The Summary of Discussion 2: Low-Quality Backlinks can Negatively Affect Your Ranking Hence Disavow Them
Jackie
Did you Know? Low-Quality Backlinks Can Negatively Affect Your Ranking
I got a guy who approached me with his dying site. The site was losing impressions rapidly and he stopped ranking in the first 100 positions on Google for many of his keywords. I did a quick overview of his site and his backlink profile, and I found out that most of his backlinks are low-quality ones.
So all I asked him was to disavow those links and this happened. He started seeing improvement within 2 weeks after filing the disavow file.
So remember, backlinks can help you, but they also can hurt you. It's better not to build any links than to build the low-quality ones. Avoid the cheap and free-type links such as comments, profiles, link farms, etc. Keep an eye on your backlink profile and disavow regularly if you find any spammy links.
Cheers!
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Same situatuon like mine. A site that i work on was bombarded with bad backlinks. Today I scanned with about 5 tools and downloaded the disavow file and added to Google Search Console [GSC]. Hope to see some improvements.
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yup, for this site, the guy's links are mostly from obvious irrelevant sites, although the anchor text are mostly his brand name, the links are still very irrelevant and low-quality. Like almost 100% of his overall profiles
Noja
Yeah mate. The site was virused in April. So i think that the cause for the bad backlinks are the viruses. Now is clean but backlinks still existed until today since i added them to disavow GSC.
Artur
How can you find bad backlinks?
Ahrfes + SemRush+Linkdetox.
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Brane
[Mathlibra: This opinion didn't obtain feedback from Jackie the main sharer. This might against Jackie's thought]
They don't cause a bad effect. Listen to the podcast https://glennga.be/3dz2Syz
John Muller is explaining that
SNYCU Podcast Transcription with Marie and John Mueller – Marie Haynes Consulting
Well then what is the solution to block Google to give value to those bad backlinks?
Brane » Noja
If you have manual penalty, you can use then the disavow tool. The low quality backlinks are not gonna give any effect.
Noja
The site does not have a manual penalty. Just 1k bad backlinks to it.
Brane » Noja
so don't do anything 🙂 Let them stay
Noja
How can I stay and do nothing when the site is ranking low day by day?
Brane » Noja
that might not be the reason why your website is dropping. Make Tech and Content audit and 'you'll realize what's causing the drop. There are many updates lately and your website might be hitted. If your website is filtered by Penguin update, you'll receive a message from google about low quality backlinks
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Farhan
I have 2 questions:
1. Does this varies niche to niche? I guess so. Can you share the niche of that website?
2. In most the backlink cases, the DA is high but PA is low for obvious reasons. Does it count as a good backlink or bad one?
sure.
1. No, it doesn't vary from niche to niche. Since backlinks are universal, low-quality ones can badly affect any niches out there. This site belongs to e-commerce niche selling fashion products.
2. No, DA/PA doesn't define the absolute "quality of the links". Quality links are links that are:
1. Relevant to your site
2. Coming from the trusted source, preferably, sites with teal traffic
DA/DR are used to define more of the power of the links. Links that give you power aren't always the best and these matrics can easily be manipulated.
In this case, his site got many links from article directories, irrelevant sites, web 2.0 ,etc.
The typical low-quality, irrelevant sites that you can get for cheap
Sharma
Define low quality backlinks?
for me, low quality backlinks are backlinks from websites that are too easy to get, non-editorial and the obvious ones that SEOs would use.
This includes links from spam-comments, article directories, low-quality web directories, cheap Private Blog Network (PBN) links, link farms, web 2.0s etc.
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Rafaya
Hey Jackie
, mind taking a look at my sites too? Or at least tell me how does one determine bad links from the good ones?
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sure I can. Just drop your website here. I can give you my opinion about your overall link quality and whether or not you should be disavowing
Indian
my site is getting a lot of image site backlinks. and their spam score varies 5-50 sometimes 60, should I disavow those?
What should be a workable spam score?
if you don't see any massive decline in the ranking, traffic or impression, then no need to worry. Google says that they can ignore most of the spammy links.
Also, spam score by Moz are not reliable. I don't use it personally and it doesn't define what low-quality links truly are. For me, low-quality links are those which are too easy to get.
Like comments, article directories, link farm, cheap PBN links etc.
Indian » Jackie
In the last google update there was no change but from the last 7 days, I lost 30-40% traffic of my site..
Jackie ✍️ » Indian
well, it's hard to say still. After the core update there has been a couple of small updates, even today, quite a big one too.
But, if you think those spammy links are the problem, then disavowing it won't do any harm either. Who knows, it might help too 🙂
Indian » Jackie
thanks man!! appreciate you!! 🙂
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Jackie ✍️ » Indian
you're welcome 😊
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Prabin
Once we disavow links, can we again undo it?
yes
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So what are good links then? Editorials? blog posts? PBNs? Only relevant links?
for me, low quality backlinks are backlinks from websites that are too easy to get, non-editorial and the obvious ones that SEOs would use.
