Link Building
Toxic Backlinks: How to Find and Handle Them
There is an entire product category built on the phrase “toxic backlinks,” and Google’s own documentation quietly contradicts most of what it sells. Google says most sites will never need the disavow tool, opens the help page with a warning that misuse can harm your performance, and sets two conditions that almost no small business meets. This article takes Google at its word, because the alternative is a monthly bill for cleaning up a problem you do not have.
What Google actually says about disavowing
The Search Console help page for the disavow tool opens with a warning rather than instructions: “This is an advanced feature and should only be used with caution. If used incorrectly, this feature can potentially harm your site’s performance in Google Search results.” It then states that most sites will not need the tool, because Google can usually assess which links to trust without guidance.
The conditions are cumulative, and this is the part routinely misquoted. You should consider disavowing only if you have substantial quantities of spammy, artificial or low-quality links pointing at your site, and those links have caused, or will likely cause, a manual action. Both. A large number of junk links with no manual action does not meet the bar. Google also frames the typical cause bluntly: that you, or an SEO you hired, built bad links through paid links or other schemes.
Both
Conditions Google requires before disavowing: spammy links AND a manual action
Most sites
Google’s own estimate of who will never need the disavow tool
2016
Year Penguin link spam detection became part of core ranking, running continuously
Sources: Google Search Console Help, Disavow links to your site; Google guide to Search ranking systems.
Google employees have been blunter than the documentation. John Mueller has repeatedly described the tool as unnecessary for the vast majority of sites and not part of routine maintenance, reserving it for cases with a manual action or a known history of deliberate manipulative link building. Note the asymmetry that makes overuse expensive: disavowing a link you were wrong about removes value you had, and there is no report showing you what you gave up.
Why most junk links are already handled
The Penguin system was announced in 2012 specifically to combat link spam, and per Google’s own retired systems list it was integrated into core ranking in 2016. Link assessment is now continuous rather than a periodic event. On top of that, the December 2022 link spam update put SpamBrain, Google’s AI spam prevention system, on the problem, and Google described the outcome as neutralization: “ranking may change as spammy links are neutralized and any credit passed by these unnatural links are lost.”
Neutralized is the operative word, and it is the answer to the negative SEO anxiety this industry runs on. The default treatment for a manipulative link is that it stops counting, not that the target site is punished for receiving it. Every site of any age accumulates scraper copies, expired-domain junk and automated directory listings. That is background noise on the web, not a condition requiring treatment.
Diagnose before you treat
| What you observe | Likely cause | Correct response |
|---|---|---|
| A vendor tool reports a high “toxic score” on some links | A vendor heuristic. Google publishes no toxicity metric and no equivalent score exists | None. Do not disavow on a third-party score alone. |
| Traffic dropped and you see spammy links in Search Console | Correlation, usually. Check the Manual actions report first, then whether a core update rolled out on that date | Check Search Console manual actions. If clean, investigate the pages, not the links. |
| Search Console shows a manual action for unnatural links | A real, confirmed problem. Google says it detected “a pattern of unnatural, artificial, deceptive, or manipulative links” | Attempt removal, disavow what remains, submit a reconsideration request describing the work. |
| You hired an agency that promised hundreds of links | The scenario Google’s documentation actually describes | Get the full placement list from them. This is the case the disavow tool exists for. |
| A competitor is pointing spam at you | Common fear, rarely consequential. Google’s stated approach is to neutralize such links | Monitor. Act only if a manual action appears. |
Sources: Google Search Console Help, Disavow links and Manual actions report; Google Search Central Blog, December 2022 link spam update.
If you genuinely have a manual action
The documented sequence is specific. Read the link spam policy so you can recognise which of your links violate it. Export your links from Search Console, both by top linking site and by latest links, since the recent ones are usually where a paid campaign shows up. Try to get the links removed at source, and keep evidence of the attempts, because the reconsideration request is judged partly on demonstrated good faith. Disavow only what you could not remove. Then request a review and explain, in specifics, what you did and what you could not.
Disavow at domain level for a spam network rather than listing individual URLs, since these operations rotate paths. Keep the file: it is cumulative, and uploading a new one replaces the previous entirely, so a partial file silently reauthorizes everything you left out. And expect delay. The entries only take effect as Google recrawls the linking pages, which can take weeks.
The unglamorous prevention
Everything above is avoidable by never buying links, which also means never buying an SEO service that will not tell you exactly where its links come from. If a vendor cannot produce a live list of placements built for a comparable client, they are building the thing that creates the manual action, and the contract will be in your name. Google’s documentation names you, not them, as the site owner responsible for the cleanup.
Key takeaways
- ✓Google calls the disavow tool an advanced feature that can harm your performance if used incorrectly, and says most sites will not need it.
- ✓Both conditions must hold before disavowing: substantial spammy links AND a manual action caused or likely to be caused by them.
- ✓“Toxic score” is a vendor metric. Google publishes no equivalent, and disavowing on a third-party score alone can remove links that were helping.
- ✓Since the December 2022 link spam update, Google’s stated treatment of manipulative links is neutralization, which is why competitor spam rarely matters.
- ✓Before any link work, check the Manual actions report in Search Console. If it is clean, you do not have a link penalty.
Related reading
Sources
- Disavow links to your site, Google Search Console Help
- Manual actions report, Google Search Console Help
- December 2022 link spam update releasing for Google Search, Google Search Central Blog (2022)
- A guide to Google Search ranking systems, Google Search Central
- Google says most sites do not need to disavow links, Search Engine Roundtable
Daniel Okafor
SEO & Organic Growth Lead
Daniel Okafor leads SEO and organic growth at ThisCom, helping small and medium businesses earn authority through technical SEO, content, and high-quality links.
All articles by Daniel Okafor →Frequently asked questions
Should I use Google’s disavow tool?+
Almost certainly not. Google’s own help page calls it an advanced feature that can harm your site’s performance if used incorrectly, says most sites will not need it, and sets two conditions that must both hold: substantial quantities of spammy or artificial links, and a manual action those links have caused or are likely to cause. If your Manual actions report is clean, the documented answer is to do nothing.
What is a “toxic backlink score”?+
A vendor heuristic. Google publishes no toxicity metric and there is no Google-side equivalent to the score, so a high number reflects one company’s model rather than anything in Google’s systems. Disavowing on that basis is risky in one direction only: you can remove links that were passing legitimate value, and nothing reports what you gave up.
Can a competitor hurt my rankings by pointing spam links at my site?+
It is far less common than the industry implies. Google described the December 2022 link spam update as neutralizing spammy links so that any credit they passed is lost, meaning the default treatment is that the link stops counting rather than that you are punished for receiving it. Monitor your Manual actions report and act only if something appears there.
My traffic dropped and I found spammy links. Are they the cause?+
Usually not. Check the Manual actions report first, because that is the only place Google confirms a link penalty. If it is clean, compare the date of the drop against Google’s published core and spam update timeline, and look at whether the affected pages changed, lost internal links, or were outranked. Spammy links accumulate on every site continuously and rarely explain a specific drop date.
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