Yes, Google says you should ignore spam backlinks
The coincidence of this is both surprising and frustrating to me. Google has publicly said you can ignore spam backlinks to your website. It is frustrating because I’d intended to blog about it last week. The surprising element is just how direct Google have been in their comments.
Spam backlinks and score addiction
The reason I intended to mention backlinks last week was related to a topic I partially covered – score addiction. That is, using systems such as Ahrefs or Semrush, and becoming addicted to the “scores” they give you.
I mentioned it when blogging about “How long should a blog be?“.
The pursuit of the holy grail, a score of 100, for a webpage is time consuming nonsense. It completely ignores everything Google has been trying to tell the world for some time now.
Spam backlinks waste valuable SEO time
Spam backlinks are an area I have never given a great deal of time and effort to. For clarity, these can broadly fall into two categories (yes, there could be more, but I want to be brief):
- Links you didn’t ask for and appeared out of nowhere.
- Links you’ve paid for in an effort to build your or a clients backlinks.
You want backlinks, and you can’t pick them all
Links from nowhere will happen. You want them to happen. The fact that a website considers yours worthy of linking to will help more times than it harms you.
If links are spam backlinks, from sites that crawl and link to anything, Google has confirmed that it doesn’t care. It will not penalise you for spam backlinks.
If you paid for backlinks, you get what you deserve
On the other hand, if you’ve paid for backlinks you are much more likely to incur the wrath of Google, barring well-known and relevant directory sites, because it has told you (multiple times) that it doesn’t like you doing that.
Indeed, this is one of the reasons that Google lets users report spam backlinks that they believe have been paid for. If you don’t believe me, there is a very well formatted reporting form for it and I’ve highlighted the area for paid-for backlinks:
The Google Search Console reporting system can be used to report a variety of offences. Go to the link below:
Report spammy, deceptive or low-quality webpage to Google
The reason I’ve ignored spam backlinks in the past is very simple – I honestly don’t know how people have the time to deal with them all. They can rack up at a rapid rate and there has never been anything concrete to say that Google is that bothered about them.
I’m genuinely not trying to be smart saying that. You could devote your entire working day to trying to disavow backlinks on large e-commerce websites. They accumulate faster than you can say “please stop linking to this site“.
SEO tools provide data, not must-do instructions
Tools such as Ahrefs and Semrush (and others, before I’m accused of bias) are incredibly powerful, valuable and probably indispensable tools in the world of SEO. I use them everyday and think they are wonderful SEO platforms.
However, I feel as if too many users have become distracted by trying to obtain clean dashboards or 100/100 when these tools are a source of information for you to decide what to act on.
They’re not telling you that you must act on the data they give you. More importantly, they’re not always showing you data that matters. There is plenty of spurious and irrelevant data on display.
Forget spam backlinks, focus on quality
John Mueller at Google must be a very bored man. I feel for him. He seems to spend his time having to tell all and sundry the same thing, time and time again.
In responding to a question on Reddit, in which a user expressed concern about a lot of spam backlinks (according to an SEO tool) to their website, he said this:
“I wouldn’t worry about that spam score.
The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.”
On the latter point alone, I concur. I have probably spent all of 10 minutes in my entire career worrying about spam backlinks. The reality is that there has always been far more evidence of a million other more important things to be worried about in SEO – and then there are the things that come at you, and aren’t directly or in any way associated with SEO.
John added this:
“And to be more direct – Google doesn’t use these spam scores. You can do what you want with them. They’re not going to change anything for your site.
I’d recommend taking the time and instead making a tiny part of your website truly awesome, and then working out what it would take the make the rest of your website like that. This spam score tells you nothing in that regard. Ignore it.”
There is the direct confirmation, if you needed it, from someone you should listen to – Google does not use spam backlink scores.
Why do SEO tools show spam backlinks?
Why, you might ask, would this data be there if it didn’t matter? Generally speaking, at least in the scheme of things that do actually matter in SEO, they’re a small piece of data provided by an SEO tool, probably created when a software developer was told to come up with something that appeared to add value, but adds very little value whatsoever. They’re a distraction.
The creators of these types of SEO tools need to be able to tell you all about their features, and how wonderful and plentiful they are. Sometimes, they come up with a load of rubbish that is very, very unlikely to do much for you, no matter how much energy you invest in it.
