How to Remove Bad Backlinks from Google

How to remove bad backlinks from Google? Yeah, that’s one of the most searched queries on Google, considering the fact how just a bunch of bad backlinks can take your SEO efforts for a nose-dive.

So that’s what we’re encompassing throughout this guide, by the end of this article you’ll have found solutions to all your bad-backlinks problems!

What are Bad Backlinks?

So what exactly are “Bad backlinks”?

In simplest possible words, they are links which are not adding to your SEO value, instead look in any way “suspicious” on the search engine and harm your site.

These are just links which are from non-relevant sources, from domains which do not have any authority of their own but were just created for the sake of “passing links” and are just adding to your “numbers”.

Also using automatic backlink creator tools is a major source of bad backlinks. Some other examples of bad backlinks are:

• The same anchor text being used over and over again without diversification.
• A large number of links from the same domain.
• Non-country specific backlinks where you don’t have any audience whatsoever. (Getting links from Chinese or German websites if you have 0% audience from those countries).
• A large number of links suddenly created over a short period of time.

In addition to that, there are some specific sources which are considered “bad” in general, for e.g. links from Adult and Porn sites.

• Sites which are penalized by Google
• Adult content sites
• Illegal content sites
• High spam blog directories
• Automatic link generate sites

To put it simply, good backlinks helps to increase your website’s DA (domain authority) while bad backlinks can reduce your site’s authority. It’s as simple as that.

Here are a few reasons to remove bad backlinks.

• Unnatural links can hurt your website organic rankings
• Bad links can get your site penalized by Google
• Those links give you a high spam score for your site

So how do you find bad backlinks on your website? Let’s talk about some of the best bad backlink checker tools now.

1. SEMrush
2. Ahrefs
3. Monitor Backlinks

These backlink checker tools have an option to disavow those bad links directly.

How to Remove Bad Backlinks?

After you’ve got the idea of which links need to be gone, here are some of the strategies you can employ in order to remove bad backlinks from Google.

1. Contact the Admin of the Link-source: This is the simplest and the fastest method compared to the other “official” ones, but the catch is getting the Admin to comply with your request.

You can just shoot the admin an email asking him that you need the link to be removed. Best case, you get a reply and they comply with your request, worst case your email sits there in their inbox either opened or unopened and nothing happens.

2. Redirect the Pages / Delete them: If only some pages of your website are affected by the bad backlinks and it’s not an overall kind of thing, in that case, you can just delete those pages, and use a 404 redirect and redirect them to your homepage.

If none of the above methods helped you remove your bad backlinks, well, in that case, the other two hardcore options for you are:

3. Disavow the links

We’re mentioning this here at #3 because the above two were far simpler and faster. This is the official way to tell Google that you do not wish to keep those links to your site, so naturally, Google takes time (weeks and even months) to cater to your request.

What you need to know:

There are some precautions you need to take before sending in a disavow request, make sure you have contacted the administrators at the pages from where you wish your links removed, and have waited at least a 48-72 hours for their reply.

It’s mandatory because Google has clearly specified that third-party actions (our actions) might affect Google’s perspective for those sites, so it’s a security measure to prevent the disavow tool from being misused.

Disavowing the Links:

After you’ve contacted the administrators and didn’t get a reply, here’s how to create a disavow request.

Open a notepad file, and enter the links in the format specified below to request a disavow:

Let me break down the file:

1. The # signifies comments, something you’re saying to the “Google team” and not to an A.I or bots.
2. The “1” in the image shows the first link I wish to be removed, along with the comments for it about how and when I contacted the admin at that link.
3. The “2” is listed separately and not along with the first link because the response was different and you need to tell Google about it.
4. You might have noticed we mentioned “domain:” in the case “3”, this pretext is used when you wish all the links from that domain to be removed completely.

Once you have created this file, save it.

Now head over to the disavow tool > choose the domain you wish to disavow links for, and click on Disavow links.

Click on Disavow links again on the next page.

On the popup that comes up, choose the notepad file you just created and upload it.

Done!

Now you just have to sit back and wait for the disavow request to get processed!

4. The Ultimate Solution: Dump the Domain

If nothing else seems to be working, you’re left with the final option and that is to dump the domain completely and start afresh.

We understand it’s like committing suicide, but the fact that if the links are still there after all your efforts mean all your future efforts would go waste as well if you keep working on the domain.

A better approach is to keep the domain, but stop working on it. Start your project on another domain, and if luck favours you over time the domain might get cleaned up and you could come back as well!

Final Words:

So that’s a wrap up as far as getting rid of bad backlinks goes folks, hope this solved your questions to an extent.

Just make sure you choose a trusted service the next time you buy backlinks for SEO.

Do let me know your feedback on this piece, along with any suggestions you might want to add to this article via the comment box down there.

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