Toxic backlinks

What are toxic backlinks?

Toxic backlinks are incoming links from low-quality, spammy or manipulative websites. The term comes from SEO tools, not from Google. According to Google, most spam links are simply ignored, but bought or mass-placed links can lead to a manual action.

Why are toxic backlinks important?

• Risk of a manual action: links meant to manipulate rankings can go against Google’s guidelines.
• Insight into your link profile: checking for odd links shows whether someone is pointing spam at your site.
• No need to panic: a few bad links are normal and usually harmless.

Examples of toxic backlinks

• Links from a link farm of hundreds of interconnected sites
• Paid links that all use the same commercial anchor text
• Links from hacked websites or pages about casinos and pills

How do you deal with toxic backlinks?

Review your backlinks regularly in Google Search Console or an SEO tool. Ask for links to be removed if you placed them yourself, and use Disavow only after a manual action or when there is a clear pattern of bought links (link building).