It is little more than a feature to use for marketing purposes. Then, if one SEO platform begins it, you can be guaranteed that others will follow.
Do you need any more SEO evidence?
I read another blog recently in which someone showed traffic before and after disavowing a truck-load of spam backlinks. You can guess what the difference in traffic was. Minimal, at best.
They’re not going to impact your domain or page authority either, at least not with Google. If one of the SEO tools shows you that your authority has increased as a result of getting rid of spam backlinks, all that has happened is that they’ve suckered you into believe their scoring system matters.
On occasion, a lot of very toxic spam backlinks might be worth getting rid of if you’ve absolutely nothing better to do with your time – but think about that use of time.
Ultimately, you almost certainly do have something far more valuable to do from an SEO perspective. If you want my unfiltered opinion, make a cup of coffee instead (yes, pun intended).
Google has told you it doesn’t care. Believe them.
Focus on high-quality original content
Mueller’s comment “make a tiny part of your website truly awesome” is getting back on script for the message Google have been pushing for a very long time.
Focus on high-quality original content. Spend your time doing that, instead of worrying about what an SEO tool tells you might destroy your website visibility, and you’ll reap more reward.
I liked the fact that he went on to encourage the person to “then make the rest of your website like that.” He’s basically saying that the tiny and wonderful part of their website would soon show fruit for their labour, and that should persuade the person to continue the strategy of wonderful things across the rest of their site.
A content lesson from history
Such has been the repetitiveness of the content message, and for so long, that I’m going to try to avoid mentioning the importance of high quality and original content for the next month or two.
I’ll put it into context – when was the first time you heard this saying?
“Content is King.”
Unless you’ve been in a cave in outer Mongolia for the last 20+ years, and depending on your age, you should know it.
It was used as an essay title by none other than Microsoft’s Bill Gates in 1996.
Gates was describing how he saw the internet developing. As with most things visionary, Gates has a decent record. He said this:
“Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet, just as it was in broadcasting..
..the broad opportunities for most companies involve supplying information or entertainment. No company is too small to participate.
I’m not going to quote it all, but it is worth reading here if you want to.
The point is this, content being King is nothing new. We’re in 2024 and Gates was telling us how important it would be 28 years ago. Google have been banging on about it for as long as I can recall.
Your content isn’t being ranked by Google
I think it would be remiss of me not to address a question that some readers might be asking – why hasn’t your content been rewarded?
If you think you’ve been writing high quality and original content, and you’re not being rewarded in SERPs, why is that? It’s a tough question to answer and largely dependent on your own gauge of “high quality” and “original“. However, there could be technical SEO reasons behind it.
Poor foundations can handicap good content
You could write a fantastic piece of content in every respect, but if it is published on a dreadfully slow or woefully inadequate website from a structural and indexable perspective, you may well have wasted your effort.
Content creation is not easy
Writing content is not easy. It is bloody difficult, to be honest. I’m also not suggesting I write brilliant content. Trust me, it is always a lot of effort to write blogs and there are times when you’ll look back and think you wasted a huge amount of time. And there’ll be times when you’ll be correct.
If I was to give any tips, my first would be to write as you speak. Try to let it flow and, secondly, please ignore any thought of SEO. Just write for your audience.
Furthermore, you have to read Google’s guidelines on E-E-A-T. There is a detailed explanation on that subject in the blog I linked to at the top of this article.
Obtaining visibility requires effort and patience
Finally, bear in mind that getting a foothold with Google, and becoming a source for well read and shared material, takes time.
You might strike gold and be very fortunate, with your first blog getting shared across the planet and powering your domain to an authority and visibility level you never dreamt of – but it is highly unlikely.
On the other hand, you might have to write 50 or 100 blogs before anyone even notices you. Then, one day, the 16th blog you wrote gets noticed, it brings traction, and your other blogs begin to get visibility. Some people call it the ignition point, others the trigger point. In essence, it is your patience and effort being rewarded.
Ranking content, as with all SEO, takes time
What you can’t ignore, and you may not want to hear this, is that it is more than likely to take a considerable amount of time and not everyone will succeed – unless they keep assessing their content, adapting their approach, and striving for that single piece of material that finally hits the sweet spot.
Blogging and content creation rarely gives instant rewards on existing websites, let alone new sites. That’s the reality of it. You need to keep working at it.
But at least you won’t be worrying about spam backlinks.
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