Crisis SEO Case study

150+ harmful domains disavowed before a negative SEO campaign became a crisis

Another agency handled day-to-day SEO execution while we managed strategy and monitoring. A routine monthly check exposed backlinks outside the agreed PR work, allowing both teams to respond before traffic and rankings collapsed.

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Harmful domains identified and disavowed

Months of active defense

STARTING POINT

The Situation

The client had an executing SEO agency and an independent strategy and monitoring layer. During a monthly review, we found several new backlinks that did not belong to the approved PR activity.

Problem

Unexplained backlinks appeared

New domains linked to the client without belonging to the known off-page plan.

Problem

The pattern was still early

There was no visible collapse yet, making the signals easy to underestimate.

Problem

The attack kept changing

New domains appeared over seven months rather than in one isolated burst.

Problem

Two providers shared responsibility

The response had to protect the client without disrupting the executing agency’s role.

WHAT MADE IT COMPLEX

The Challenge

The new links included domains associated with penalties, spam content, and malicious code. The apparent purpose was to weaken the client’s authority and rankings over time.

Because the campaign was caught before a major loss, the project could not be judged by a recovery chart. Success meant identifying new threats repeatedly while keeping the expected crisis from developing.

Harmful links appeared gradually across many domains

The campaign used penalized, spam, and malicious sources

Monitoring had to remain active for seven months

Two agencies needed one coordinated response

Our Approach

We turned an unexplained signal into a controlled, collaborative defense.

Step

Flag the unexplained links

We separated the new backlinks from the approved PR and SEO activity.

Step

Investigate with the executing agency

Both teams reviewed the evidence and confirmed that the domains formed an ongoing negative SEO pattern.

Step

Establish active monitoring

We continued watching for new domains as the campaign developed.

Step

Disavow threats periodically

New harmful sources were handled throughout the seven-month period instead of being allowed to accumulate.

Step

Protect the client's operating baseline

We monitored rankings and authority while maintaining a clear division of responsibilities between the two agencies.

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The most valuable part of this work was how early Back2Rank identified the unusual backlink activity. They shared the evidence openly, coordinated with us, and kept the focus on protecting the website rather than assigning blame. For seven months, we received clear updates as new domains were found and addressed. More than 150 harmful domains were handled, and the crisis we were preparing for never happened.

Plamena Yancheva, COO & Performance Director at Epic Switch Digital

The Results

The attack continued. The expected SEO crisis never happened.

More than 150 harmful domains were identified and disavowed over seven months. The response stayed active as new threats appeared, preventing the campaign from becoming a visible traffic and ranking collapse.

The case also proved that specialist monitoring can strengthen another agency’s execution. Both teams shared evidence, aligned on the response, and protected the same client without competing for control.

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Harmful domains identified and disavowed

Months of active defense

Would you see a negative SEO attack before the rankings fall?

We can add an independent monitoring layer to your existing SEO work and act when unfamiliar patterns first appear.