How far would most small businesses go to beat their competition online? A new study has revealed the shocking (and illegal) lengths some would go to sabotage competitors’ search rankings.
The study, carried out by Reboot Online, sent out an email to 84 UK businesses asking if they they would like to hire a service that would sabotage a competitor’s website and guarantee its removal from Google search results (a practice known as Negative SEO).
Read the email from Reboot Online in full here
The list of local businesses consisted of plumbers, lawyers, carpenters, Locksmiths, IT service providers, builders, accountants, cleaning companies and skip hire companies.
The results revealed that 47% accepted the offer and asked for payment details and a further 31% accepted pending more information.
That’s a total of 78% of businesses who were interested or outright accepted the offer of negative SEO on a competitor, a practice that is Illegal.
Read the Reboot Online study here
You can read what two top internet lawyers (UK and US) have to say about Negative SEO here.