This includes links from spam-comments, article directories, low-quality web directories, cheap pbns, link farms, web 2.0s etc.
Irrelevant links are not always bad. But too many of them can make your site become irrelevant. Think about it, if you're a cooking site and you get lots of links from tech sites, won't Google start looking at your site and get confused? Your on page is all about cooking, your off page is all about tech. Also, you might get manual penalty beci it's a clear sign of link manipulation (how would a cooking site only get links from tech sites)
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Charlie
I'd be interested in hearing thoughts on this…
1) Going down December to April doesn't make me think links… unless if you'd just got a load of bad ones very recently. It's defo not an update either
2) Slowly losing visibility like that makes me think consistently bad work is being done (content/site structure etc) each and every month recently
3) if it was disavow. I though you only would bounce back as google crawls those other sites and ignores the links to yours. So it wouldn't happen within 2 weeks if they took 6 months to find them all
I might be missing something.. but interested to hear what you think
let me answer your questions buddy.
1. You see that spike in impressions around December? That's when this guy did a blast of links at one time, about 500+ links in a short period of time. So those links were able to help him up to certain period of time until Google started figuring out that this was a spam.
2. Which brought us to your second question. Losing visibility like that is a sign of algorithmic penalty, and slowly the site was dying, because more and more of those links effect started showing.
Regarding the on-page and stuff, all was fine. I didn't see anything wrong with the kw and all. It's an eCommerce site. No serious technical issues.
3. It can take a Google to quickly start working on those links. Marie Haynes, who also experienced gains after filing disavow file for her clients started seeing improvement in 2-6 weeks. The image of her tweet to the thought of this is attached in this comment.
And if you're wondering whether it was because of any update or any changes to the site during this period, I can pretty much confirm that this wasn't the case.
There was not a single changes being made to the site. The links were disavowed on April 4th and started seeing improvement on about 19-20. Then 2 weeks later, the may core update was released.
Hope this helps clarify your doubt.

This may satisfy you: Do Backlinks from DA 20 and the Lower Help a Site Ranking to be Better?
Jackie ✍️
Yesterday there was quite a big unconfirmed update and this site saw an even bigger improvement in overall the keyword rankings. Will take sometime before all the links are crawled
Charlie
Hmm… maybe. Not convinced myself / it seems a bit odd to me – that being said I won't know that client/website as well as yourself so couldn't say. On that graph, at the start it's showing nothing really. Was it a new website? Who's Marie also? Fingers crossed eitherway it keeps going up now! Glad the Google change helped yesterday. Is important to keep link profiles clean eitherway so if they'd purchased 500+ bad ones best to remove them without shadow of a doubt!
Jackie ✍️ » Charlie
No worries bud. It depends on people 🙂
Yeah, it was launched in 2019 and there was nothing there in the beginning. But like I said, he blasted 500+ links and that gave a surge in the keyword ranking. That always happen when you do like this.
Btw, Marie is one of the most respected SEO experts in the industry. She mainly talks about EAT, linked quality, website quality, etc. You can Google her out😁
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Bruno
That's a myth
well then, myth busted
Nicho
Jackie can you take time checking my website? I have experience same problem I had to upload suspicious domain to disavow tool yesterday
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sure. Just drop your url and I'll have a look
Nicho
Check inbox I just dm you domain name.
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Read another article: Disavow Links? A Competitor Gave Me 82 Links Exact Match Anchor Text Link to My Homepage
The Summary of Discussion 1: Negative SEO Attacks | Spammy Links | Blackhat SEO Head to You | Google Disavow Link Tool
Darren
WTF… since September I’ve noticed a number of our clients sites getting a new influx of pure spammy links. Initially I thought it was a negative SEO attack, but now I’m not sure.
They’re expired domains with what I believe is automated and spun content scraped from across the web. Some I guess are old p0rn sites with names like 18tokyo, backanus or virg16… but with home improvement content on them.
It’s keeping me on my toes disavowing all this crap 💩, but does anyone know why these sites are created (ad revenue perhaps) or could it be a negative attack?
Either way, I believe that the only way to mitigate against these ‘attacks’ is by weekly Disavows (I’ve set up alerts in Ahrefs). Anyone have any other suggestions?
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Here’s an example non-p0rn related site >>
http://marcmphotography.com
MARCMPHOTOGRAPHY.COM
Residential Interior Design Jobs Houston Residential Interior1499 For A Dream Spa Rain Showerhead GrouponAwesome Follow Top Interior Designer Blogs That Its A Good Idea
Residential Interior Design Jobs Houston Residential Interior1499 For A Dream Spa Rain Showerhead GrouponAwesome Follow Top Interior Designer Blogs That Its A Good Idea
This site is hot-linking images from other sites around the web. They are going after low comp keywords en masse. This is a common strategy. Once the traffic from all the low-comp keywords starts to aggregate, they will monetize with Adsense or some other ad platform.
