with the name of a competitor brand are integrated into the SEO structure. This, though a trivial way, is able to attract a lot of customers, because the latter are already ready to make a purchase, and they strongly trust a reliable business. With the help of such a mechanism, dishonest players can lure buyers into their dubious schemes, using a competing organization as a platform for prosperity. It is counting on the fact that the user will not immediately notice the substitution, because he is used to a well-known brand. Therefore, he will not find out whether the fake link caught his eye or not.

Thus, the main dangers of the techniques used are transitions to your site through extraneous links (increases advertising costs) and redirection of web traffic to a competitor’s store (loss of future customer base).

Tip. Only swiftness and timely problem-solving can help in the fight against brand bidding. To do this, webmasters use tools aimed at emergency analysis. In case of any suspicious action, IT specialists receive system notifications.

Special software can:

• track;
• block;
• filter

the content, warning both parties about it – the owners of the sites and their partners. Such tools are convenient, as they can generate reports for subsequent appeal to the court if necessary.

Hidden threat

A trend is gaining popularity, according to which content for websites is created not by a person, but by an algorithm based on artificial intelligence. This represents significant savings for site owners. However, one important nuance is not taken into account: search robots cannot yet fully control the activities of such mechanisms. As a result, this can cause significant damage to both the companies themselves and competitors.

AI-based content creators are called SEO-spammers. Many have already managed to hate them for violating the rules in ranking information in search algorithms. However, those, on the contrary, fully defend their initiative. Spammers believe that in this way they struggle with all sorts of inappropriate content and help to “clean” the Internet of superfluous information, preparing only relevant information.

Tip. Of course, you can use specialized algorithms that will help you create videos and text materials. This helps to save time and money. But do not abuse the imperfection of search engines. Therefore, any content should be devoid of direct intent to influence the results of Internet requests.

Another danger can be considered the fact that often in such materials there is questionable, unverified or even deliberately false information. At the same time, spammers hope that in the future people will find such information immediately in the search engine, and they will not have to click on links. It also hinders the promotion of brands on the Internet.

Whatever it is, the content created for the only purpose of promotion, over time will still be blocked (according to the developers) – regardless of whether it was created by a bot, or a person.

Why brand bidding doesn’t always work

Brand bidding is always set up for short-term competition, so there is no question of building any business strategy. So, brands can expect a flurry of parodists who copy their techniques. Therefore, company owners should always be one step ahead.

Pay attention! In order to always stay afloat, it is important to use advanced promotion mechanisms in search results. Try to dilute the content with various formats, including podcasts, audio, video, and not just text information. Strive to occupy your niche, even in a narrow-profile business. Fill areas that competitors do not pay attention to. The purpose of all these actions is to stand out from the rivals.

Forbidden trick

Blind copying of another brand’s SEO strategy can only get in the way. Advertisers may not know the exact metrics that reflect the optimization of a particular resource. It can be analytical data, CRM, etc. Their effectiveness on different platforms may vary, and the success of a particular campaign may depend on a single unknown parameter.

How else can you resist brand bidding

It is important to be aware of the main dangers of brand bidding in order to be able to repel attacks from the opposite side in time. Keep in mind that some competitors use so-called display sites with their ad.

The best strategy this year is to always be on the alert. If the specialists of the advertising department monitor only some brands, this may negatively affect the further work of the company. Remember that tomorrow there may always be a new rival who will surpass all previously known competitors. Therefore, you should not focus only on a few opponents: broaden your horizons.