[drakaal]

I do reputation management at http://www.blackwaterops.com a large portion of that is "negative" SEO.

It doesn't all have to be "bad neighbor" linking. Negative SEO can be contacting the people who are lending authority to a link and getting them to "nofollow" or remove the link.

Negative SEO can also be convincing Google to AutoSuggest things that don't paint your competition in a good light. "Cheezy Poofs Calories" seems like things people might ask, but people will reconsider if they want Cheezy poofs if the top suggestions in Google's autocomplete is "Cheezy Poofs Explosive Diarrhea" or "Cheezy Poofs Rectum Rash" Or better yet both.

That all Said. Bad Neighbor penalties and the ability to get a site delisted by link bombing has been well known for a long time. Anything that you could do to try and get your self upranked but that is sketchy could also be used to get your competitor delisted.

One thing to note however, is that along the way typically that competitor gets insane rankings just before getting delisted. That isn't always worth it.

-Brandon Wirtz (I Google Bombed my Way to being Greatest Living American) http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2007/05/11/the-greatest-goo...