Toxic Backlinks: How to Find Them and When to Disavow

This guide explains toxic backlinks and the disavow tool, using Google’s own guidance. It is part of my link building guide.

What makes a backlink “toxic”?

“Toxic score” is a label from SEO tools, not from Google. Many links tools flag as toxic are simply ignored by Google. The links that genuinely matter are those that look like a link scheme:

• Paid links from PBNs and link farms.
• Large numbers of exact match anchor links from unrelated sites.
• Links from hacked pages, hidden text or auto-generated spam.
• Sitewide footer or sidebar links you paid for.

Random spam links you did not build, such as scraper sites, are common and Google is good at ignoring them.

When should you disavow?

A safe process

1. Check Search Console, Security and Manual Actions. Note any unnatural links action.
2. Export links from Search Console (Links report) and your backlink tool.
3. Review by domain. Mark only links that clearly look like paid or manipulative schemes.
4. Ask site owners to remove the worst links where possible, and keep a record.
5. Build the disavow file with the remaining domains, using the free disavow file generator.
6. Upload it in Google’s disavow links tool for the correct property.
7. If you had a manual action, file a reconsideration request explaining what you did.

Disavow file format rules

# Paid links bought in 2024, owner did not reply
domain:spammy-network-example.com
https://example-blog.com/old-paid-post/

• One URL or domain per line; use domain: for a whole domain or subdomain.
• Lines starting with # are comments and are ignored.
• Save as a .txt file in UTF-8 or 7-bit ASCII.
• Keep each URL under 2,048 characters and the file under 100,000 lines and 2 MB.
• Uploading a new file replaces the old one, so always include your full list.

Negative SEO: should you worry?

Spam links pointed at your site by others are usually ignored by Google. Keep an eye on sudden waves of links with your money keyword as anchor, and if they look like a deliberate attack and you are worried about a manual action, disavowing those domains is a reasonable safeguard.

How to avoid toxic links in the first place

• Check every site before you order a link: 12-point checklist.
• Keep your anchor text natural.
• Avoid PBNs; see guest posts vs PBN links.
• Grow at a steady link velocity.

Frequently asked questions