They did everything by the book. Yet some Dutch affiliate gambling websites lost up to 85 per cent of their visitors via Google in just a few months. Not because of poor content, but because of an invisible attack. And the consequences not only affect these companies, but also undermine the reliability of the legal gambling market.
Explosion of backlinks, then traffic plummets
The Keurmerk Verantwoorde Affiliates (KVA) spent months investigating a recurring pattern. First, they see a sudden increase in backlinks to a website. Often, the number of referring links grows by hundreds of percent in a few weeks. Shortly afterwards, there is a sharp decline in organic traffic. Sometimes by 10 per cent, sometimes by 80 per cent.
At casino.nl, the attack led to a loss of more than 17,000 monthly visitors. Top-casino.nl saw a similar picture. And at intikkertje.nl, almost half of the traffic disappeared within a year.
Spam comes from pornography and pills, not from legal partners
Anyone who analyses the source links will be shocked. The backlinks do not come from other gambling sites or news media, but from obscure domains with content about Viagra, pornography or fake medicines. Some anchor texts literally contain the terms ‘anal sex porn’, ‘Viagra 50 mg’ or Telegram handles of accounts that sell SEO spam.
The senders are often domains with low authority. More than 99 per cent score below 20 on a scale of 100, which indicates link farms, expired domains or hacked sites. The links are not only worthless, they are toxic.
A classic pattern that is no longer a coincidence
The graphs of affected websites show an alarmingly consistent pattern. First, there is an explosive increase in backlinks. This is followed by a short period in which rankings actually rise. Google seems to think that the site is becoming more popular. But the correction soon follows: Google recognises the spam and punishes the site – consciously or unconsciously – with lower positions and less visibility.
This pattern repeats itself time and time again. Whether it’s big names or smaller affiliates, the attack affects everyone who plays by the rules.
Google says that bad links do no harm, but the figures show otherwise
Google has been claiming for years that negative SEO does not exist. Bad links would simply be ignored. But the data from the KVA study tells a different story. Of the 14 websites studied, 57 per cent lost significant traffic. And that loss comes almost immediately after the spikes in backlinks.
SEO experts, such as Cyrus Shepard, have previously tested what happens when you disavow all your links. His traffic declined. So Google does not always ignore spam. The algorithms are not infallible. And that is now evident.
The damage affects more than just rankings
For the affected companies, the loss is not only digital. Less traffic means less revenue. But it also affects the credibility of the regulated market. Websites that refer consumers to legal casinos and Cruks registration are disappearing from search results. As a result, users are more likely to end up with unreliable, unlicensed providers.
And that is what makes the attack dangerous. Because those who can no longer see what is legal are at greater risk of addiction, fraud or data breaches.
Who is behind this remains unclear – but the motive is clear
The report does not name names. There is no hard evidence. But the pattern is too big and too targeted to be coincidental. The suspicion is that competitors or rogue providers want to eliminate legal affiliates. Not with a DDOS attack, but with an SEO weapon that is difficult to trace.
By pushing legitimate parties out of the top results, space is created for grey or illegal providers. They take over the vacated positions. And consumers often only notice the difference when it is too late.