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| Solutions By Design |
Optimizing websites to rank high on search engines requires strategies that meet the individual needs of a website. One of those strategies is acquiring quality backlinks.
What are Backlinks? Backlinks are when another website links to yours. They can often be referred to as “external backlinks” or “inbound links.” These links all are part of how search engines, such as Google ranks your website. These quality backlinks can come from websites that point to your service or content. Think of them as positive referrals that essentially give your website authority and legitimacy, in the eyes of Google.
Toxic backlinks are quite the opposite and are links that will overall negatively affect your rankings.
Google’s view on how toxic backlinks negatively impact your site, is pretty straight forward. “Any links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site's ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme and a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. This includes any behavior that manipulates links to your site or outgoing links from your site.”
These are a few reasons why Google will decrease your ranking with negative /low-quality backlinks.
- Buying or selling links. This includes exchanging money for links, or posts that contain links; exchanging goods or services for links, or sending someone a “free” product in exchange for them writing about it and including a link
- Excessive link exchanges ("Link to me and I'll link to you") or partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking
- Using automated programs or services to create links to your site
Where do Toxic Backlinks Come From? A link that is pointing to your website can come from a variety of places, which can be categorized as toxic. Often these links have no connection to what you offer, your services or industry. They can come from:
- Spam websites
- Un-indexed Google websites
- Websites containing viruses
- Payday loan websites
A simple way to view if you have toxic backlinks is to review all the backlinks to your website and determine where they are coming from and their credibility.
How Do I Remove Toxic Backlinks? You should try to remove toxic backlinks by deleting them and asking the site owner to remove them. Because most of the sites are spam websites, the most effective way to remove toxic backlinks is to use the Disavow Tool from Google. This can be done by identifying toxic backlinks and uploading a list to the Disavow tool. You can find the complete steps here.
Backlinks are sure to reappear over time from new websites, which is why constantly monitoring your website is important. Think of backlinks as positive referrals and credibility to your website, such as when someone refers you to their favorite place. Backlinks ultimately help your website rank well on the search engine results pages. Solutions by Design offers various SEO packages to help your website rank high and attract new customers. We monitor backlinks through a backlink audit to ensure Google and other search engines are ranking your website correctly and efficiently. Learn more about our SEO services and contact us for more questions.