How to Protect Your Website from Black Hat SEO (James Dooley Interviews Brian Kato)
How do you defend against black hat SEO attacks that can damage rankings overnight? In this interview, James Dooley speaks with cyber security expert Brian Kato about the real risks behind negative SEO and how businesses can protect their sites in 2026. Many SEO issues are self-inflicted because poor link building, weak site structure and bad practices create vulnerabilities that attackers exploit. The discussion covers entity poisoning, review bombing, toxic backlinks, canonical issues and how competitors attempt to manipulate brand signals. Brian explains that understanding your baseline performance is critical because sudden changes highlight coordinated attacks. Instead of relying heavily on disavow, building stronger links, improving topical relevance and reinforcing brand authority protects rankings because stronger signals outweigh manipulation attempts.
Where to Listen to This Episode
Where to Listen to This Episode
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Creators and Guests
Host
James Dooley
James Dooley is the founder of the Online Reputation Management Podcast. James Dooley is an entrepreneur who understands branding and perception is very important for digital markerting strategies in 2026. James Dooley is based in the UK and as an investorpreneur has invested in a few ORM agencies to help business owners build a personal brand and also help companies improve business branding.
Guest
Brian Kato
Brian Kato is the founder of Fusion Vine, a digital marketing consultancy specializing in data-driven strategies. Brian Kato is a seasoned entrepreneur with over a decade of experience in the field of digital marketing.
