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	"title": "SEO poisoning: Is it worth it?",
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	"plain_text": "SEO poisoning: Is it worth it?\r\nBy Pieter Arntz\r\nPublished: 2018-05-28 · Archived: 2026-04-06 03:24:13 UTC\r\nSearch Engine Optimization (SEO) poisoning basically comes down to getting your web page high in the rankings\r\nfor relevant search results without buying advertisements or using legitimate, but tedious, SEO best practices.\r\nInstead, threat actors use illegal means to push their page to the top. Sometimes, this technique is also referred to\r\nas black hat SEO. (Although the people selling these services will refer to them as “link building services.”)\r\nSo how does SEO poisoning work? And is it something site owners should actually try? Or should they avoid it at\r\nall costs?\r\nThe basics\r\nSEO is short for Search Engine Optimization and it is a marketing strategy that is designed to make sure that your\r\nwebsite is found if people search for certain keywords that are relevant to your business. The ranking of a site in\r\nGoogle’s search results is primarily based on how well the page is optimized, but it’s also based on “reputation.”\r\nThe reputation of a page is calculated using the number of inbound links pointing to that page. It helps a lot if the\r\nincoming links come from pages that are about the same or related subjects, but a large amount of links coming\r\nfrom all kinds of sites helps as well.\r\nWhy focus on Google?\r\nIn this article, we will focus on how SEO works for Google. This is for a few reasons:\r\nGoogle is by far the most popular search engine, despite mighty efforts by their competitors. The fact that\r\n“Googling” is a verb in many languages should tell you enough.\r\nGoogle is relatively open about how its algorithms work, and you can find a lot of information if you want\r\nto improve the ranking of your search results, which is what SEO is all about. For good results, it’s\r\nimperative that web developers keep an eye on new updates and how these updates might influence their\r\nSEO strategy.\r\nGoogle is the industry standard in this field, and because of this many available SEO tools are limited to or\r\naiming for Google results.\r\nHow does link building work?\r\nSearch engines want to serve you authoritative pages on the subject that you are looking for. One of the\r\ndetermining factors for the ranking in the search results is called the Page Authority. As you can see in the\r\nexample below, the page authority is not just a matter of how many incoming links there are. And it is also not the\r\nonly factor that determines your ranking in the search results. Even though the BBC site has more “page\r\nauthority” on the keyword of “spyware,” the Page Authority calculation is based on many other factors and seems\r\nto take into account that detecting spyware is part of Malwarebytes’ core business.\r\nhttps://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2018/05/seo-poisoning-is-it-worth-it\r\nPage 1 of 4\n\nAuthority calculations and screenshot made with Moz Pro\r\nSo, a good method to be seen by the search engine’s algorithm as an authority in a certain field is to attract\r\nincoming links. And it is important that these links come from other authoritative sites in the field that your page\r\naims to rank high for. Quality really outweighs quantity here. To accomplish this, you need a well-written and\r\ncleverly formatted (optimized) page that people will point to if they want someone to read an informative or\r\nexplanatory piece.\r\nWhen does link building become SEO poisoning?\r\nIf you are lazy, you can’t spend the money to hire someone, or it’s just plain hopeless to become an authority due\r\nto heavy competition in your field or for your keywords, you might consider buying incoming links from a black\r\nmarket vendor. These threat actors will usually have, or be able to obtain, a multitude of compromised sites that\r\nthey can use to post links on. Another method that they may use is to spam forums with the help of spambots. So,\r\nwe draw the line at whether the site owner agrees with the links being posted on his site.\r\nContrary to popular belief, posting links on social media like Facebook and Twitter does not help to improve a\r\npage’s SEO. The links on social media are “nofollow” links, and Google’s bots will not follow them or add them\r\nto your tally of incoming links. Google+ is an exception to this rule. I wonder why.\r\nhttps://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2018/05/seo-poisoning-is-it-worth-it\r\nPage 2 of 4\n\nA quality link from an authoritative site weighs heavier than a lot of low quality links.\r\nPure malicious purpose\r\nA recent example where SEO poisoning was used successfully is one where link building was done purely for\r\nmalicious purposes—to infect visitors. By adding keywords and links in hacked websites, threat actors were able\r\nto get malicious pages ranked at the top of the Google search results for specific and carefully-chosen queries. The\r\ndesired queries were banking and financial questions, and visitors of the ranked pages were infected with a\r\nbanking Trojan.\r\nAre all link building services bad?\r\nNo, that’s not what we are saying. But the services offered on black hat forums with a “no money back guarantee”\r\nshould be examined with a 10-foot pole and a disinfected microscope. If you are not an SEO professional and\r\nSEO is just a by-product of trying to sell your goods or services, then by all means, contact a professional and see\r\nwhat they can do for you.\r\nJust make sure you don’t end up sponsoring some malware author who goes around hacking legitimate sites and\r\nwho may end up ruining your reputation. Because there are ways to investigate whether you have used black hat\r\nSEO techniques to boost your search rankings.\r\nhttps://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2018/05/seo-poisoning-is-it-worth-it\r\nPage 3 of 4\n\nIs SEO poisoning actually recommended?\r\nIt is not recommended for several reasons:\r\nIt’s not effective. With Google’s new search engine algorithms, black hat SEO is far less effective than it\r\nused to be, but is still offered by malware actors on underground markets.\r\nThere are negative side effects. If Google or others sniff out your method, this might ruin page or domain\r\nauthority, as well as professional reputation.\r\nIt doesn’t come cheap. In the long run, you may end up spending a lot of money—money much better\r\nspent on legitimate and long-standing methods for success, such as hiring an SEO professional on staff or\r\nworking with a consultation on learning best practices.\r\nNot to give you any ideas, but you can also buy negative link building services for your competitors. As appealing\r\nas it may sound to have your competitors’ product associated with the keyword Viagra, we do not recommend\r\nusing these either.\r\nThe best long-term solution is to work hard and play fair using legitimate SEO tactics to boost your page rankings.\r\nIf you aim for a cheap and easy way around SEO, you’ll get exactly what you paid for: a whole lot of nothing.\r\nAbout the author\r\nWas a Microsoft MVP in consumer security for 12 years running. Can speak four languages. Smells of rich\r\nmahogany and leather-bound books.\r\nSource: https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2018/05/seo-poisoning-is-it-worth-it\r\nhttps://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2018/05/seo-poisoning-is-it-worth-it\r\nPage 4 of 4",
	"extraction_quality": 1,
	"language": "EN",
	"sources": [
		"MITRE"
	],
	"references": [
		"https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2018/05/seo-poisoning-is-it-worth-it"
	],
	"report_names": [
		"seo-poisoning-is-it-worth-it"
	],
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