Toxic backlinks are links pointing to your site from sources that do not have good quality or are considered to be spammy, can take away rankings, reduce trust, and cause penalties to be issued by search engines. Knowing where to find and eliminate toxic backlinks is necessary for maintaining a solid SEO in digital marketing strategy.
Defining Toxic Backlinks
A toxic backlink usually comes from sites that are not related to the business, do not have high authority, or are questionable. Examples of toxic backlinks include links from spam directories, link farms, hacked websites, private blog networks, and websites with thin and plagiarised content. Links from these types of sources are viewed as attempts by the website owner to manipulate their ranking and not as a legitimate endorsement.
Identifying Toxic Backlinks
Begin an audit of your current backlink profile by utilising Google Search Console, Ahrefs, SEMrush, and other relevant tools. Check your profile carefully for warning signals such as:
- Unrelated niche links
- No organic traffic links
- Excessive outbound linking and
- Domains with suspicious domain names and TLDs
Another way to ascertain the likelihood of toxicity is by checking the anchor text used within each backlink. If you see anchor text that appears unnatural or overly optimised, as well as anchor text that does not complement your website's focus and/or purpose, these are strong indications of potential toxicity.
Determining the Quality of a Backlink
Not every low-authority link will be classified as toxic. Therefore, the context is necessary when determining toxicity. When evaluating backlinks to your website, verify the domain's relevance, the website's content quality, the actual traffic generated from the website, and its overall credibility. A smaller authority or lower-quality website can provide a valuable backlink as long as the link can be logically classified as relevant, but a reputable high-authority spam domain would always be deemed harmful, no matter the metric associated with that website.
The Dangers of Toxic Backlinks
As per reputed search engine optimization services providers, Google values the quality of links over quantity and determines how well your site will rank based on the number of high-quality links you have. Toxic backlinks can increase the chances of a website experiencing a ranking drop or receiving a manual penalty for using manipulative practices. The result of toxic backlinks dilutes the overall link profile of a website and makes it difficult for high-quality backlinks to provide support for SEO efforts.
Eliminating Toxic Backlinks
The manual removal process should be the first step. It involves contacting the owner of the website where a backlink exists and requesting that the link be removed while maintaining a professional and courteous tone during this communication process. If you cannot get a link removed from a site manually, then you should use Google’s Disavow Tool to let Google know that you would prefer they not consider that specific link when determining your website’s rankings. Be very careful with this process, as you do not want to accidentally eliminate a legitimate link on your site.
Preventing future Toxic Backlinks
Just like when cleaning up a toxic backlink profile, preventing a toxic backlink profile should be just as critical as cleaning it up. You should build your backlink profile organically through the creation of high-quality content, digital public relations, and ethical outreach. Avoid using paid links and automated link-building services. Conduct regular backlink audits so you can address any issues that arise before they become serious.
Toxic backlinks can cause long-term problems with your website's SEO if you do not address them promptly. If you have a regular backlink audit and can identify any toxic backlinks to your website, you will also be able to take action to protect your website's authority and ranking over the long term.
Are you looking for a professional backlink audit, cleanup, and a sustainable strategy for link building? Let Light Buzz Media, a leading SEO company in India, help you with cleaning up your backlink profile today, so you can continue to grow your website’s SEO.