Maximize Your Results: How to Check for Spammy Backlinks Like a Pro

Backlinks are some of the most talked-about aspects of search engine optimization. They are Google's top three ranking factors, meaning you must have a solid strategy to earn them. Yet, not all backlinks are valuable; the wrong links may harm your website and affect your rankings.

You should analyze your backlinks to avoid dealing with spammy links. Many people struggle to stop spam backlinks from damaging their websites because they think each new backlink is good. But that's not always the case because spammy backlinks are common.

What Are Backlinks?

These are usually inbound links from another website crucial to your website's SEO. Quality backlinks come from trusted sources, and they don't intend to manipulate search engine rankings. The backlinks either rank your site high on Google or reduce your ranking if they are spammy links. Good backlinks are beneficial for your website and SEO.

How to Check For Spammy Backlinks?

Spammy backlinks can harm your website's search engine rankings, so you must identify and remove them. After identifying the spammy links, take steps to remove them and improve your website's search engine rankings. Here is how to check spammy backlinks and remove them like a pro.

1. Use a Backlink Checker Tool

You can find several tools that can help you check and analyze backlinks on your website. These are the backlink checker tools that identify any backlink pointing to your website that appears to be spammy. Through this tool, you can identify any harmful links by analyzing the website's domain authority, the anchor text used in the link, and the quality of the linking website. 

Popular options include Ahrefs and SEMrush. They help you identify spam or low-quality backlinks pointing to the website. For example, you can download suspicious links to a particular file using SEMrush and remove the toxic backlinks. After running the backlink through the checker tool, you get information about the quality and relevance of each link.

2. Look For Any Unnatural Patterns

When reviewing the backlinks on your website, determine any unnatural trends or patterns. For example, a sudden spike in backlinks pointing to a website could signify spammy link-building practices. There's always an unnatural pattern associated with spammy backlinks from low-quality websites and unusual patterns. They intend to manipulate search engine rankings instead of providing valuable content to the reader. 

These patterns can involve sudden spikes in the number of backlinks, links from the same anchor text, or link farms. Also, links from low-quality or irrelevant websites linking to your page show they are obtained through spammy means. A website that suddenly gains many backlinks should be suspicious. This is because those are malicious links created to manipulate search engines.

3. Check the Website's Reputation

In most cases, low-quality backlinks originate from low-quality websites. When you see a website linking back to your site has a poor reputation, the backlink is spammy and can harm your search engine ranking. Most companies with poor reputations engage in suspicious activities, like selling links or dealing with link schemes. 

You can easily spot low-quality backlinks and eliminate their negative impact on rankings. For example, many tools can help you check the reputation and quality of a website linking back to your site. These tools provide insight into the website's domain authority and backlink profile, among other important metrics. Hence, you can use it to ensure it is legitimate and not engaging in suspicious activities.

4. Review The Anchor Text

Check the anchor text of the backlink to analyze the link profile and identify any spammy backlinks affecting your search engine ranking. For example, if the anchor text is overly optimized and irrelevant to the content, it is spam. If you see many backlinks with the exact match keyword pointing to a website, they are not genuine.

After detecting suspicious domains, look at the link's anchor text, which is often the visible and clickable text in the hyperlink. If it looks suspicious or incoherent and doesn't coincide with your niche, then it's a spam link. Spammy backlinks are often with attractive anchor texts. You can easily spot some irrelevant anchor texts that don't reflect the content of your page.

5. Disavow Spammy Backlinks

Sometimes, if a spammer maliciously uses manipulative links to your website, you may struggle to remove them manually. In that case, the best option is to disavow the link to remove toxic links and stop them from harming your site. Google allows you to disavow any backlinks you don't want on your website or the links you consider harmful. 

When you disavow a backlink, you tell Google that the link should not be a vote for your website's authority or relevance. Google will not consider backlinks when calculating your website's ranking in search engines. Google Disavow is a free tool that is easy to use if you connect and verify your website. Make sure you check regularly to see if they are spammy backlinks that are affecting your website's traffic and ranking.

Bottom Line

If you believe spammy backlinks have attacked your website, there are ways you can check and stop them from happening. These tips can help you identify and manage any spammy backlinks pointing back to your website. It will help improve your SEO performance and search rankings.

After identifying the spammy backlinks, reach out to the owner of the linking website and request they remove the link. Alternatively, you can use Google's disavow tool to disavow the link. Consider working with an SEO agency with knowledge and tools to remove spam links.