How to Disavow Toxic Backlinks Using Semrush and Google Webmaster Tools

The simple, easy and straightforward way to discover, remove and disavow toxic backlinks to stop Google from penalizing you!

There is a life skill you need to learn as a blogger. A skill that will help you survive and succeed in equal measure. It is how to disavow toxic backlinks.

Here is why…

Although you can’t control who links to what on your website, Google can penalize you, if any of those incoming links are classed as toxic backlinks.

In fact, the Google algorithm update (known as Panda) made it very clear that just as good backlinks improve your search engine rankings, toxic backlinks will bring down search positions.

Panda was apparently developed to reduce the prevalence of low-quality, thin content in the search results, and to reward unique, compelling content.

According to the Search Engine Journal, at the time Panda launched, user complaints about the increasing influence of “content farms” were growing rampant. Google’s Panda algorithm assigns pages a quality classification used internally and modeled after human quality ratings, that is incorporated as a ranking factor.

And you should consider conducting a regular audit of your backlink profile, as part of your overall link building strategy.

But first, what are backlinks?

What is an Example of a Backlink??

According to Search Metrics, backlinks are links from outside domains that point to pages on your domain; essentially linking back from their domain to yours. To a larger degree, your backlink profile is made up of backlinks from external sites (also known as referring domains) that contribute to the overall strength, relevance and diversity of your domain’s backlink profile.

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Now that we know what backlinks are, what are toxic backlinks?

What are Toxic Backlinks?

Basically, a toxic backlink is the exact opposite of quality backlinks. Toxic backlinks are backlinks linking to a website which reduce the beneficiary website’s ability to rank well in a Google search. Toxic backlinks can destroy all the excellent SEO work that you’ve worked hard to achieve. Google’s goal is to ensure an excellent user experience through search results. Here is another way to look at it: If quality backlinks can increase your SEO ranking, toxic backlinks can considerably drop your rankings. As you know, Google relentlessly oversees every website and the amount of traffic they generate.

If for any reason, Google suspects any link to be of no value except to enhance traffic or ranking to your website, it would instantly classify it as a toxic backlink. Google has even been known to impose either automatic or manual penalties on websites that have toxic backlinks, depending on the volume and toxicity of the links. Penalties include being removed entirely from the Google index. Also, sites may no longer show up in results on Google.com or on any of Google’s partner sites.

Now, where do toxic backlinks come from?

What is the Origin of Toxic Backlinks?

Toxic backlinks usually originate from referring domains not trusted by Google. Here are some examples of such referring domains:
• Spamming sites
• Websites not indexed by Google
• Pornography websites
• Betting websites
• Websites specifically created for link building
• Websites containing viruses or malware
• Websites that have no relevance to your site
• Link networks
• Websites of Payday loan companies
• Websites with no page ranking
• Websites with little or no traffic
• Websites with a newly registered domain name
• Websites with an abnormally high number of exterior links

How do you know if your website has toxic links? There is an easy way and a difficult, long wielded way.

First the difficult way!

How to Identify and Disavow Toxic Backlinks – the Difficulty Way

In my experience, you can use Google’s Webmaster tools to identify and disavow toxic backlinks. However, this is what I consider to be the difficult way of disavowing toxic backlinks.

You can use Google’s Webmaster tools in two steps:

Step 1
Log into Google’s Webmaster Tools to receive an outline of all backlinks linking to your website.
Step 2
Evaluate all incoming backlinks to your site to determine their source and trustworthiness. Alternatively, you could engage the services of an SEO expert for a comprehensive analysis of all backlinks linking to your website.

Now to the easy way to find out if your site has toxic backlinks.

How to Identify and Disavow Toxic Backlinks – the Easy Way

The easy way to find out if your domain has toxic backlinks is to use a fantastic tool in Semrush Projects, called Backlink Audit.

With SEMrush Projects you can set up 12 different tools which allow you to analyze every aspect