Types of Bad Backlinks
There are several types of bad backlinks that can impact your search engine ranking. These include Blog comment spam, PBNs, Contractual obligations, and Unrelated links. Below, we will go over some of the most common types of bad backlinks that you don’t want. Read on to learn how to prevent them. Listed below are 5 types of bad backlinks that you shouldn’t allow to harm your search engine ranking.
Blog comment spam
While it’s easy to overlook blog comment spam, it can impact your SEO. Spammers can leave a link to their website in the comments, which can have a negative effect on your SEO. Spammers also tend to leave the same comment on hundreds of sites, making it hard to distinguish between legitimate and spammy comments. Here are a few ways you can spot spam comments.
Links act as votes of confidence from one website to another, and the highest quality links come from the most trusted sources. People trust recommendations from friends, but they don’t necessarily trust an unknown blog. Unlike a high-quality blog, a New York Times link is of far higher value than an anonymous blog. Moreover, low-quality blogs have little to no topical steer, and the content is mediocre.
PBNs
Spammy links are not desirable, but you have to be careful with these. You don’t want your site linked to low-quality sites that have poor content or no content at all. There are ways to tell if a site is spammy, but the first step is to check the anchor text. Empty anchor texts are an indication of low-quality spammy links. Real websites will use the text in the anchor text, but there are very few that have branded content. This is a clear sign of poor link building practices.
Bad backlinks question your website’s credibility and show your website is using questionable link-building methods. They trigger the spam filter in Google and could lead to site penalties. If you don’t remove them, you may find yourself banned from the search engine altogether, which could severely hamper your business growth. So how do you prevent these backlinks? Here are some ways to get rid of them:
Unrelated links
There are two primary types of unnatural links. First, there are those that are completely unrelated to your site. Third, there are links that come from foreign discussion forums. Foreign discussion forums often contain low-quality links and spam, so it’s best to disavow them immediately. Another type of unnatural link is that which is nofollow. Nofollow links do not increase your pageRank or webpage authority.
These links have a limited amount of value and will do nothing for your rankings. They are navigational in nature and will not help you rank highly. However, you can get referral traffic from these links if they are relevant to your website. However, they will hurt your rankings and organic traffic. So, how can you avoid them? Read on to learn about 5 types of bad backlinks:
Unethical link-building
You don’t want toxic and unethical links on your website. While you can’t directly break search engine rules, unethical link-building may affect your rankings. This is why you should carefully monitor your backlink profile to spot unethical link-building and negative SEO strategies. Unethical link-building practices can include phishing emails, hacked websites, and black hat SEO.
One way to avoid getting low-quality links is to leave comments on other websites. While leaving a comment on another site is acceptable, leaving spammy comments on other websites is not. Many webmasters use automated tools and software to spam forums and blogs and create backlinks with keyword phrases instead of their real names. This tactic can damage your reputation, which is something you definitely don’t want.
