Backlinks are essential for a website’s SEO – no surprise, it is an undying statement and a valuable segment of ever-discussed topics on website optimization. But what about the toxic backlinks – in short, Spam Backlinks?

Spam Backlinks aren’t something that has recently surfaced in the digital industry. People are well-aware of this shady SEO tactic that can get anybody’s website downgraded by Google in no time.

Getting and giving backlinks – both are indispensable practices for enhancement in website SEO. But often, you unknowingly get yourself puzzled by the spam backlinks, which is a big concern because this single thing can manipulate your website’s overall ranking.

But, how can you remove spam backlinks permanently on your website? Before we answer that, let’s get a better understanding of Spam Backlinks.

What are Spam Backlinks?

In simple words, any irrelevant link in your website is a spam backlink that can be identified only with a backlink analysis of your own website.

Here is a curated list of spam backlinks that you would never wish to connect your website with-

  • Links from ‘unauthorized sites’
  • Links from penalized domains
  • Links from link directories
  • Links from unrelated websites (in large amounts)

However, the list of sources can go long, but this article intends to give you the best possible way out of this ever-evolving issue with websites.

How to Stop Spam Backlinks? – A Detailed Guide

If you want to remove spam backlinks on your website, consider undertaking these essential steps.

Identify the Link Source

First, you need to conduct a backlink analysis and round up the entire spam backlink source. You can take the help of premium tools like Ahref, SEMRush, and Moz that are a beast in finding spam backlinks on the go.
Each tool will likely give you a different idea on spam backlinks, but there’s nothing to worry about. All these tools are easy to use and give you a detailed overview of a backlink and website behind.

Compile a List of Toxic Domains

Export all the identified spam backlink sources and shortlist all those domains, especially those with low Domain Rating (DR) and backlink sources that will be on your priority list. Because after this, you will be asking them to remove spam backlinks pointing to your website.

Look and Remove

Remove all those links that aren’t relevant to your website. But make sure you aren’t removing the wrong link. Not all links with low Domain Rating (DR) are essential to be spam backlinks. Look further and try finding suspicious links.

You need to contact the website’s owner first to raise a request for backlink removal. Luckily if you find the website’s contact information, the process would be a bit easier. But in case you don’t see any contact details, then it’s better to take the help of WHOIS Domain Lookup – one of the best software to track down the domain owner.

If you still don’t find the owner’s contact details, connect with the hosting company of that website.

Take Help of Google Disavow Tool
If nothing works out, the last and the most effective way that will never disappoint you will be Google Disavow Tool. If you want to permanently remove a link that spoils your website’s ranking and affects SEO performance, use this option. But how this tool works? Next, we have shared a brief tutorial on it.

How To Disavow Backlinks?

Every website has access to Google Webmaster or Search Console, which is considered a house of valuable information of a website. And it’s no surprise that your Disavow tool can be found right over here.

  1. Simply head over to Google Disavow Tool or search on Google about the tool.
  2. Before you enter Disavow Tool, make sure you have selected the right account.
  3. Get the list of Spam Websites you have already shortlisted above and create a text file (*.txt)
  4. Upload this and create a text file (*.txt) in Disavow tool
  5. Disavow links and Google Search Console will no longer list all these domains in your account

    Final Words

    In addition to Disavow tool, you can also take the help of premium tools like the SEMRush tool to Disavow links. Nevertheless, doing this directly from Google Search Console is more reliable.