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Is there any way to remove bad links from the links built already?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by aarticod

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Short answer: you cannot delete links that live on other sites. The practical options are (a) ask the site owner to remove the link, or (b) tell Google to ignore the links for ranking by using the Disavow tool — but only after documented outreach or if you have a manual action. Blocking your own site with robots.txt or an .htaccess rule does not remove third‑party backlinks and can prevent Google from seeing a page‑level noindex. ()

Simple, reliable workflow to follow:

  1. Audit: export the Links report from Search Console and supplement with an external backlink tool to build a candidate list.
  2. Outreach: email the webmasters, record dates and responses (screenshots or ticket IDs help).
  3. Fallback: create a plain‑text disavow file (one URL per line, or domain:example.com to disavow an entire domain) and upload it in Search Console for the verified property. The disavow only tells Google to ignore those links for ranking and can take a few weeks to be processed. Example disavow snippet:
# example disavow
domain:spamdomain.com
http://bad.example.com/paid-links.html

()

Clarify common confusions: robots.txt stops crawling, not the existence of an external link — Google can still show a URL it cannot crawl (sometimes as “no description available”). To remove a URL permanently from Google you should remove the content or return a 404/410, use a crawlable noindex, or password‑protect the resource. For a quick temporary hide while you fix the source, use the Removals tool (temporary removal lasts about six months). (developers.google.com)

Tieback to earlier posts: and were right to think about crawl control, but robots.txt alone won’t “remove” backlinks. , and were correct that Search Console has a disavow option — follow Google’s guidance and use it only when necessary. ’s point is valid too: for many sites a handful of poor links don’t change rankings; check for a Manual Action before doing heavy cleanup. Also note that rel="nofollow"/"ugc"/"sponsored" are treated as hints by Google, so single low‑quality nofollow links are unlikely to be catastrophic. ()

Recommended Answers

All 15 Replies

Member Avatar for seoaceindia

add your site link in to the htaccess or robot.txt with block tag.

Member Avatar for canadafred

Depends. If it is just a handful you can try contacting the webmaster to physically remove them and that may work. If it is many "bad" links then you may be out of luck. The thing to remember is to NOT try to manipulate your backlinking strategy by artificially building links. Let backlinks generate themselves naturally, or not generate themselves altogether. I honestly don't think it matters much either way if your web site has already established trust with the search engine because of its history of offering evolving and valuable, uniquely important content.

Edited by canadafred
Member Avatar for jacob81

Well said seoaceindia. By adding the bad link in robots.txt alone is enough to remove the links.

Member Avatar for midastouchwebs

You can delete those links or you can create a text file and upload it with Google's disavow link tool.

Member Avatar for canadafred

Disallowing the link in a robot file doesn't remove it from the face of the Internet nor does it stop the search engine from continually acknowledging it's existence.

It's all such a waste of time in 2015. Because of excessive manipulation over the years, the vast majority of links haven't much good or bad influence to begin with, if any. It surprises me to observe web developers still trying to link juice-up their web pages rather than building better, evolving content for their web pages. Deploying any artificial link building strategy is a worse thing to do today than ever before because it can only be done poorly, all the clever ways to manipulate links have already been exhausted.

Member Avatar for kevinbelgiean

Try to utilize Google Disavow tools to remove bad/spam backlinks from your website. However, you should definitely need Google Webmaster access to remove (disavow) unwanted or bad backlinks.

Member Avatar for hibatahir

you must use google disove tool to do that

Member Avatar for Sri_3

Will the google dissolve tool be helpful?

Member Avatar for krishnamodi

There is 6 Ways to Recover from Bad Links:
1. Wait It Out
2. Cut the Links
3. Cut the Page
4. Build Good Links
5. Appeal to Google
6. Find a New Home

Member Avatar for Anu_5

Use the combination of Google Analytics and Google webmaster to check bad links. Ask the web owner to remove them with comment or emails or contatc us.

Member Avatar for Piers Rollins

In order to remove bad backlinks from your website, you need to send webmasters/website owners a mail with link removal requests. If you don't found any response from webmasters, then you may utilize Google Disavow Tools with the help of Google Search Console to remove bad backlinks.

Member Avatar for monica_14

Disavowing links is an important part of any backlink strategy. Disvowing eliminates the backlinks from spam sites.
Go to google webmaster tool:
Create list of links to disavow in a notepad
Go to Google Disavow links option, select the domain you want to upload to disavow file and then click on "Disavow links"
The deleting doesn't gets instantly but it will take months to disavow.

Member Avatar for nikitacod

Steps to remove bad links-
Identify your bad links (you'll find how exactly from this article).
Search for the contact information of the website you have the link on.
Contact the webmaster asking him to remove the link. ...
Disavow the links and upload the file to Google.

Edited by nikitacod
Member Avatar for aarticod

  1. There are numerous tools that claim to detect your bad backlinks automatically. Avoid them at all costs, or you might end up removing some of your best links.

  2. Hiring a link removal company is expensive and, most of the time, not worth it. It’s best to remove bad backlinks on your own. There’s no secret formula to remove links.

  3. Removing backlinks is often not enough to get rid of a Google penalty. You also have to create and submit a disavow report with all the bad backlinks.

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