Definition
Toxic links are backlinks with negative characteristics that can harm a website's SEO. These links typically come from unreliable sources and are considered by Google as ranking manipulation attempts. Signs include: origin from spammy or penalized sites, link farms, low-quality directories, spam comments, unrelated sites, or sites with excessive ad-to-content ratios. Other red flags are over-optimized anchors, abnormally high link volume in a short period, links from pages with hundreds of outgoing links, or links from unrelated foreign-language sites. Google identifies toxic links via SpamBrain. The solution involves audit, removal requests, and as a last resort, the Google Search Console disavow tool.
Key Points
- Low-quality backlinks from spammy or irrelevant sources
- Can trigger manual or algorithmic Google penalties
- Solution: audit, removal request, and disavow via Search Console
Practical Examples
Toxic link detection
Auditing your link profile reveals 500 backlinks from Chinese gambling sites with no relation to your business. These toxic links should be disavowed via Search Console.
Negative SEO attack
A malicious competitor buys thousands of spammy links pointing to your site with over-optimized anchors. Monitor new backlinks regularly and disavow toxic links immediately.
Frequently Asked Questions
Evaluate the source site: Moz Spam Score above 30%, Majestic Trust Flow below 5, no real content, page with hundreds of outgoing links, no thematic relevance, or over-optimized anchor.
Not necessarily. Google automatically ignores most low-quality links. Only disavow clearly artificial links or in case of manual penalty. Excessive disavowing can be counterproductive.
Go Further with LemmiLink
Discover how LemmiLink can help you put these SEO concepts into practice.
Last updated: 2026-02-07