Backlinks, or inbound links, are a fundamental part of SEO and play a crucial role in a website’s search engine ranking. However, not all backlinks count towards achieving the stated goal, and the presence of spammy backlinks can have negative consequences for the reputation and visibility of a web page.
Anything that is spam will negatively affect the online project you want to carry out, therefore, it should be avoided at all costs.
First, it is essential to know what spam backlinks are, how to identify them, and of course, how they affect our website, and then to know what measures to take in case of facing this problem so that they do not affect it any more.
What are spam backlinks?
Spam backlinks are inbound links that come from unwanted, irrelevant or low quality websites. These links are created with the intention of manipulating search engines and artificially improving a website’s ranking.
Spam backlink builders often use unethical practices to generate a large number of links in a short period of time in order to trick the search engine algorithms, although the search engine can easily find out in the end.
How to identify spam backlinks?
Identifying spam backlinks is crucial to maintaining the integrity of a website’s SEO strategy. For this purpose, we find many tools and techniques to accomplish this task.
Some of the most common tools include Google Search Console, Moz, Ahrefs and SEMrush. These platforms provide detailed reports on inbound links, making it easier to identify potential spammy backlinks.
In addition, some tips for identifying spammy backlinks include checking the relevance of the linking site, assessing the quality of the linked content and paying attention to the number of outbound links from the same domain, because if there are too many, it’s not good.
How does spam affect our website?
The negative impact of spammy backlinks on a web page can manifest itself in a number of ways. Some of the factors that demonstrate how spam affects a website are:
- Loss of reputation. Search engines penalize sites with spammy backlinks, which can result in a diminished online reputation.
- Decline in the rankings. The presence of unwanted links can cause search engines to lower the site’s position in search results, so if you were among the first, then you may simply not show up at all.
- Reduction of traffic. A drop in rankings translates directly into a decrease in organic traffic, affecting the visibility of the site you have worked so hard to build.
- Possible loss of income. For websites that generate revenue through advertising or sales, the loss of traffic can negatively impact advertising or purchase revenue.
What to do in these cases?
In situations where spam backlinks are identified, it is crucial to take measures to mitigate their impact. While it is not always necessary to remove all unwanted links, especially if they are few in number and do not pose a significant threat, in cases of spam attacks, disavowing links is a recommended measure.
Link disavowal is done through Google Search Console, where you can indicate the links that you do not want to be taken into account for site ranking. This action helps send a clear signal to search engines that association with these spammy links is not approved.
Good backlink strategy
Proactive management of spam backlinks is essential to maintaining an effective SEO strategy and protecting the reputation and visibility of a website online. Identifying, evaluating and taking appropriate action will ensure that backlinks contribute positively to the overall performance of the website.
However, it is ideal to hire link building and outreach agencies, because they will be useful to establish a backlinks strategy to counteract spam, and to add up, with respect to other factors, enough to be among the first search results, ideally the first of all.
