Editing Google bombing (section)

==Google bowling==
By studying what types of ranking manipulations a search engine is using, a company can provoke a search engine into ''lowering'' the ranking of a competitor's website. This practice, known as '''Google bowling''' or '''negative SEO''', is often done by purchasing Google bombing services (or other [[search engine optimization|SEO]] techniques) not for one's own website, but rather for that of a competitor. The attacker provokes the search company into punishing the "offending" competitor by displaying their page further down in the search results.<ref name="google-bowling">{{cite news|url=https://www.forbes.com/2007/06/28/negative-search-google-tech-ebiz-cx_ag_0628seo.html|title=The Saboteurs Of Search|first=Andy|last=Greenberg|work=Forbes|date=June 28, 2007|access-date=September 8, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Michael |last=Pedone |url=http://www.webpronews.com/expertarticles/2005/10/27/google-bowling-how-competitors-can-sabotage-you-what-google-should-do-about-it |title=Google Bowling: How Competitors Can Sabotage You; What Google Should Do About It |publisher=Webpronews.com |date=October 27, 2005 |access-date=December 17, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101201020606/http://www.webpronews.com/expertarticles/2005/10/27/google-bowling-how-competitors-can-sabotage-you-what-google-should-do-about-it |archive-date=December 1, 2010 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> For victims of Google bowling, it may be difficult to appeal the ranking decrease because Google avoids explaining penalties, preferring not to "educate" real offenders. If the situation is clear-cut, however, Google could lift the penalty after submitting a request for reconsideration. Furthermore, after the [[Google Penguin]] update, Google search rankings now take Google bowling into account and very rarely will a website be penalized due to low-quality "farm" backlinks.{{citation needed|date=December 2018}}