For business owners, achieving a good search engine ranking depends on a clearly-defined search engine optimization strategy. Within this strategy, backlinks are a powerful but often under-utilized tool– but backlinks can also have a negative impact. These are known as toxic backlinks, and they can impact your site’s visibility.
What are backlinks?
When used correctly, backlinks can be used to establish a website’s authority and visibility. They function like citations from other websites, acting as endorsements that signal to search engines like Google that your company’s content is trustworthy and reliable.
Backlinks are essentially links that point from another website’s page to a page on your website. The more high-quality backlinks you gather, the more authority and visibility your website gains in the eyes of search engines, which is likely to lead to higher rankings in search results.
Are backlinks always good?
Unfortunately, backlinks can function as a double-edged sword. Low-quality backlinks, also known as toxic backlinks, can significantly hinder your website’s search engine ranking, making it difficult for potential customers to even find your website.
Toxic backlinks can come from a variety of sources.
Spam Websites
These websites are filled with irrelevant content and often contain a large number of outgoing links, aiming to manipulate search engine rankings. A link from a spam website to your site suggests an association with low-quality content.
Link Farms
These are networks of websites designed solely for the purpose of creating backlinks. They typically contain very little content, or irrelevant content, and usually offer no value to users. A link from a link farm is a clear sign of manipulative SEO tactics.
Link farms exist because, in the past, the number of backlinks a website had was a major factor in search engine ranking. The idea behind link farms was to create a large number of backlinks pointing to a website, artificially boosting its perceived authority in the eyes of search engines, and its ranking.
However, search engines like Google have become much more sophisticated in their ranking algorithm. They can now detect link farms as low-quality content– and if your website is linked to low-quality or malicious content, Google can issue a penalty on your site, essentially removing it from search results altogether.
If you’ve been instructed to make use of link farms to build your company’s SEO, you’ve been given some bad, outdated advice. Focusing your time, energy, or money on acquiring backlinks from link farms is a waste of resources and may have serious penalties that affect your company’s revenue!
Hacked Websites
Hackers may inject links to your website on compromised websites. These links are out of your control and associated with a hacked site, which damages your reputation and may even cause cybersecurity concerns regarding your company.
If you’re wondering why hackers would add links to your site on compromised sites, you’re not alone. There are a few reasons why this might be done. For example, some hackers might be working unethically for competitors who are employing negative SEO tactics. By injecting links to your site on hacked websites, they aim to associate your website with low-quality and even trigger Google penalties.
Some hackers might also use a technique called cloaking. In this scenario, the hacked website displays legitimate content to visitors but injects malicious code, including links to your website that only search engine crawlers can see. This can trick search engines into associating your website with spam or malicious content.
How do toxic backlinks negatively impact your business?
Search engines like Google consider the overall quality of websites linking back to yours. When your website is linked to sites with poor reputations, like spam sites, malware or compromised sites, irrelevant information, or link farms, it creates a negative association.
Google interprets these links as a detriment to your website’s value, potentially leading to a serious decline in search engine ranking. Site visitors will also likely be wary of clicking on a website associated with suspicious sites, which further diminishes your credibility and user trust.
How does the algorithm work?
Search engine algorithms are constantly evolving and becoming increasingly adept at detecting toxic or irrelevant backlink profiles. That’s why backlink strategies that worked only a few years ago are now essentially blacklisted.
A sudden influx of low-quality backlinks, often a tactic employed in negative SEO attacks, can trigger major penalties within the algorithm. These penalties can result in a significant drop in your site’s ranking to complete removal from search results. Google is likely to view this surge in toxic backlinks as an attempt to manipulate search rankings and penalize your site accordingly.
How can Speros help to protect my business against toxic backlinks?
The SEO experts here at Speros understand the critical role that backlinks play in SEO success, and the dangers associated with toxic backlinks. That’s why we’ve developed a multifaceted approach to safeguarding your website.
Regular Backlink Audits
Our SEO specialists don’t wait for trouble to arise. We conduct routine backlink audits using advanced tools and techniques. These audits provide us with a clear picture of your website’s backlink profile, identifying both high-quality and potentially toxic links.
Continuous Monitoring
The internet is constantly changing, and new backlinks can appear daily. Speros employs sophisticated backlink monitoring tools that constantly scan the web for mentions of your website. This allows us to detect and address any newly added backlinks promptly, minimizing their potential impact on your website’s performance.
Expert Analysis and Disavowal
Not all backlinks with low-quality metrics are inherently harmful. Our specialists possess the expertise to analyze backlinks, determining their impact on your website. If a link is deemed toxic, we take decisive action by disavowing it. Disavowing a toxic backlink instructs Google to disregard the link when evaluating your website’s ranking.
What if your website is listed as a toxic backlink?
Even with the sophisticated tools and algorithms available to us, there’s a chance that backlinks may be incorrectly identified as toxic. In these cases, SEO specialists at Speros can mitigate this problem to prevent penalties for your site (and other sites you may link to on your site!)
We examine the metrics associated with the flagged backlink. This includes factors like the website’s Domain Authority score, spam score, and overall quality of content.
What should I do if my site is listed as toxic?
There are a number of factors that might cause a site to be misidentified as toxic. Some of the biggest reasons why a site might be labeled toxic include infrequently updated content or other signs of neglect.
If the content on your site is very outdated, or if there haven’t been any updates for a long period of time, your site may be flagged. Additionally, if web maintenance hasn’t been regularly performed on your site, it may cause a variety of serious problems. Outdated plugins are a sign of neglect for your site. Plus, failing to update plugins can leave your site vulnerable to security risks!
SEO tools rely on algorithms to analyze backlinks, but algorithms aren’t perfect. That’s why the expertise of the human SEO specialists at Speros is a game changer. We can ensure that your site’s performance isn’t affected by toxic backlinks and make sure that your site isn’t viewed as toxic in the eyes of search engines.
Making the effort to manage backlinks for your site, and your site’s health in general, can make a huge difference in your site’s performance and your company’s profits, simply because it helps more people see your site. More views means more lead conversions! If you’re not getting much web traffic, or if you’ve been receiving spam alerts regarding your site, it may be a sign that your site’s performance is being affected by toxic backlinks– and it’s time to contact us and get the problem handled.
Reach out to our SEO specialists today to get your site back on track and improve your search engine rankings.
