The moment you dive into SEO, it becomes a game of strategy. Every keyword you target, every backlink you earn, every on-page tweak you make isn’t just about climbing the ranks; it’s about outsmarting the algorithm.
That competitive pressure is exactly why black-hat SEO tactics, like keyword stuffing, cloaking, and link farms, rose to fame. For a time, they worked, offering a tempting shortcut to the top of search results.
But if it weren’t for Google stepping in with smarter algorithms and stricter penalties, SERPs would still be overrun with content and people trying to manipulate search engines.
Although Google has cracked down on most, link building remains a breeding ground for questionable practices, bringing us to our subject today: toxic backlinks.
At first, they might seem harmless, or even helpful. But these bad links can quietly drag your site down, undoing hard-earned progress and sabotaging your search engine rankings.
So, what exactly are toxic backlinks, how do they impact your website, and how can you spot these landmines? Discover here.
What are Toxic Backlinks?
A toxic backlink is a general term describing any incoming link that can adversely affect your website’s SEO performance, hurt your online reputation, pull down your SERP ranking, and even remove your site from the Google index.
As long as the backlink meets any of the above qualities, it is considered a toxic link.
Search engines like Google have created spam policies to discourage site owners from engaging in questionable link-building practices.
If Googlebot sees unnatural links pointing to your website (whether you created them or not), this could expose your site to penalties, from sudden ranking drops on SERPs to manual actions on Google Search Console.
That is why it’s advisable to perform a backlink audit frequently to catch spammy links before they blow things out of proportion.
Good vs. Bad Backlinks: What’s the Difference?
You’ve probably read the famous adage: “not all backlinks are equal.” And it holds.
There’s really no absolute way to know if links pointing to your site are good or potentially toxic. But there are telltale signs and site metrics that can quantify a website’s spamminess for you.
Let’s start with the good.
Good backlinks come from reputable, high-authority websites that are topically aligned with your niche. Take note—topically aligned.
For example, imagine if a well-known recipe website links to a popular site about birdwatching, Google might still consider the unnatural backlink as toxic despite both pages’ authoritativeness.
In addition, good backlinks must be:
- Qualified as dofollow
- Originate from indexed domains/pages
- Have a low spam score
- Come from a high domain authority
… similar to what is shown on the screenshot below:
In an ideal scenario, you must earn these good links organically because your content is worth reading.
However, some links earned from link collaboration efforts are still good as long as they come from pertinent sources and are relevant to whoever clicks them.
Conversely, bad backlinks come from low-quality, spammy, or irrelevant websites. These might include link farms, shady directories, or paid link schemes built purely to manipulate search rankings.
Take a look at the screenshot below:
Using an SEO tool, like Linkody, is useful to visualize if a website is a source of toxic backlinks, but sometimes a quick visual inspection of a website is enough. A poor UX/UI, spelling errors, unrelated published blog topics, and an overwhelming number of outbound links are all telltale signs that a website is toxic.
If a site feels off, chances are search engines think so too. Instead of helping your SEO, backlinks from these sources can do more harm than good. So, it’s critical to disavow links from spammy websites to clean your backlink profile and prevent unwanted penalties.
10 Toxic Backlinks to Clean From Your Backlink Profile and How to Track Them
Now that we’ve uncovered the definition of toxic backlinks and how they differ from good ones, which toxic backlinks should you specifically avoid or disavow?
We listed 10 link spam triggers below to help you safeguard your site’s SEO and overall backlink profile:
1. Links you paid for
Sponsored backlinks, or paid links, are tempting solutions for a quick SEO boost, and for good reason!
We all know that search engine optimization takes time. With backlinks being a major search ranking factor, buying inbound links is more practical than spending weeks writing a 5,000-word article, right?
Well, yes and no.
Yes, because Google understands that buying and selling links is part of the modern web economy:
No, because while Google allows the sale of links, it requires that sponsored backlinks be properly qualified with the rel=“sponsored” or rel=“nofollow” attribute.
If not, Google will consider these backlinks as a manipulative attempt to artificially inflate your website’s ranking using money. This qualifies paid links as toxic backlinks. And Google will not take that lightly.
Improperly qualified paid links can be devalued or flagged, which can negatively impact your rankings and traffic.
Since rel=”nofollow” tells Googlebot not to follow the linked page, it doesn’t hold much value. So, you’re left with one last option: using rel=“sponsored” to dodge the penalty, but you still won’t receive any major ranking value.
