How to remove spam backlinks from my website? Finding a satisfactory answer to this essential question would be best to move forward to a higher ranking for your website on SERPs. Before answering this question, there are several matters you should know first.
A healthy, high-ranking website is the thing every digital marketer is seeking for. High-quality backlinks are essential to this goal, and to get high-quality backlinks to feed your site's ranking on SERPs, you need to audit your site's backlinks to find bad backlinks and see how many backlinks you should remove.
Spam backlinks may stand in the way of ranking high on SERPs; it helps if you check the site's spam score regularly. Before we discuss removing spam backlinks, let us understand why this technique is necessary for this penguin link removal guide from seobase.
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Previously, many webmasters scored high rankings on SERPs by getting high-quality backlinks. As a result, they didn't fall into the black hat SEO trap, such as sponsored, toxic, and spammy backlinks.
Suspicious backlinks can get a website penalized and lose ranking on search engine results.Spammy links are unwanted links posted by some people on websites, forums, and blog comments. It also could be unrelated links stuffed into content or any other site on the Internet where the links.
According to Google standards, spammy links are every link that is not legally acquired between website pages.Google rejects spam links because some website owners use them unethical to create backlinks on pages that affect user experience or manipulate the site's ranking on search engines.
The spammy backlinks take from your website domain authority DA "Link juice" without giving anything in return and significantly disturb websites plagued by them.
Why is it Important to Remove Spam Backlinks?
Backlinks are very important for SEO in determining your website's position on search engines. In addition, backlinks not only help to get higher rankings but also help in raising your site's DA.
Backlinks are an "approval seal" and acknowledgment that your website is trustworthy for search engines. Thus, search engine algorithms rank your website as a trusted website that improves user experience.
As a result, these algorithms boost your site to a higher position on the top of the first page of SERPs.In 2012, Google introduced a significant SEO signal of the algorithms called Google Penguin.
This signal of the algorithms was a breakthrough in the future of backlinks and determined the importance of backlinks to sites.
The primary purpose of the Google Penguin update is to set strict rules to identify sites that use unethical SEO techniques and penalize websites that indulge in black hat SEO practices.
Google Penguin's second update
In 2016, Google released an essential update of the signal of the algorithms, the Google Penguin update. This update states two critical things:
Penguin is now real-time; as this change, Penguin's data is refreshed so that changes will be visible much faster and have an effect shortly after we recrawl and reindex a page.
Penguin is now more granular. For example, Penguin now reduces spam by adjusting ranking based on spam signals rather than affecting the whole site's ranking.
In announcing this update, Google confirmed that it is intended to focus web admins on ethically creating stunning and attractive websites for fair competition.
After this penguin link removal guide from Google, it is clear now that when your website contains many bad and spammy backlinks, it doubts your credibility with search engines.
Furthermore, this may indicate that you have resorted to unethical or illegitimate ways to obtain these backlinks, "Black hat webspam SEO ." Google called it "Webspam" to distinguish it from "Email spam."
Before you begin the removal process, it's crucial to understand what constitutes a spam or toxic backlink. Spam backlinks are typically:
Unrelated to your website's content or niche
Originating from low-quality or suspicious websites
Over-optimized with aggressive anchor text
Generated in large quantities in a short period
Using Tools for Backlink Audits
Several SEO tools allow you to review your website's backlink profile. Some popular choices are like seobase backlink checker tool. With these tools, you can quickly identify where your backlinks are coming from and determine their quality.
Step 2: Identify Toxic Backlinks
Once you've gathered a list of backlinks pointing to your site, it's time to sift through and pinpoint the potentially harmful ones.
Criteria to Consider:
Website Authority: High authority sites are usually trustworthy. Look out for backlinks from sites with low domain authority.
Relevance: If a backlink originates from a website unrelated to your niche, it may be considered spam.
Anchor Text: Overly optimized or irrelevant anchor text can signal spam backlinks.
Website Quality: Backlinks from websites filled with intrusive ads, low-quality content, or suspicious behavior should raise alarms.
Step 3: Contact the Website Owners
Before you jump into how to disavow backlinks, it's polite and often effective to reach out to the website owners or webmasters of the sites with the spammy backlinks.
Crafting Your Outreach Email
Keep your email concise and professional. Clearly state your request to remove the backlink and provide them with the exact URL where the link can be found.
Sample Email:
Subject: Request for Backlink Removal Hello [Name/Webmaster], I recently conducted a backlink audit for my website, [YourWebsite.com], and noticed a link pointing to our site from [TheirWebsite.com]. While I appreciate the link, I believe it might not be beneficial for either of our sites. Could you kindly remove the backlink from [ExactURL]? Thank you for your understanding and prompt attention to this matter. Best Regards, [Your Name]
Step 4: How to Disavow Backlinks
If outreach doesn't work or isn't feasible due to the sheer number of spam backlinks, the next step is to use Google's Disavow Tool.
Creating a Disavow File
List all the spam backlinks you want to disavow in a plain text file (.txt).
If you wish to disavow an entire domain, use the "domain:" format. E.g., domain:spammysite.com
Google will then stop considering these links when assessing your website.
Step 5: Monitor and Review
After you've taken steps to remove or disavow unwanted links, monitoring your backlink profile and search engine rankings is vital. It might take a few weeks for search engines to process the disavow request, so patience is essential.
Regularly review your backlink profile to ensure you catch any new toxic backlinks early. Staying proactive will help protect your website's integrity and search engine standing.
Conclusion
Backlinks are crucial to your website ranking on SERPs. Using all "White hat SEO" best practices will lead you to get ethical backlinks.
Also, you can build backlinks in creative ways for your website to increase your website's credibility on search engines. seobase provides you with the best online SEO tools to improve your visibility on the first page of search engines.
The seobase backlink checker tool gives you deep insights into your website backlinks. As a result, you can know who links to my website,find bad backlinks, get a list of links from website spam backlinks, check the site's spam score, and finally, remove spammy links.
After reading this penguin link removal guide, you should know the meaning and how to find bad backlinks. Furthermore, it gives you great insights into how to check the site's spam score and how to remove toxic backlinks.
