How to Identify and Remove Bad Backlinks

A bad backlink is an inbound link from a website that is irrelevant or malicious and can harm your SEO. They give your website a spammy appearance and harm your reputation with Google and other search engines. You must get rid of these backlinks before Google penalizes you. If you can™t remove the toxic backlinks on your own, it™s recommended to collaborate with one of the best SEO companies in California.

In this blog post, we will show you how to identify bad backlinks, what causes them to be harmful, and how to remove them. Here's how to find bad backlinks step by step:

How to get a list of all backlinks identified on Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a free tool that shows how your audience interacts with your website via Google Search Pages. It also lists any discovered backlinks to your website.

The list can be found by selecting Links from the Google Search Console menu and scrolling down to the Top linking sites section.

Select the download format by clicking More. GSC will export your entire list of backlinks.

Now that you have the list, it's time to filter out the bad links.

How to check for bad backlinks

The majority of shady backlinks come from websites that appear to be spam; you can identify them by looking at the linking page. Here's how to detect bad backlinks:

1. Linking Website Looks Like Spam

Is there a lot of advertising on the host website? Blog posts with a lot of affiliate links? If this is the case, the website may be spammy. When you see keyword-stuffed content and every blog pointing back to sales pages, you must remove backlinks from that website.

Quality websites prioritize content and provide value to their visitors.

2. Backlinks Are from Link-Farm Websites

By linking to one another, link farm websites increase their domain authority. These websites received backlinks as a result of a business transaction, not because they provide value. These low-quality websites are referred to as Private Blog Networks (PBNs.)

Google is aware that these websites provide no value to readers, so even if you receive a backlink from them, Google may disregard it. However, with Google cracking down on low-quality bad backlinks, it is prudent to remove backlinks from link farms.

3. Backlinks Are From Discussion Forum

Not every backlink in a discussion forum is spammy. However, if your backlink profile is filled with discussion forum backlinks, you must remove them. Instead, concentrate on producing high-quality content that attracts natural backlinks.

4. Blog Comment Backlinks

Backlinks from the comments section of a blog post are known as comment links. This technique was extremely effective prior to the Google Penguin update. However, it is no longer an effective method of building backlinks.

5. Press Release Backlinks

News Release Backlinks are obtained by writing a single press release and distributing it to numerous forums. This means that the same content is being published on multiple websites, and backlinks from such sites may fall into the black-hat category.

6. Backlinks From Fiverr or Similar Services

Unless you know how to qualify a Fiverr backlinking gig, you may receive low-quality bad links. These backlinks are obtained through the use of poor quality content and irrelevant websites that add no value to readers or your website.

If you received any Fiverr backlinks as a result of guest posting, determine whether the backlink is valuable enough to keep.

7. Backlinks with over-optimized anchor texts

An anchor text that is identical to the blog title is over-optimized. These backlinks may not be harmful, but to make your profile look cleaner, contact website owners and ask them to change the anchor text.

8. Backlinks from foreign language sites

It is cause for concern if you notice an increase in backlinks from Turkish websites while writing in English. In aggregate, these backlinks indicate a negative SEO attack on your website.

9. Hidden backlinks

It was common in the early days of SEO to link agency websites to client websites. These backlinks frequently had anchor text that was the same color as the background of the webpage. Backlinks were able to hide in plain sight as a result of this. Visitors were unable to see them, but search engines were.

However, this is now considered a black-hat SEO technique. If you have such backlinks, you must remove them immediately.

10. Multiple backlinks from unrelated websites

Google prefers backlinks to your website that are relevant. Backlinks from other dog grooming websites, dog behavior websites, or dog park websites should be obtained if you own a dog grooming website.

However, if you receive a large number of backlinks from a Tupperware website, Google may ignore or penalize you for them.

11. Paid Backlinks

Paid backlinks are a black-hat SEO tactic. Paid backlinking is a method of cheating the Google algorithm. Google can't tell the difference between paid and natural backlinks right now because they can't open your mailbox.

However, the recent link spam update indicates that Google is emphasizing quality backlinks. Many websites will lose rankings once they figure out how to identify paid backlinks.

12. Sitewide Footer or Sidebar Links

Another old technique for increasing backlinks was to include a backlink in the website footer that appeared on multiple webpages. Because it is obvious that not all of those pages are relevant to the backlink, such backlinks are considered black-hat.

13. Slow loading pages

If the page takes too long to load, has a poor layout, or contains low-quality content, the backlink is likely to be of low quality. A high-quality website has technical SEO in place and loads in less than 5 seconds. Google pagespeed insights can be used to confirm the speed.