Google lumps rel=”sponsored” and rel=”nofollow” links into the same low-equity bucket, as shown below:
That means sponsored links often pass little to no link juice, making paying for those links a poor investment for SEO.
Be wary of SEO services selling backlinks. Some may unknowingly—or carelessly—build spammy links to your site. Nobody wants that.
2. Spammy backlinks
Spammy backlinks are a red flag in your SEO profile, and one way to identify them is by checking the Spam Score of the referring domain.
This metric indicates how risky a site is in the eyes of search engines and whether it might drag your rankings down. Moz does this by analyzing the qualities of historically spammy websites and correlating this data to the website you’re analyzing.
A site’s Spam Score provides two critical insights:
- The overall “spamminess” of the backlink source
- The likelihood of your domain being penalized by Google due to association
In the past, Spam Scores typically ranged from 0 (excellent) to 17 (high risk), based on 17 “spam flags,” which signal behaviors that resemble penalized or low-quality websites.
Moz has improved this metric, making it more granular and increasing the number to 27 Spam Score Signals, which include:
- The number of pages
- Lack of HTTPS security
- Abnormal ratio of external links to content
- Absence of contact information
- Presence of poison words
The Spam Score is presented as a percentage, indicating the proportion of similar sites that have been penalized. The risk levels are generally categorized as:
- Low Risk (1–30%): Minimal spam indicators.
- Medium Risk (31–60%): Moderate presence of spam signals; warrants attention.
- High Risk (61–100%): Significant spam indicators; high likelihood of penalties.
While a high Spam Score doesn’t guarantee a penalty, it does warrant further investigation. Tools like Linkody allow you to sort your backlinks by spam score, helping you flag potentially harmful domains in seconds.
Still, don’t rush to disavow.
Only use the spam score as a starting point, then analyze link context, anchor usage, domain relevance, and other SEO indicators to decide whether the backlink truly belongs in your profile.
3. Links from low DA sites
Domain Authority is another good indicator of toxic backlinks. This is a 100-point logarithmic scale that gauges a domain’s likelihood of ranking in search engines, based on factors like:
- Backlink quality
- Link profile strength
- Overall site health
Generally, sites with higher DA are less likely to be sources of toxic backlinks and pass more ranking power through their links.
On the other hand, low DA websites are associated with spam, and it’s a little risky to get backlinks from these sites, especially if you have no access to the site’s entire metrics.
Not all low DA websites are inherently harmful. Many newer or niche websites may still offer value, especially if they’re topically relevant and show signs of growth.
It only becomes a problem when you combine the Spam Score with low DA, such as in this one we discovered using Linkody:
A DA of 6 and a Spam Score of 9 tell me this website is almost certainly getting penalized. Backlinks from this website are most likely toxic and will drag your rankings down.
4. Links from unindexed websites
Another toxic backlink to watch out for is one coming from non-indexed websites. These domains do not appear in Google at all, making them inaccessible unless you know the page’s exact URL.
When a domain or page isn’t indexed, it usually means one of three things:
- The site is brand new and hasn’t been crawled yet
- The site has been crawled, but Google ultimately denied it for indexation
- The site has been penalized or deindexed by Google due to violating the guidelines
A is generally fine, but B and C are huge problems. In whichever case, a backlink from such a source offers no SEO value since Google cannot crawl links from non-indexed pages. Moreover, Google might treat those backlinks as your attempt to inflate your website’s authority and game the algorithm.
Tools like Linkody can help identify non-indexed backlinks in your profile by showing whether the page or domain is indexed or not:
As shown above:
- Green status means both the domain and the linking page are indexed
- Yellow status indicates the page isn’t indexed, but the domain is
- Red status a domain that’s not indexed at all
If a site linking to you is absent from Google’s index, it’s best to treat it as a toxic backlink, especially if it’s been sitting in your profile for a while with no signs of indexing.
Conversely, if the page is new and hasn’t been indexed yet, give it a week or two as Google might still be in the process of indexing the page.
To keep your site safe from Google penalties, regularly review and clean out these low-quality, non-indexed links from your backlink profile.
5. Links from private blog networks
Another source of toxic backlink sources you should be wary of is Private Blog Networks, or PBNs. This is a black-hat SEO tactic that Google actively targets and penalizes.
A PBN is a group of websites, often created and managed by a single entity, and built for the sole purpose of linking back to a “money site” to manipulate search engine rankings.
Websites in a PBN typically offer thin content, provide minimal user value, and have an excessive number of outbound links pointing to a central domain.
