It should come as no surprise that various link-building schemes have popped up over the years to get around the system and make this process easier to navigate. However, the system is fighting back, and it is constantly bringing to our attention the need to emphasise quality over quantity.
These days, toxic backlinks stand no chance, and for you to stay ahead of the game, you must know how to find toxic backlinks.
Google has recently reminded web admins about qualifying links and announced an update to its algorithm that deals with spammy backlinks. This article will walk you through the steps of conducting a successful backlink audit to assist you in determining which backlinks are harmful to your website.
What are toxic backlinks, and how do you avoid them?
If you are wondering how to find toxic backlinks with a technical SEO audit, then we’re here to tell you about it. Website proprietors are frequently taken aback when they discover that they want more rather than the highest quality. Although theoretically, each backlink you receive is a vote of confidence and trust in your website, links from high-domain ranking sites will yield the best results.
It’s possible that it wasn’t the best idea after all. Links from low-authority or spammy sites may be ineffective in the short term, but they may also negatively impact your rankings over time or result in search engine penalties.
The possibilities for obtaining harmful backlinks are virtually limitless. It is also possible for spam backlinks to result from previous backlink-building efforts that were poorly informed or black-hat SEO efforts made by your competitors. All three of these scenarios are possible.
Building backlinks is an ever-evolving subject, which means that backlinks acquired several years ago might not adhere to the most current best practices in the industry. Suppose you are working with a company or using strategies that have not kept up with the newly released information on the subject.
In that case, you should not be surprised that after the most recent update to Google’s algorithm for dealing with spammy backlinks, your rankings may be falling dramatically.
How to identify potentially dangerous backlinks and link schemes
Checking your backlinks is the absolute bare minimum that is required of you to identify harmful links:
Domain Ranking (Domain Authority)
On a scale ranging from 0-to 100, this score indicates the strength of a website’s backlink profile. Even though it is not a factor in Google’s ranking algorithm, this can be a helpful metric to learn the status of your website in comparison to other websites that offer similar products or services.
It is calculated based on the number of reputable domains that point to your website. If the Domain Ranking (DR) is low, the quality of the newly acquired backlink may be poor.
What exactly makes a good DR? It is generally accepted that high-quality domains will have a DR greater than 70, that low-quality websites will have a DR less than 30, and that everything in between will be considered to be of average quality.
This appears extremely strict, but don’t be alarmed if your DR is less than 30. It does not necessarily imply that your website contains harmful content; rather, it indicates that you need to put more effort into building links.
You shouldn’t be concerned if someone with such DR is linking to your site; instead, you should exercise caution and spend more time revising these backlinks.
The Central Text
In a perfect world, you would want backlinks to have a variety of anchor texts pointing to your website, including mentions of your brand, specific keywords, naked links, images, and other types of content.
In the vast majority of situations, you will see precisely that; however, there are times when the same anchors can serve as a warning and assist you in recognizing spam backlinks.
For instance, you might discover that some of the backlinks pointing to your website use anchor text that isn’t appropriate for your line of work. During a backlink audit for a client, we discovered that similar low-quality sites link to one of the websites using anchor text archives, which indicates that the sites are not related.
After investigating it because this seemed like an anchor text that didn’t fit this particular business model, we discovered many spammy backlinks coming from adult websites. A good rule to follow is always to investigate any inconsistencies that you find in the anchor text of your website.
These metrics may not be sufficient to identify harmful links, but they are an excellent place to start looking. Google determines more specific link schemes and shows web admins which backlinks will hurt their site’s ranking in search results.
Some of these strategies include paid backlink building, excessive link exchanges, automated link creation services, and the creation of links in a manner that is not natural.
The effect of toxic links
Since the Google Penguin algorithm update in 2012, manipulative link-building strategies are not nearly as common as they once were. Google increased the number of human resources available to its spam team to penalise websites with toxic backlinks manually.
This it’s important for you to know how to find toxic backlinks. Still, the company’s algorithms have also improved their ability to identify spam but still for better results we should consider a professional seo service.
Your backlink profile needs some fixing and improvement
- If you discover that some of the links you created many years ago do not adhere to the new guidelines, you should get rid of the ones you have control over.
- Regarding the other backlinks, Google recommends that you manually contact the web admins in question and request that they remove the links. Even though the chances of getting it done are slim, it doesn’t hurt to ask anyway.
- A disavow file can also be used to remove wrong links from your website. Google is informed by the disavow file of which links it should not consider. However, you should only carry out these actions if many spammy, artificial, or low-quality links are pointing to your website. If this is the case, then a manual step is likely to be taken against your website, or it may already have been taken.
How can the toxic backlinks be fixed?
For you to fix toxic backlinks, you must know how to find toxic backlinks. Even though the Google Disavow file is frequently referred to as a fallback option, there will be times when it is the only choice available to you for resolving the toxic link issue.
If you have an excessive number of spammy links, you probably won’t be able to get them removed by sending a courteous outreach email requesting that they be removed. Because of forgotten passwords or defunct websites, it’s possible that you won’t even be able to delete the links that you created.
First figure out how to find toxic backlinks, then fixing the issue of bad backlinks can be accomplished by following the instructions provided by Google on how to create a disavow file.
Author
Pentra SEO Agency
