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Bad (or toxic) [backlinks](/content/hub/seo/backlinks "What Are Backlinks in SEO? & Why You Need Them"/index.html) are links from external websites that can harm your site’s ranking and online reputation. Search engines like Google see bad backlinks as a red flag, associating your site with low-quality or spammy content. This can lead to a drop in your rankings, making it harder for potential customers to find you. That’s why it’s essential to learn how to find toxic backlinks and remove them before they impact your traffic and visibility.

In this article, we’ll uncover why toxic backlinks are a problem, show you how to identify them, and explain where they usually come from. Most importantly, we’ll give you the tools and strategies to remove these harmful links.

Why Are Bad Backlinks a Problem?

Bad backlinks can be a problem for several reasons. They can:

• Lead to penalties by Google
• Damage your site’s reputation by associating it with spammy websites
• Drop your search engine rankings
• Waste your resources

As SEO experts Greg Heilers and Morgan Taylor from Jolly SEO told us:

“Bad backlinks are a problem not just because they can lead to penalties by Google. Backlinks with a negative traffic trajectory also provide a decreasing ROI as they age.”

Look at this example of the Easy Branches website. It has over 2.6 million backlinks. That sounds impressive. Yet, over the past two years, its traffic plummeted from 36,000+ visitors a month to zero:

This shows that a ton of backlinks doesn’t guarantee success. And you should focus on earning high-quality backlinks over quantity.

How to Find Bad Backlinks

Knowing how to spot the harmful ones is key to maintaining a healthy backlink profile. And protecting your SEO.

Here are two options to identify bad backlinks to your website:

Option #1: Identify Bad Backlinks Manually

A manual backlink analysis involves examining each link pointing to your website. It’s a time-consuming process. But it helps you understand your link profile. Open Google Search Console (GSC) and navigate to “Links” from the left-side menu.

Click “MORE” in the “Top linking sites” section.

This will give you the list of all the sites linking to your site.

When you drill down on a site, you’ll see a list of your pages receiving backlinks.

Click on a target page to see which external page is linking to your content.

Visit each linking website and assess its overall quality. Look for red flags like:

• Low website authority, as it often indicates a less reputable or authoritative website
• Spammy, thin content, keyword stuffing, or content that seems automatically generated
• Aggressive marketing tactics like excessive ads, pop-ups, and calls to action
• A website that has nothing to do with your industry or topic
• Lack of contact information. Legitimate websites usually provide it, while spammy ones often don’t.
• Websites with broken links (404 errors), as they signal a neglected or abandoned website
• Websites with outdated design. Which could mean they haven’t been updated in years and may be inactive or less trustworthy.

Option #2: Use a Bad Backlink Checker

If manually checking each backlink feels overwhelming, use a tool to simplify the process. We recommend Semrush’s Backlink Audit tool. It finds toxic backlinks, and it has a built-in email tool to manage everything in one place (more on that soon).

Here’s how to do it. Sign up for a free 14-day Semrush trial. Open the Backlink Audit tool, enter your domain, and click “Start Backlink Audit.”

Optionally, configure your backlink audit. Then, click “Start Backlink Audit.”

The audit may take a few minutes depending on your backlink profile. Once it’s done, you’ll see the overview of your backlink toxicity. Semrush categorizes this into three categories:

• Toxic: Marked with red, these are the links with Semrush’s toxicity score of 60-100. You want to prioritize these links when removing bad backlinks.
• Potentially toxic: Marked with orange, these are the links with a toxicity score of 45-59. If the links come from relevant sites and the anchor text isn’t spammy, you can probably ignore them. However, if you notice a negative impact on your rankings, consider removing them.
• Non-toxic: Marked with green, these are good, high-quality backlinks with a toxicity score of 0-44. You want to keep these backlinks (and earn more like them).

Click the number in each color in the “Overall Toxicity Score” section:

Doing so, you’ll get a filtered list of each category. For example, click the red number to filter the list. It shows you all the toxic backlinks, ranked from most to least toxic. Like this:

Check potentially toxic and non-toxic links the same way.

10 Common Sources of Bad Backlinks

Understanding where toxic backlinks often come from is crucial for avoiding them in the first place. Here are 10 common sources:

1. Paying for Links

Paying for links is a direct violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. It’s considered a manipulative tactic to artificially boost your site’s ranking.

Why paying for links is bad:

• Penalties: Google actively penalizes sites that buy links. This can lead to a significant drop in rankings or even removal from search results.
• Unnatural links: Purchased links often look unnatural and out of place. Which can raise red flags for search engines.
• Low-quality links: Sites that sell links are often low quality and may even be penalized themselves, associating your site with spam.

A link farm is a group of websites created solely to link to other sites in the group. They exist to sell links and often have little to no original content. Their sole purpose is to manipulate search engine rankings.

On the other hand, sponsored content is acceptable. This is a legitimate marketing strategy where you pay to have your content published on another website—clearly labeled as an advertisement or sponsorship—and adhering to Google’s guidelines.