One telltale sign of a PBN is when multiple linking domains share the same Class C IP address, suggesting they’re hosted on the same server or controlled by the same network.
Linkody helps you detect these patterns by showing which referring domains come from the same IP block.
For instance, here is an example Class C IP distribution report on Linkody:
A total of 157 backlinks originate from the referring IP 199.59.243. Clicking any of the bars gives you a bird’s eye view of all the referring domains registered in that address:
If several low-DA, non-indexed pages/websites with similar IPs are all linking to you, it’s a red flag. Linkody makes identifying PBNs more straightforward and intuitive.
While PBN backlinks might initially boost your rankings, they’re highly unstable. Once Google detects the network, you risk:
- Algorithmic demotion of your rankings
- Manual penalties from Google search raters
- Complete deindexing of either or both the PBN and your site
6. Links from unrelated sources
Unrelated sources can either be websites from (1) completely different industries or niches, or (2) pages that cover topics irrelevant to your linked content.
While a few of these links won’t damage your SEO, having too many can become toxic. Here is why:
A. Confuses search engine relevance signals
Search engines use backlinks as contextual clues to determine what your page is about.
When you earn contextually relevant links from thematically similar websites, it strengthens your website’s topical authority.
Conversely, if your site about car repairs is getting backlinks from fashion or cooking blogs, that context becomes muddled.
Too many unrelated links like this may signal to Google that you’re engaged in manipulative link schemes, as these referring pages will not link to you under normal circumstances.
B. Reduces the value of link juice
The SEO value passed through a backlink from a source to a target page isn’t determined by authority alone. It is also affected by the relevance between both pages, along with the anchor text used.
A high-authority site outside your niche may pass less link equity than a moderately authoritative site within your industry. That’s because search engines may consider topical alignment when evaluating link quality.
Linkody can help identify whether the referring page is related to your website by looking at the “URL From” column on the dashboard:
Clicking a URL shows a preview of the referring page, which you can then review to measure whether topically relevant or not.
7. Manipulative link exchanges
Long before backlinks ruled the SEO world, link exchanges operated much like a digital barter system, a.k.a. “you link to me, I’ll link to you.” For a while, it worked. Websites climbed the rankings by exchanging links and inflating each other’s authority.
But those days are largely gone.
Today, Google classifies excessive link exchanges as toxic backlinks. And the keyword here is excessive.
Link exchange, or reciprocal linking, happens when two websites agree to link to each other in an attempt to influence their search engine rankings.
One or two natural reciprocal links aren’t necessarily harmful, especially if both sites are relevant and authoritative. But doing link exchanges at scale purely for ranking gains is considered a violation of Google’s link spam policies.
So, what counts as excessive? Well, Google doesn’t specify a magic number. But Google focuses more on intent.
If the link exchange becomes transactional, without any editorial intent, then you’re veering into dangerous territory.
So, why is it toxic? Simple—It’s unnatural.
When search engines like Google discover a suspicious number of mutual links, especially from irrelevant domains, it can look like you’re gaming the system.
Google values naturally and organically built links because this tells your content offered genuine value that other pages didn’t.
Just because Google discourages excessive link exchanges does not mean this is an ineffective link-building tactic. Reciprocal links are not inherently bad.
For example, when two authoritative blogs from the same industry occasionally cite each other naturally? Perfectly fine.
Or, when submitting a guest post contribution to an authoritative, similarly niched website in exchange for a backlink? Still acceptable.
The point is that the backlinks must add value, supporting the search journey of whoever clicks them. But if you’re still in doubt, that’s fine, just focus on earning the backlinks instead of trading them.
8. Links from negative SEO attacks
Not all toxic backlinks are the result of your own actions. Some are planted by others with ill intentions against your site. We call this in the industry: negative SEO.
Negative SEO attacks are a black-hat tactic where someone deliberately tries to sabotage your website’s rankings. One of its most common forms is building hundreds or thousands of spammy backlinks to your website to make it appear you are engaged in shady link-building practices.
Google’s algorithm is smart, but they are not foolproof.
If left unchecked, these toxic backlinks can hurt your reputation, lower your rankings, or even trigger a manual penalty.
The worst part is you often don’t see it coming, especially without a backlink monitoring tool to help you out. Regularly tracking your backlink profile lets you stay on top of any sudden spike in toxic backlinks.
In Linkody’s dashboard, you can see the historical change in your backlink count, as shown below:
Sudden spikes in backlinks, especially when you’re doing any active link-building activities, must be a cause for suspicion. You can set the tool to give you daily updates on new backlinks added to your website.
