How to remove harmful backlinks in 2025

This article details how to identify and remove bad backlinks in 2025, including detection methods, contacting website owners for removal, using the Google Disavow tool, and subsequent monitoring and protection strategies to help websites restore rankings and maintain SEO health.

Ceacer
Ceacer
 Oct 13, 2025  0  217
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1. What are bad backlinks?

Bad backlinks refer to backlinks from spam websites, low-quality directories, private link networks (PBNs), adult/gambling sites , etc. These types of links can negatively impact your website ranking.

Presentation format:

  • From a website penalized by Google

  • A large number of low-quality directory or forum links

  • Over-optimized or unnatural anchor text for links

2. How to detect bad backlinks?

Recommended tools:

Operating steps:

  1. Export all external links list

  2. Categorize links as: high-quality, low-quality, and suspicious.

  3. Mark links that may require rejection or contact for removal.

3. Methods for deleting bad backlinks

Method 1: Contact the website administrator to delete.

  • Send an email to the site administrator politely requesting the removal of the link.

  • The email content should be clear and include a specific link.

  • Keep records of communications for Google review.

Method 2: Use Google Disavow tool

If contacting the administrator fails, you can use the Disavow tool to tell Google to ignore these backlinks.

step:

  1. Prepare a text file .txtwith the following format: 

# Example of disavow file
# Domains to disavow
domain:spammydomain1.com
domain:lowqualitysite2.com

# Specific URLs
http://example.com/bad-link-page

  1. Log in to Google Disavow Tool

  2. Upload your .txtfile

⚠️ Note: Disavow is a last resort; misuse may cause ranking fluctuations.

Subsequent monitoring and protection

  • Backlinks are checked quarterly.

  • Conduct quality assessment of new links

  • Configure abnormal links for Google Search Console email notifications

Tips

  • Avoid buying links or using low-quality exchange links.

  • Publishing content naturally generates high-quality backlinks.

  • Gain positive traffic through content marketing, press releases, and forum participation.

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