Survive Link Spam Without Becoming Part of It - brightonSEO October 2026

Transcript

1. Survive link spam without becoming part of it
2. S C A N T O C O N N E C T speaker profile Tamara Novitović Head of SEO // Bazoom SKILLS SEO strategy / link building / technical SEO / ethical AI practices / public speaking
3. I've cleaned up this mess more times than I'd like 😒 1,000+ Attacks Ethical AI Brand clients in the last 5 years spam penalties cleaned + prevented + backlinks, done safely authority built the proper way /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
4. Three ways your site loses the game level 1 level 2 level 3 The Siege The Infection The Rot Negative SEO points thousands of junk links at you. A ‘premium’ link wires you into a spam network. A booster package spikes you, then lets you decay. /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
5. Three ways it wins AI Google Brand LLM citations SERP ranking Authority You get cited in AI answers, not just crawled. You climb, and you hold through updates. People and models learn to trust the brand name. /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
6. Chapter 1: The Outbreak What spam actually looks like in 2026 /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
7. “Everyone else is already doing it” /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
8. This is what spam looks like now /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
9. This is what spam looks like now /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
10. Apparently, Google already ignores most of it /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
11. only ~39% of SEOs still bother with the disavow tool. Google already handles the rest. /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
12. only ~39% of SEOs still bother with the disavow tool. Google already handles the rest. So if Google ignores it… why do sites still die? /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
13. “Rank-modifying spamming” Google's own words for most of link building /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
14. /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
15. /tamara-novitovic Real authority Link farms you you #brightonSEO
16. Chapter 2: How you lose the game /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
17. SHIP INTEGRITY LEVEL 1 The siege Someone attacks you on purpose 1,000s of toxic links in a short time-span /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
18. SHIP INTEGRITY /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
19. SHIP INTEGRITY /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
20. “Legitimate documents attract links slowly.” /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
21. SHIP INTEGRITY LEVEL 2 The infection Sold as premium, looks clean Inflated metrics One link wires you into a whole network /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
22. More is less... /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
23. Why marketplaces sell you junk? /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
24. SHIP INTEGRITY Vanity metrics are shiny and look expensive /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
25. SHIP INTEGRITY Vanity metrics are shiny and look expensive Easier to make bulk deals and bump the margins /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
26. SHIP INTEGRITY Vanity metrics are shiny and look expensive Easier to make bulk deals and bump the margins No editorial responsibility for them /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
27. SHIP INTEGRITY Vanity metrics are shiny and look expensive Easier to make bulk deals and bump the margins No editorial responsibility for them Brands in sensitive niches are easier to prey on /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
28. SHIP INTEGRITY “Trust me bro, these are premium” /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
29. SHIP INTEGRITY LEVEL 3 The rot A burst of cheap links buffs you up No quality to support the foundation /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
30. SHIP INTEGRITY /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
31. SHIP INTEGRITY Link boosting packages /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
32. SHIP INTEGRITY “Guaranteed traffic in two weeks” /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
33. SHIP INTEGRITY Week 3: /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
34. SHIP INTEGRITY YOUR WEBSITE TIER 1 TIER 2 /tamara-novitovic TIER 1 TIER 2 TIER 2 TIER 1 you control this ...a bit TIER 2 total blind spot #brightonSEO
35. Shared footprints Contaminated Tier 1 Negative SEO by proxy Anchor injection Spam is caught as a network! The site selling you a link sells to everyone, and links to garbage. If a Tier 2 gets hacked, it's one hop from a page pointing at you. Cheap tiers get stuffed with pharma / casino spam anchors. /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
36. Chapter 3: How to survive? /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
37. SURVIVAL RULE 1 Quality check Vet before you build /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
38. SURVIVAL RULE 1 Quality check Vet before you build and I mean it. /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
39. What I check for every link [on the site] /tamara-novitovic ✓ Topical relevance to your site ✓ Reasonable ad density ✓ Editorial independence #brightonSEO
40. What I check for every link [metrics] ✓ Real organic traffic ✓ Traffic trend that isn't declining ✓ Healthy ref.domains curve ✓ Genuine anchor cloud ✓ Solid outbound link portfolio /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
41. What I check for every link [metrics] /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
42. What I check for every link [metrics] /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
43. SURVIVAL RULE 2 Relevance over vanity metrics DR 40 niche-relevant site /tamara-novitovic DR 80 generalist site #brightonSEO
44. SURVIVAL RULE 3 The Impact Score Relevance high Topical match between source and you 20 Placement context Where the link sits within the content Footer Sidebar 15 10 high Author bio Editorial Content quality high Depth, structure, digestibility Citations Originality S 70 exact match Freshness 90 F 60 /tamara-novitovic 15 10 Factual depth 50 adjacent 20 85 75 unrelated high Traffic, indexation, real audience (not just DR/DA) Originality 5 0 Trust signals 5 0 DR/DA indexation traffic 12m #brightonSEO
45. So it already happened. Now what? 1 Diagnose 2 Fix content 3 Stop the bleed 4 Replace with relevance /tamara-novitovic Aggressive disavowing sometimes hurts more than the spam it targets. #brightonSEO
46. Chapter 4: You Survived Three things to walk out with /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
47. If you forget everything else... 1 Build a profile that holds up 2 Apply one framework 3 Investigate extreme changes /tamara-novitovic #brightonSEO
48. FINAL LEVEL Pick the right backlink Left hand for A. /tamara-novitovic Right hand for B. #brightonSEO
49. You can keep ONE link. Which survives the next update? A Topical, relevant DR 30 Directly on your niche Editorial placement /tamara-novitovic B The big number DR 72 PBN / private network No topical link to you #brightonSEO
50. Two publishers want your link. Which one is real? A Big traffic, thin footprint 150,000 traffic Ranks for 24 kws total Tier-1 relevance /tamara-novitovic B Small but stable 10,000 traffic Steady keyword base Tier-2 / local news #brightonSEO
51. Same price, same deadline. Which placement do you pick? A Instant & easy Niche edit, live today Aged domain, high DR No editor, no review /tamara-novitovic B Slower & checked Smaller real site Editor actually reviews Published in context #brightonSEO
52. Thank you, brightonSEO! Grab the Impact Score framework PRESS START on your next clean link bazoom.com /tamara-novitovic tn@bazoom.com #brightonSEO