B
Evidence Grade B
Graded
accuracy verified by the review judge
Safe to Cite
Dated
60%
60% -- organic traffic drop for company targeted by Negative SEO (2021)
A company targeted by a Negative SEO attack saw a 60% drop in organic traffic within three months according to a Forbes case study.
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Lighthouse Research Team
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Source verified
Evidence graded
Value
60%
Unit
Percentage
Data Vintage
2021
Entity
Evidence Quality
B
Strong, reliable evidence
Sourced from a well-regarded research firm or industry leader with transparent methodology and a reasonably large sample.
Score breakdown
Extraction
95
Source Trust
50
Citation Chain
90
Independence
30
Methodology
45
Freshness
86
Sources (6)
Forbes
Primary
Tier A
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/03/17/the-real-cost-of-negative-seo-a-case-stu… ↗
Source Article
Negative SEO: Understanding the Unethical Practice and Protecting Your Website
Negative SEO: Understanding the Unethical Practice and Protecting Your Website
In the competitive world of digital marketing, some businesses resort to unethical tactics to gain an advantage over their rivals. One such tactic is Negative SEO (NSEO), a practice that aims to harm a competitor‘s websit…
Also cited by
niemanlab.org
https://www.niemanlab.org/
2026-08-15
forbes.com
https://www.forbes.com/
2026-08-15
amraandelma.com
https://www.amraandelma.com/
2026-08-15
ppc.land
https://ppc.land/
2026-08-15
insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu
https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/
2026-08-15
Original Research
Forbes
· Original study ↗
Methodology
Case study by Forbes
Segmentation
Channelrss_feed
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Plain Text
company targeted by Negative SEO: 60% organic traffic drop. Source: Forbes (2021). Via Lighthouse Intelligence -- https://lighthousedata.io/data/forbes-case-study-traffic-drop-2021
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<blockquote cite="https://lighthousedata.io/data/forbes-case-study-traffic-drop-2021" style="border-left:3px solid #2563eb;padding:12px 16px;margin:16px 0;font-family:system-ui,sans-serif;background:#f0f4ff;"><strong>60%</strong> -- organic traffic drop for company targeted by Negative SEO<br><small>Source: Forbes (2021) · <a href="https://lighthousedata.io/data/forbes-case-study-traffic-drop-2021" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lighthouse Intelligence</a></small></blockquote>
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