This isn't a negative SEO attack. Just someone making some quick cash with a spam site.
Marko
I wouldn't disavow that much, it will affect you in the long run, Google keeps a history of the quantity of your submissions, it could possibly be major negative flag. Reason's for this according to Google just maybe that you are testing Private Blog Network (PBN) sites or some kind of techniques to manipulate the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) even if this is most likely not true.
The point is that being safe is always best. Research .htaccess lines of code on how you can prevent this in the future and block all traffic from offending domains. This Fiverr gig if needed would be beneficial to you in identifying toxic links and creating a list of files to work on.
Negative flag. Reason's for this according to Google just maybe that you are testing PBN's or some kind of technique to manipulate teh SERP's even if this is true or not. The point is that being safe is always best in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Research .htaccess lines of code on how you can prevent this in the future and block all traffic from offending domains. This Fiverr gig if needed would be beneficial to you in identifying toxic links and creating a list of files to work on. https://www.Fiverr.com/wursti/do-complete-link-audit-on-your-website
[⭐ 4.9 | 417].
wursti : I will analyze harmful links and deliver link detox audit with disavow for $40 on www.Fiverr.com
This is bollocks advice – I don't need Fiverr I pay for SEMrush – and what's all this toss about PBNs and htaccess – are you for real? f*ck off!
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Nigel
I say it like it is Darren 🙂
Marko
Monir Nigel The point I'm trying to make is that disavowing on a weekly basis just plainly cannot be good, Google has stated numerous times that you have exhausted all options in terms of communication to get those links removed, realistically this cannot be achieved in such short time frames. Additionally, it increases the risk for accidental disavowed links, you have to be really careful.
Under the heading "Types of Spam"
https://www.google.ca/…/howsearchworks/fighting-spam.html
:"Unnatural links to a site
Google has detected a pattern of unnatural artificial, deceptive or manipulative links pointing to the site. These MAY be the result of buying links that pass PageRank or participating in link schemes."
Again, keeping with the "keeping it safe" idea which should be this groups motto, even though there isn't concrete evidence to suggest that Google is punishing websites that disavow links over time, it isn't inconceivable to think that Google would keep track of which companies have tried to game the system in the past, or have seemed to have gamed the system in the past as in Darren's case.
The Fiverr link was placed to help people in this group, in this group, there are people with varied backgrounds and most importantly budgets, we all know that an SEO is only as good as the tools in his/her arsenal, not many people own these tools, some people just don't have the budget. Fiverr offers solutions in that case.
Here is the link the service that the Fiverr gig provider uses:
http://www.linkdetox.com
packages range from €249 to €1499 per month.We all here to help each other, if you don't understand something you should say so, even the group that you guys are a member of states that you should not use offensive language, and be polite and respectful towards the others. Any attempt at harassment of any kind (be it sexual or anything else) will result in a permanent ban.
Fighting Spam – Inside Search – Google
Google.CA
Fighting Spam – Inside Search – Google
Fighting Spam – Inside Search – Google
Nigel » Marko
you’re fighting an uphill credibility battle here, but what you are saying is not unreasonable.
Marko
sure if you believe so
Monir
What is the point of finding toxic links if you don’t disavow them from webmaster?
Isn’t your comment sounds like, you are promoting Fiverr gig without pointing the issue?
Yeh the guy's a dick
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Monir » Nigel
thanks. In fact, some people don’t know how to promote something in a acceptable manner? He could just say to check out the gig if need help to identify the toxic links or just get an 2nd opinion about the links before disavow them.
Nigel » Monir
Thing is Muhammad I already identified the links from SEMrush! lol!
I'm afraid that as White Hat SEO has got bigger Nikolay is not policing it any more!
Monir » Nigel
sounds good! Wish you good luck.
Marko
Nigel carr identified the links with SEMrush, i just recommended another tool to identify the links, the point of finding toxic links is to prevent issues in the future, being proactive instead of reactive.
Nigel » Marko
why recommend anything, then talk
Bollocks?
Marko
It's not bollocks as you so say, I'm attempting to get my understanding across better instead of pasting links to tools i recommend to anyone who reads/need help, that's why we all here.
Monir
Whatever you do to find bad links that’s fine. Finally, you have to disavow them to maintain a good link profile. Pointing scary things about disavow links is not a fact at all.
If someone is doing negative SEO and pointing bad links towards your site – Disavowing them is the only solution.
You can’t do anything to stop people proactively, if they don’t stop themselves.
Marko
i wasn't referring to negative SEO or advising against the use of disavow files, just the frequency.
This may satisfy you: Tools to Analyze Your Backlinks to Confirm Black Hat SEO Attacks