Plus, on Linkody’s Profile tab, you can get a quick look at the essential reports concerning your backlink profile, including the Spam Score distribution:
A high number of spammy backlinks should be taken with a grain of salt, as that could be your competitors trying to undermine your SEO efforts.
Negative SEO might be out of your control, but how you respond to it isn’t. Stay vigilant, audit your backlinks often, and disavow the damage before it takes root.
9. Links from discussion forums and blog comments
Back in the day, dropping links in forum signatures and blog comments was a common tactic to boost rankings. But that’s no longer the case now.
Google even included forum links as an example of link spam in its Spam Policies:
Back in 2019, John Mueller confirmed that Google ignores user-generated links, such as those found in forums and blog comments. And these links are qualified with rel=“nofollow” tags, which means Googlebot will not crawl the destination pages.
To be fair, UGC links are not inherently bad. They can even be beneficial for maintaining a diverse backlink profile and for driving referral traffic from forum members.
However, spamming these backlinks can backfire on your link-building efforts since Google may view them as manipulative.
This shouldn’t scare you from occasionally adding backlinks to your content through forums!
If you’re genuinely engaging in relevant communities, that’s fine. But if your backlink profile contains many questionable comment links, it’s time for a cleanup.
10. Nofollow backlinks
Nofollow links are not exactly toxic backlinks. In fact, they can even have some benefits. Google has already evolved nofollow links to become hints, instead of a strict rule.
This way, even if Googlebot does not crawl a nofollow link, Googlebot will analyze the link’s anchor text to assess the relevance between the linked pages.
In addition to referral traffic and brand awareness, that means nofollow backlinks can offer indirect SEO benefits despite not passing any link juice or influence rankings. Plus, it gives your site a natural-looking backlink profile.
Nofollow links can only become toxic in specific situations.
For instance, if the majority of your backlinks are nofollow, it might raise a red flag to search engines that your site lacks genuine authority because no website is endorsing your content. In this case, a lopsided link profile dominated by nofollow backlinks may limit your site’s potential to rank well.
Another issue is if you’re misled into acquiring nofollow links through paid placements. If you’ve invested in what you thought were dofollow backlinks but ended up with nofollow ones, it won’t harm your SEO, but it certainly wastes your budget.
Linkody lets you see your website’s backlink profile distribution via the Profile tab:
The bottom line is that nofollow links aren’t toxic by nature, but context matters. Strive to keep a healthy mix of high-quality dofollow backlinks while also keeping nofollow links in check.
How to Remove Toxic Backlinks from Your Site Using Linkody
Linkody comes with a disavow tool that allows you to identify and easily select links or domains you wish to disavow.
First, identify the backlinks you want to delete. You can use the Advanced Filters option from the Linkody dashboard to filter the backlinks according to your preferences.
For instance, select websites with Moz DA 1 to 7, high Spam Score, and non-indexed pages, as with the screenshot below:
On your Linkody dashboard, click the gear icon on the right-most column of the link you wish to disavow:
Depending on the nature of the toxic backlink, you can choose “Disavow link” or “Disavow domain.”
If the entire domain seems spammy and harmful, disavow the entire domain. Otherwise, disavowing the page will do. But in most cases, a spammy page with thin content reflects on the entire website, so we would advise disavowing the whole domain.
When disavowed, this icon will appear to the right:
Next, click the Disavow tab from the main Linkody dashboard to visit all of the disavow rules you have created:
Review your rules, then click the “EXPORT” button to download your file, and upload it to the Disavow section in Google’s Search Console:
There you have it—That’s how you remove toxic backlinks from your website using Linkody.
But how about the reverse?
Acquiring good backlinks is equally as important as disavowing toxic backlinks. How can we do that? Keep reading.
3 Methods to Acquire Good Backlinks for Improved SEO
Now that you know how to remove toxic backlinks using Linkody, we have listed three methods to help you identify good backlinks:
Method #1: Steal competitors’ backlinks with Linkody
Linkody’s tool is useful for performing competitor backlink analysis to help you identify backlinks that link to your competitors but don’t link to your site.
And knowing that, you can ‘steal’ your competitor’s backlinks.
Here is a quick rundown of how you can see the backlinks of your competitors
Step 1: Select your domain.
Step 2: Click on “Competitors” to open a drop-down menu and then scroll down to find the “Add a Competitor” button.
Step 3: Type your competitor’s domain name in the box and click the “ADD COMPETITOR” button.
