"because Google has now given other websites the ability to destroy your rankings. That just doesn't make sense."
Makes sense to me.
* Take a snapshot of the link graph
* Hit spammers hard with negative penalties.
* Wait for vengeful SEOers to target their competition with negative SEO, and for the search results quality for mainstream users to noticeably drop
* Switch off the negative penalty flag -- Innocent competitors targeted by SEO negative SEO bounce right back
* Compare the before and after link graph.
* Update the list of low-quality link sources.
* Google wins because it has found a lot more spammy link sources than before.
* Spammers lose because their sites drop even further as previously okay link sources are now determined to be spammy
When you play a incomplet-information game with Google, you need to make sure you are not inadvertently providing them more information by changing your tactics. By changing your link building habits because of a negative link penalty, you are giving Google more information than before, you are confirming more link sources are not natural.
The smartest thing you can do is not to be tempted into negative SEOing your competitors. You are only burning the back links Google haven't flagged as spammy yet. So either keep doing what you were doing before the penalty, or stop building spammy back links. But playing with negative SEO plays straight into Google's hands.
At least, risk someone else's private link network, rather than your own ones when doing negative SEO. :-)
Makes sense to me.
* Take a snapshot of the link graph
* Hit spammers hard with negative penalties.
* Wait for vengeful SEOers to target their competition with negative SEO, and for the search results quality for mainstream users to noticeably drop
* Switch off the negative penalty flag -- Innocent competitors targeted by SEO negative SEO bounce right back
* Compare the before and after link graph.
* Update the list of low-quality link sources.
* Google wins because it has found a lot more spammy link sources than before.
* Spammers lose because their sites drop even further as previously okay link sources are now determined to be spammy
When you play a incomplet-information game with Google, you need to make sure you are not inadvertently providing them more information by changing your tactics. By changing your link building habits because of a negative link penalty, you are giving Google more information than before, you are confirming more link sources are not natural.
The smartest thing you can do is not to be tempted into negative SEOing your competitors. You are only burning the back links Google haven't flagged as spammy yet. So either keep doing what you were doing before the penalty, or stop building spammy back links. But playing with negative SEO plays straight into Google's hands.
At least, risk someone else's private link network, rather than your own ones when doing negative SEO. :-)