Links that point back to a website are still an important part of SEO, but what happens if those links are of bad quality? Quite simply, your website could be damaged or affected negatively. What happens if your competitors point a lot of bad links to your website?! Quite simply, your website could be damaged or affected negatively. 
The big question is whether this is something we should worry about? > In 2001, Google stated, "There is nothing a competitor can do to harm your ranking or have your site removed from our index." > In 2003, Google stated, "There is almost nothing a competitor can do to harm your ranking or have your site removed from our index" > Presently, Google stated, "Google works hard to prevent other webmasters from being able to harm your ranking or have your site removed from our index. If you’re concerned about another site linking to yours, we suggest contacting the webmaster of the site in question. Google aggregates and organizes information published on the web; we don’t control the content of these pages." Looking at these 3 statements isn't very promising, Google has clearly realised that they don't have complete control over all the links. The problem with this is that negative SEO is most certainly something to keep your eye on. Regular checking of backlinks should be part of any SEO strategy. One of the best ways to check your links for free is to use Google Webmaster Tools. Google does its best to capture a snapshot of all the websites that are pointing to your website. Take the time to look through this list of links and ensure that there aren't any bad ones pointing back. One tactic we use is to set up some Google Alerts that can notify you when you get fresh back links, this allows you to quickly and easily determine who is linking to you and whether it's a quality link or not. If you're anxious about where your website ranks or how it performs, please feel free to contact us for a link assessment.
The big question is whether this is something we should worry about? > In 2001, Google stated, "There is nothing a competitor can do to harm your ranking or have your site removed from our index." > In 2003, Google stated, "There is almost nothing a competitor can do to harm your ranking or have your site removed from our index" > Presently, Google stated, "Google works hard to prevent other webmasters from being able to harm your ranking or have your site removed from our index. If you’re concerned about another site linking to yours, we suggest contacting the webmaster of the site in question. Google aggregates and organizes information published on the web; we don’t control the content of these pages." Looking at these 3 statements isn't very promising, Google has clearly realised that they don't have complete control over all the links. The problem with this is that negative SEO is most certainly something to keep your eye on. Regular checking of backlinks should be part of any SEO strategy. One of the best ways to check your links for free is to use Google Webmaster Tools. Google does its best to capture a snapshot of all the websites that are pointing to your website. Take the time to look through this list of links and ensure that there aren't any bad ones pointing back. One tactic we use is to set up some Google Alerts that can notify you when you get fresh back links, this allows you to quickly and easily determine who is linking to you and whether it's a quality link or not. If you're anxious about where your website ranks or how it performs, please feel free to contact us for a link assessment. 