SPAM Backlinks from Strange Websites: How to Act?

If you have a website, whether for your online business or personal brand, you have likely received external links (also called backlinks). Sometimes, these links come from strange websites, pages you do not know, or whose URL seems somewhat suspicious. Are they SPAM backlinks or junk? What do we do with them?

In this post, we will give you a series of keys to understand what SPAM links are, how to identify them, know if Google takes them into account, and how we can eliminate them.

Let's get started!

First of all, what are SPAM links?

They are links from suspicious, low-quality, and sometimes fraudulent domains. Many come from pornographic, gambling, or casino websites.

They often have a design and content that is quite suspicious. They usually place links without any context or relation to the theme of our website.

They are pages with content that has nothing to do with ours and that may also lead you to the same question: why are they linking to me?

Some examples of these sites where they may place a link to your website include:

• theglobe.net
• websearch.net
• add-link.co
• internets.casino

How to Identify a Negative Link or SPAM Link

Once we have a clearer idea of what a SPAM link is, we can move on to the different ways to identify it.

First, a manual analysis and common sense can help us easily identify that this link does not fit with our website.

Beyond this, we have many tools that help us detect negative links. These are tools like SEMRush, SEO Spyglass, or Link Affinity, which analyze the level of SPAM (Link SPAM) of a link profile and indicate its toxicity level. These tools perform this analysis in a more automated way.

However, if we want to do it in a more manual way (which is more advisable), we should review elements such as the anchor text, the geographical origin of the link, and the language itself, as they are usually primarily in English. To review all this, we can conduct a link audit with tools like Ahrefs or Majestic.

What Happens with Link Velocity?

Link velocity is one of the main factors in detecting SPAM backlinks.

If we receive many links to our website in a short time, it can be a sign that we are being targeted from strange websites. This happens when websites that are created automatically perform this type of action.

Be careful! Link velocity is not always a symptom of receiving negative links from automated websites. If you have launched a new product or service, for example, it is likely that many media outlets and blogs are linking to you. In such cases, there is a high link velocity that should not be considered negative.

Do not confuse this type of link with a poorly executed link building campaign, as in this case, they are not links that we control, but come from those types of artificially created automated websites that send us dozens of links in a single day.

Does Google Consider SPAM Backlinks?

No. According to several of its main representatives, such as John Muller and Gary Illies, these links from strange websites should not worry us as long as we have not created those automated websites from which they link to us.

Google continues to update in this regard. In fact, in July 2021, with the update called Link Spam Update, Google emphasized that it continues to strive to combat link SPAM through improvements focused on identifying and neutralizing them (making them lose their toxic effect).

Therefore, as Google becomes increasingly intelligent, you should not worry if you have SPAM links in your link profile, as long as you have not built them yourself or suffered a specific attack that affects your website's performance.

These SPAM links will not penalize you in ranking. If you experience a drop in your traffic or loss of visibility, you should look at other reasons: technical issues, Google updates, your website's SEO… but generally, it should not be due to being linked from strange websites. Should I remove SPAM links from my profile?

Should I Remove SPAM Links Pointing to My Website?

Now that we better understand what SPAM links are, how to identify those links from strange websites, and whether Google takes them into account, another common question arises: Should we remove them or not? It depends.

If you notice performance issues on your website, drops in your keywords, and a decline in your organic traffic that cannot be attributed to any other actions you have taken, it would be advisable to remove these links.

On the other hand, if you have received a message through Google Search Console regarding manual action on artificial links, review and remove them, as Google itself is warning you of the problem.

If you are not in either of these two cases, you should not worry. Google neutralizes them and removes the toxic effect of those links coming from strange websites.

Clarifications on SPAM Backlinks Pointing to Your Website

There are a couple of specifications we should keep in mind in these cases. It is very rare to receive a manual action for SPAM links.

On the other hand, before drawing conclusions based on being linked from strange websites, it is advisable to conduct a complete audit of your website. Only then can we rule out technical factors, EAT issues, lack of content, Google updates that may have affected us…etc.

How to Remove SPAM Links?

We have confirmed that these links coming from strange websites are harming us and we need to remove them. How do we do it?

The first thing Google says is that we must manually remove all SPAM links we can, although this is quite complicated.

The way to do it is to talk to the websites that violate the guidelines to have them remove those links. But this does not make much sense, as most of them are generated automatically and do not have any contact method.

When we need to disavow those links, either because we receive a message of manual actions through Google Search Console or because we detect visibility drops and organic traffic issues, we can use the Disavow Tool.

You must be very careful with this tool, as you could harm your website's performance in Google's search results if you use it incorrectly or out of ignorance.

In case of doubt, it is always better to contact a professional who masters the Disavow Tool and allows you to disavow these SPAM backlinks without harming your website.

To learn more about these types of cases, we recommend the book Positioning and Reputation on Google through Ethical Link Building, by Sico de Andrés, where you will find a very clear scheme that will help you decide whether to use Disavow or not.

I Am Being Linked from Strange Websites: Conclusions

Throughout this post, we have defined SPAM links, learned how to detect them, know if Google takes them into account, and, if necessary, how we can remove them.

But if you are being linked from strange websites, don't panic. As we have seen, these links usually come from automated websites that randomly perform this type of action. In these cases, Google is already trained to downplay them and ensure they do not affect your website's ranking.

If there is something strange, you would receive a message from Google Search Console, and in that case, you should execute the actions we have discussed to remove those SPAM backlinks.

It is also very important to keep in mind that external links are good, as long as they occur with coherence and value. Therefore, we should not confuse this type of SPAM action with link building strategies.

And above all, remember: if you are going to use the Disavow Tool to remove links, make sure you master it or contact a professional who does, as a mistake could harm your website's overall ranking.

We hope to have helped you better understand why you are being linked from strange sites and how you can act in this situation. See you soon!