How to Disavow Toxic Backlinks and Protect Your SEO

So, you're learning SEO, or maybe you're part of a technical SEO course. Either way, you’ve probably heard that backlinks are super important for your website’s ranking. And yes, that’s true! But not all backlinks are good. Some can actually harm your site’s SEO instead of helping it. In this blog, we’ll talk about toxic backlinks, why they are bad, and how you can safely remove or disavow them to keep your website clean in Google’s eyes.

This is a simple guide, written in an easy way so even beginners who are new to SEO learning can understand. If you’re a student in our SEO training program, this will help you big time.

What Are Backlinks?

Let’s start with the basics. A backlink is a link from one website to another. For example, if someone links from their blog to your site, that’s a backlink for you. Google looks at backlinks as “votes” that tell them your site is trustworthy and useful. The more quality backlinks you have, the better your chances of ranking higher on Google.        

But Not All Backlinks Are Good

Imagine if a low-quality or spammy site links to you. That’s like getting a bad reference. Google doesn’t like that. These types of backlinks are called toxic backlinks. Instead of helping you, they can hurt your rankings.     

Let’s learn this with a real-life example. Suppose you’re a good student and your favourite teacher says you’re great at studies. That’s helpful! But if someone with a bad record says the same thing, it doesn’t carry much value, and may even be suspicious.

What Are Toxic Backlinks?

Toxic backlinks are links from websites that are spammy, irrelevant, or dangerous. These can include sites that:

• Have malware or viruses
• Are full of adult or illegal content 
• Use automated tools to create links
• Are part of link farms or link exchange groups 
• Have a low domain authority and poor content

Even if you don’t know how these links got there, Google still sees them. Sometimes websites become victims of spam attacks where people purposely build bad links to lower their SEO rankings. That’s where link disavowal comes in.  

What is Link Disavowal?

Link disavowal means telling Google, "Hey, I don’t want to be connected to these bad links." You do this by submitting a list of toxic backlinks through Google’s Disavow Tool. This tool tells Google to ignore those specific backlinks when calculating your site’s ranking. In a technical SEO course, they teach how to create and submit a disavow file properly, so your SEO score stays safe and strong.  

Why Should You Disavow Links?

Google is smart. In many cases, it can figure out which links are spammy and ignore them automatically. But sometimes, your site may get a manual action penalty. This means a real person at Google has reviewed your site and decided that it’s breaking the rules because of unnatural backlinks. 

In such cases, your website may drop in rankings or even disappear from Google search results. That’s when disavowing links becomes very important. So, if you’re serious about SEO—whether you’re learning it or planning to do professional work—it’s important to understand how and when to disavow links.

When Should You Disavow Links?

You should only disavow links if:

1. You’ve received a manual action penalty from Google
2. You’ve done a backlink audit and found many spammy or toxic links
3. You’ve tried to remove the links, but couldn’t contact the site owners
4. You want to prevent future penalties for safety

In any SEO course, they guide students on how to check for manual actions using Google Search Console and how to spot toxic links using tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, or Moz.

What Is a Disavow File?

A disavow file is just a plain text (.txt) file where you list all the bad URLs or domains you want Google to ignore. Each link should be on a new line.

For example:

domain:spammywebsite.com  

https://example.com/bad-link  

You can create this file using simple text editors like Notepad or TextEdit and then upload it through Google Search Console.

But remember—disavowing links is a sensitive task. If you disavow good links by mistake, it can hurt your SEO. That’s why we always recommend doing a careful backlink audit first. In SEO learning sessions, it is taught through this step by step.  

How to Perform a Backlink Audit

Here’s a basic flow we teach in class:

1. Use a tool like Semrush or Ahrefs to scan all backlinks pointing to your site
2. Review the quality of each backlink (look at domain authority, relevance, and anchor text) 
3. Mark the ones that look spammy or low-quality
4. Try to contact the site owners to remove the links (if possible)
5. If that doesn’t work, list those links in your disavow file
6. Submit the file in Google Search Console
    

We always remind our students: do this only if really necessary. For most sites, especially new ones, Google already handles this in the background.

Mistakes to Avoid

A lot of beginners make mistakes when disavowing links. Some of the common ones include:

• Disavowing too many links at once
• Not checking if the link is really harmful
• Using the wrong file format
• Forgetting to update the disavow file after new bad links appear

Final Thoughts

Learning SEO is not just about getting more traffic. It’s about building a healthy, trusted website that grows over time. Backlinks are an important part of this journey—but only if they’re good ones.

If you find bad backlinks pointing to your site, don’t panic. Use the disavow method wisely and carefully. And if you’re unsure, reach out to experts or trainers like us.

Whether you're just starting with SEO learning or you're already deep into a technical SEO course, understanding backlinks and how to manage them will take you one step closer to becoming an SEO expert. If you want to learn these tactics of SEO, you can join any SEO Training in Lucknow and wherever you belong, these SEO programs provide all SEO tactics and strategies and much more.