Toxic Backlinks: Real SEO Problem or Just a Myth?

Some SEO tools say “toxic” backlinks can harm your Google rankings. These tools suggest removing or disavowing such links to protect your site. But not everyone agrees. Even in the SEO world, people are unsure if toxic backlinks are truly a problem or just something made up by tools.

Google’s own expert, John Mueller, has said that toxic links don’t really exist. Still, when we asked SEO professionals, most of them believe that toxic backlinks are real, even if only by a small number.

So, what’s really going on? Do toxic backlinks actually harm your site? And if they do, what can we do about it? Before answering that, let’s understand what toxic backlinks really are.

Are All Spammy Links Toxic?

Most websites have some strange or spammy backlinks. That doesn’t mean these links are harmful or made to trick Google. For example, here are two low-quality links pointing to our site. We didn’t ask for them or create them. They just appeared, like many do, because the internet is full of spam.

When we read Google’s guide on spammy links, it becomes clear they don’t care much about random low-quality links. Google warns only about links made to cheat the system and change search rankings.

What Does Google Say About Link Spam?

Google uses backlinks to help decide which web pages are most useful. But they don’t like links that are made just to push a website higher in search. This includes any links made to unfairly boost your site or links going out from your site that try to trick the system.

Google gives clear examples of what these bad or “manipulative” links look like.

So What Are Toxic Backlinks Really?

The term “toxic backlink” was made up by some SEO tools. These tools try to guess which backlinks might harm your rankings, based on things they call “markers.”

But in the end, not every bad-looking link is toxic. And unless the link was made to trick Google, it probably won’t hurt your site at all.

Can spammy links lower your Google ranking?

If this question was asked before September 2016, the answer would likely be “yes.” But today, the answer is “probably not.”

So, what changed?

Google introduced an update called Penguin 4.0. This update changed how Google deals with bad links. Instead of punishing sites with bad links, Google now tries to ignore those links.

But is that really true? Can Google really ignore all low-quality links? A recent poll by our teammate Chris on LinkedIn showed that many SEOS (38%) still choose to disavow bad links.

This doesn’t mean those links are harmful. It just means people don’t fully trust Google to ignore them, so they’re being extra careful.

One expert we trust on this topic is Dr. Marie Haynes. She has spent many years studying Google’s search updates and helping businesses check their link profiles.

What’s interesting is that Marie used to offer services to clean up bad links and create disavow files, and those services weren’t cheap. So if Google was still bad at ignoring bad links, she could keep selling those services.

But now, she doesn’t seem to offer them anymore. In fact, for the past few years, she’s been telling people not to worry too much about low-quality spammy links.

Marie chooses her words carefully. But after all her research, her opinion seems clear:

Yes, Google is now good at ignoring most spammy links.

Can manipulative links affect your ranking?

If you are buying or creating links that Google sees as “spam,” then yes—they can definitely harm your rankings. But don’t panic yet. If you once swapped links with a friend or added a few by mistake, Google likely looks at patterns, not single links.

Marie Haynes also says something similar. She suggests disavowing only when there are a lot of bad links that could look like an attempt to cheat Google.

If that happens, Google might take action. They may send a manual message saying your site is being pushed down in search because of “unnatural” links.

But even without a warning, Google’s system can still lower your site if it sees too many spammy and manipulative links. John Mueller from Google has said this can happen.

The main point is this: Google cares more about patterns of bad links than one or two strange ones. So, for most people, there’s no need to stress about a random spammy link.

How to spot real toxic links that may be hurting your rankings

It can be tempting to use an SEO tool that shows “toxic backlinks.” But we suggest being careful with that. Trusting these tools too much can cause more harm than good.

Just take a look at what one Reddit user shared with Google’s John Mueller—depending on these tools too much can lead to problems. Even though this case may be rare, worrying about links marked as toxic is often a waste of time. Marie Haynes also says most of them are not truly harmful. So, how do we find the backlinks that really might hurt a website?

The truth is—we might not need to find them at all. If we haven’t bought or created lots of spammy links, we’re probably fine. But if we’re unsure, we can manually check our backlinks using a tool.

A good place to start is the Anchors report. This shows the words used when people link to our site. If many links use the exact same keywords we want to rank for, that might be a sign of paid or spammy links.

If anything looks suspicious, we can then look at the Backlinks report to check where those links are coming from. It’s often easy to spot links that were paid for or look unnatural.

Should we disavow “toxic” links?

If Google gives a manual warning for unnatural links, or if we see a lot of links that really do look harmful, then yes, we should consider disavowing them (especially if we can’t get them removed). But if we just found a list of “toxic backlinks” from an SEO tool, we likely don’t need to worry. Most of these are probably spam that Google already ignores.

Also, there’s a risk that disavowing the wrong links could hurt our site’s traffic. One person tested this by disavowing some links to the blog, and traffic dropped. When those links were added back, traffic returned to normal.

Final thoughts

“Toxic backlinks” is a term some SEO tools use to scare users. That doesn’t mean bad links can’t hurt us, but for most site owners, it’s not something to worry about often. Staying aware and checking things ourselves is a better approach than trusting tools blindly.