When is it necessary to mark your links as sponsored or nofollow? For example, if you own a mill that specializes in freshly milled stone-ground flour and a food blogger mentions your brand in a blog post about their baking journey, the link to your mill’s website doesn’t need to be marked as “nofollow” or “sponsored.”

However, if you sponsored a popular lifestyle blog to mention your flour, ask them to mark your link as nofollow or sponsored. This way, you still get visibility without raising any flags with Google.

2. Exchanging Links

Reciprocal linking, also known as a link exchange, is an agreement where two websites agree to link to each other. It might seem like a harmless way to get more backlinks, but it can easily be seen as a manipulative SEO tactic.

Why can exchanging links be harmful?

• Lack of value: Often, reciprocal links lack editorial value. They’re not genuine recommendations based on the quality or relevance of the content.
• Unnatural patterns: Search engines can detect patterns of reciprocal linking, suggesting they’re not earned naturally.
• Limited impact: If search engines see too many reciprocal links, they might assume they’re not genuine mentions and discount their importance.

So, steer away from agreements for the sole purpose of exchanging links. Instead, focus on building relationships with other websites and earning links naturally.

3. Submitting to Low-Quality Directories

Submitting your website to various business directories is a common SEO tactic. However, it’s important to be selective about where you list your site.

How do you spot low-quality directories?

• Reputation: High-quality directories are often well-known in their respective industries.
• Content quality: Legitimate directories have well-written, unique descriptions for each listing.
• Moderation: Quality directories typically have a review process before listing businesses.
• Costs: Be cautious of directories that prioritize payment over quality.

To ensure your business appears in reputable directories, consider Semrush’s Listing Management tool.

4. Getting Backlinks from Irrelevant and Spammy Websites

Backlinks from unrelated or spammy websites can hurt your website by damaging your reputation and SEO. Spammy websites are often poorly designed and filled with irrelevant or duplicated content.

Getting links from these websites usually happens unintentionally, but it can also be the result of poorly executed [link building strategies](/content/link-building-strategies "Link Building Strategies: The Complete List"/index.html). Search engines see these links as reflecting your site’s quality. If they come from spammy sites, they signal low-quality content and can potentially damage your rankings.

5. Forcing Your Links in Forum Discussions and Blog Comments

Dropping your website link in forums and blog comment sections can be tempting, but it’s a risky move that rarely pays off.

Here’s why forced links backfire:

• They can annoy people: Spamming can damage your reputation.
• Spam filters may block them: Most platforms have filters detecting spam comments.
• They’re ineffective for SEO: Search engines can recognize unnatural links.

Instead, focus on building genuine relationships and adding value to discussions. When you do so, you earn backlinks organically.

6. Participating in Private Blog Networks

Private blog networks (PBNs) are networks of websites with the purpose of linking to other sites to manipulate their search engine rankings.

Why PBNs are risky:

• Violates Google’s rules: PBNs are against Google Webmaster’s Guidelines.
• High risk of penalties: Google actively hunts down PBNs.
• Unsustainable: They require constant maintenance to avoid detection.
• Low-quality links: PBNs often provide low-quality and irrelevant links.

Instead of PBNs, focus on building a strong backlink profile using ethical methods.

7. Creating Widgets with Links

Widgets offer extra functionality and can attract visitors. However, if your widget generates links automatically, you may get backlinks from irrelevant websites. Ensure those links are “nofollow” to prevent SEO issues.

8. Using Link Building Bots

Using automated software to create backlinks often attracts low-quality links with no real value.

9. Hiding Links

Hiding links is a deceptive SEO practice that is increasingly recognized and penalized by search engines.

10. Being an SEO Attack Target

Being the target of an SEO attack from competitors can result in an influx of harmful backlinks. Monitor your link profile to recognize any unusual patterns.

When to Take Action on Bad Backlinks

Finding bad backlinks can be alarming, but assess the situation before taking action. Not all backlinks are equally harmful. Some may simply create irrelevant noise in your profile.

However, consider intervening if:

• Your profile is dominated by spammy or manipulative links.
• Links from unrelated sites use spammy anchor text.
• You see a sudden drop in rankings.

How to Get Rid of Bad Backlinks

Request Link Removals

To remove bad backlinks naturally, contact website owners and ask them to remove the links. This can be done through tools like Semrush’s Backlink Audit tool.

Disavow Bad Backlinks

Disavowing backlinks should be a last resort. If unable to remove them, you can disavow links through Google Search Console.

Step #1: Create a Disavow File

Use Semrush to navigate to “Backlink Audit  Audit” and filter for the most toxic backlinks. Select the ones you want to disavow and click “Disavow.”

Step #2: Upload the Disavow File to GSC

Open Google’s Disavow Links tool and select your property to upload your disavow list.

Keep Your Backlink Profile Healthy

Maintaining a healthy backlink profile is crucial. Understanding the sources of bad backlinks helps avoid them, but you can still strategically build high-quality links to enhance your site's reputation.