Reading a profile for negative SEO vs. self-inflicted spam

Reading a profile for negative SEO vs. self-inflicted spam

Here's a debate the audit world keeps getting wrong: when a profile fills with toxic links, was it an attack — or did they build that mess themselves and cry 'negative SEO'?

How to tell from the public footprint:
— Real attacks use spammy comment/forum links with exact-match anchors to the victim's MONEY pages, dumped fast, from xrumer-style sources
— Self-inflicted spam is more 'considered' — targeted to ranking pages, with anchors that match their actual keyword strategy
— Attack tell: the same junk links also point at the victim's competitors (sprayer didn't care). Self-built links are surgically aimed only at them

Multiple profiles that publicly blamed 'an attack' show anchor targeting too clean to be random — that's a vendor's link plan, not a saboteur's. The spray pattern doesn't lie. Before you disavow or accuse, read who else got hit. Watch this space.