SEO and cyberattacks: investigation of web resource security and methods for protecting search engine optimization positions

Abstract

The paper investigates the relationship between web application cybersecurity and the preservation of search engine optimisation (SEO) performance. The growing number of cyberattacks targeting not only information assets but also search engine rankings, website reputation and organic traffic determines the relevance of this research. Current scientific publications, OWASP recommendations, Google Search Essentials and NIST cybersecurity guidelines are analysed to identify effective approaches for protecting web resources while maintaining search visibility. The experimental study was carried out using a dedicated test web application. Security assessment combined automated and manual testing techniques employing OWASP ZAP, SQLMap, Nikto, Google Search Console and Screaming Frog SEO Spider. The testing process included detection of SQL Injection vulnerabilities, Stored and Reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), insecure directory exposure, missing HTTP security headers, insufficient rate limiting and weaknesses enabling SEO spam, SEO poisoning and automated content scraping. The obtained results demonstrate that SQL Injection and Stored XSS represent the most critical threats to website SEO because they enable attackers to inject hidden content, malicious hyperlinks and harmful scripts that may subsequently be indexed by search engines. The study also confirms that inadequate server-side validation, missing Web Application Firewall protection, absent Content Security Policy and poor monitoring significantly increase both cybersecurity and SEO-related risks. Based on the identified vulnerabilities, a comprehensive protection framework is proposed, including prepared SQL statements, Content Security Policy, Web Application Firewall deployment, server-side input validation, rate limiting, security headers and continuous monitoring using Google Search Console. Repeated security testing confirmed the elimination of critical vulnerabilities, a significant reduction in SEO risks and preservation of website indexing quality without degrading technical SEO performance. The proposed approach may be applied during the development and maintenance of secure web applications requiring stable search engine visibility.