Step 4: After you have added your competitor, you will see all the links pointing to your competitor:
And this is how you find the backlinks of your competitors in no time.
After you have gone through finding your competitors’ backlinks, you are ready to “steal” them.
To get you going, here’s the most detailed guide on the subject.
Method #2: Perform guest post outreach
Guest post outreach is a powerful strategy that helps you grow your digital presence.
Remember that the long-term goal of guest posting is to create a quality relationship and offer value.
Short term, however, guest posting is a great way to generate new backlinks. To emphasize the importance of guest posting, let me introduce these key benefits:
- Gaining traction for a new webpage
- Growing traffic to your site
- Quality inbound links to your content
Your brand should be the main focus here, not the conversion.
Therefore, when it comes to guest posts, use emotion instead of promotion so you can create high-quality content.
We discussed the steps below in detail in our comprehensive guest post outreach guide:
Step 1: Build a strong portfolio
Sometimes we don’t even realize how powerful a first impression can be. Therefore, before sending an email, create some examples that show your writing skills and knowledge.
Step 2: Find viable sites for guest post campaigns
Let’s see the first method of finding guest blogging opportunities. You can search for active bloggers who already contribute to trusted blogs. For instance, search the following strings on Google:
inurl:write-for-us + your industry
This way, you will be able to create a list of blogs that are responsive to guest bloggers.
Another way is to pinpoint blogs that publish interviews and Q&A sessions with experts. There is a higher probability to land an opportunity with these blogs.
You can also search for premade lists that include blogs accepting guest post contributions. This is a great way to save time and increase your productivity.
Ultimately, you can rest assured that links to your site from these pages are not toxic backlinks.
Step 3: Come up with high-value content topics
These host websites are doing you a favor by linking to your pages in exchange for a guest post (other websites even charge for backlinks!).
The least you can do is brainstorm topics relevant to the host website’s niche that they haven’t covered yet. Conversely, you can also write on existing topics but from a different, unique angle, offering fresh perspectives to their audience.
To create posts that will offer compound value over time, you have to create a strategic content campaign.
Target niche-related blogs by searching for relevant keywords. Additionally, try to separate quality blogs from weak ones by looking at their Domain Authority and relevance.
Step 4: Connect with the host website’s owner
Whether that’s commenting on social media platforms, contributing some insights for HARO, or connecting with them via LinkedIn, building a solid rapport before asking for a backlink increases your chances of success.
After, create your pitch and send it over. Try to be brief, creative, and direct about your proposal.
Step 5: Write your content
Live up to your promises and set expectations by writing a high-value piece complete with irresistible visuals.
Ideally, the topic would overlap with your interests, the host website’s niche, and their audience’s preferences.
Method #3: Discover link-gap placements
Link-gap placement lets you get quality SEO backlinks without having to write an in-depth article.
Here are some ways to guide you through the process of link-gap placement.
Step 1: Choose a topic that relates to your blog post. Then search on Google for posts and websites that have published similar posts where your link could add additional value.
Step 2: Find the best place to add your link. Go through this blog’s content and find the right spot where your link could give value to readers. Conversely, you can search for broken links on the target page and pitch your content as a replacement, a.k.a. broken link building.
Step 3: Make a screenshot of the proposed placement. Highlight the position where you think your link would work best and the suggested anchor text replacement, if any.
Step 4: Now, all that is left is to pitch. Find the contact details on the website and reach out to offer link-gap placement. Send them the screenshot and tell them a bit more about the contents of your blog post.
(Professional tip: Need a hand locating broken links on the page or finding contact details on a website? We created a list of the best Chrome extensions for SEO to help you.)
Stop Toxic Backlinks in Their Tracks with Linkody
Toxic backlinks can sneak into your profile either:
- Unintentionally (excessive link exchanges, low-quality mentions, etc.)
- Deliberately (paying for links, negative SEO attacks, etc.)
Regardless of how they get there, they can harm your site’s rankings, credibility, and visibility.
That’s why regularly auditing your backlinks is essential.
From Google indexing status to Domain Authority, even Spam Score, rel attribute, and signs of PBN involvement, Linkody gives you all the essential insights and signals to monitor toxic backlinks before they undermine your SEO efforts.
Want to rid your site of toxic backlinks?
Don’t leave your SEO health to chance. Start cleaning up your bad backlinks today with Linkody and protect your site’s performance in search results!
Try Linkody now for 30 Days FREE—no credit card required, no strings attached.