[jenno]

Has this sister ever engaged in any dubious SEO practices, such as hiring "backlink providers" on fiverr, spamming her link on unrelated websites, or too much prolific use of using the anchor text of "portrait quilt"? Any of those will signal to Google that they are unnatural links and as a result, the site can be penalized and show up less in results, sometimes being removed altogether.

I apologize if this comment is too obvious -- I have worked as an SEO consultant for a while. The first thing she should do is check her Google Webmaster Tools, as this is where she will receive any unnatural link warnings. If it is there, she can start taking steps to remedy the situation by undoing any of the questionable SEO tactics she may have used, and request reconsideration from Google.

[shobhitverma]

This is pretty interesting. So I can theoretically bring down a competitor's rank by creating spammy websites and providing unnatural backlinks ? Even if the competitors figure it out from the webmaster tools, they will have no way to remove the backlinks. Right ?

[momokatte]

Backlinks can be disavowed via Webmaster Tools.

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2648487

Related:

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2309486/Matt-Cutts-Use-...