If you own a website and your traffic has suddenly dropped or Google has penalized your site, then it is possible that your site is affected by toxic backlinks. In this blog, we will explain what toxic backlinks are, why they are dangerous for your site, and how to remove or discard them step-by-step. We will also share some examples and a small story that will help you understand everything clearly.
What Are the Toxic Backlinks?
Definition:
External links that have an adverse effect on your website’s SEO health are known as toxic backlinks. These links typically originate from suspicious, spammy, or unreliable websites.
For Example
Imagine your website as a school. If the name of that school is being mentioned everywhere – good places as well as bad places – then what will people think? If bad places (spammy sites) mention your school’s name, then people will doubt that school. In the same way, Google also doubts when there are poor-quality backlinks available on your website.
Understand it with a little story: Jim's website
Jim created a blog where he shared health tips. Slowly, his website started getting good traffic. But one day his traffic suddenly dropped by 70%. When he checked, he found that some wedding and adult websites were linking to his site on their pages without his permission. Google considered this suspicious and dropped the ranking of Jim’s site. Then he learned how toxic backlinks can become a problem for his website.
How to check Toxic Backlinks on a Website?
You should check your backlinks regularly. There are a few tools you can use to analyze your site using a toxic backlink checker:
- Google Search Console (Free)
- Ahrefs
- SEMrush
- Moz
- Ubersuggest
By using these tools, you can see which links are spammy, which domains they are coming from, and what their spam score is.
How to Identify Toxic Links
Your backlinks may be toxic if:
- That link is coming from a spammy or adult site
- It originates from link farms or sponsored links.
- It is from an irrelevant niche
- The same anchor text is being overused
- It looks unnatural despite being a nofollow
Example: If your website is about fashion and is getting a backlink from a gambling or adult site, then it will be considered toxic.
How to Remove Toxic Backlinks?
Let’s see the step-by-step process:
Step 1: Create a List of Toxic Backlinks
- Download a report of all your backlinks from tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz.
- Identify low-quality or suspicious links by checking the Spam score and DA (Domain Authority).
Step 2: Send Request for Link Removal via Mail
- Politely send an email to the admin of every website from which you are getting toxic backlinks.
- Write in the email that you want the link from their site removed.
Example Email:
Hi,
I noticed that your website is linking to my site, anywebsitedomain.com.
I would like to request you to remove this backlink as it may be harmful for my website’s SEO.
Thank you!
Step 3: Create a Disavow File
You will need to “disavow” the link if the owner of the other website does not take it down. Meaning: you will have to tell Google that, brother, I did not create this link, ignore it.
Step 4: How to Create a Disavow File
- Open a notepad because Google disvow accepts .txt file
- The way the domain is written will alter if you mention those harmful links in your text file.
Suppose you want to remove a backlink whose URL is “ www.anywebsitedomain.com/bad-links” then in the .txt file you will create will have this link written as mentioned in the example below
Example:
Disavow links, for example, are mentioned below:
http://spammysite.com/bad-link
http://example.com/why-link
When we audit our website for toxic links then we find some links may be it can 1 or more than this When we find them we create a .txt file, and in tha,t we remove the http:// part, or if you have www, then we also remove this and put domain: on there places and after that we keep all the url structure same as it is. In this disavow file submission, you can block a single URL, or you can also block all the domains that are spammy and are good for your website. By submitting this file, you are informing Google that these links are spammy and don’t consider them for my website, but keep one thing in mind that don’t mention any good link because it will also ignore it when you mention that in this file. Save this file with the name disavow.txt and then keep it for submitting it on Google Search Console disavow link.
domain:http://spammysite.com/bad-link
domain:example.com/why-link
Step 5: How to Submit Disavow File in Google Search Console
- Log in to your Google Search Console, then
- Go to the “Disavow Links Tool” page via the link mentioned below: https://search.google.com/search-console/disavow-links
- Select your website property
- Upoad your Diavow txt File
- Click on submit
Note: Google takes this process very seriously. Do not disavow good backlinks by mistake.
Can disavowing improve my rank?
Yes, absolutely! If you remove or disavow your toxic backlinks timely manner, then Google will consider your site clean and trustworthy. The chances of improving ranking increase.
Pro Tips for the Future
- Do a backlink audit every month
- Create backlinks only from high DA websites related to your niche
- When creating backlinks from SEO agencies, check their strategy
Final Words
Toxic backlinks silently hamper your site’s growth. If you are serious about your website’s SEO health, start identifying and removing toxic backlinks from today itself. Just like Rahul, you too can recover your website – all you need is a little patience, a little smart work, and the right guidance.If you found this guide helpful, do it today on youe website and disavow the toxic links if you found any.
FAQs
A: These are backlinks that negatively affect the SEO of your website, such as spammy, irrelevant or paid links.
A: First, try removing those links manually if it’s not, then use the Google Disavow Tool.
A: Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz – all three are trusted tools. If you want a free tool then Google Search Console is the best.