Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • SEO Q&A
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • Case Studies
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      What is your Brand Authority?
      Moz

      What is your Brand Authority?

      Check yours now
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • SEO Q&A

        Insights & discussions from an SEO community of 500,000+.

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • Case Studies

        Explore how Moz drives ROI with a proven track record of success.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. Moz Tools
    3. Moz Pro
    4. Link Explorer
    5. How to remove these spammy links

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    Unsolved How to remove these spammy links

    Link Explorer
    spam backlinks spam score
    9
    10
    610
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • FredericoSeo
      FredericoSeo Subscriber last edited by

      I've noticed that my website's spam score has increased recently, and upon further investigation, I found some spammy links pointing to my site. and my website www.fastlandoffer.com Moz Smap Score is 16
      5 I haven't engaged in any spammy tactics, so I'm not sure how they got there.

      Does anyone have any tips or suggestions on how to effectively remove these spammy links from my website and improve its overall credibility and search engine rankings?

      Any insights or experiences would be greatly appreciated!

      Thanks in advance!

      Jamesmartinhub lawyersonia 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • alexabliss567
        alexabliss567 last edited by

        My website also gets high number of spammy links that are affecting my ranking. Please help me and tell the procedure how remove them

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • f4fahim87
          f4fahim87 last edited by

          Hello,

          I understand how spammy backlinks can ruin the performance of an SEO expert for a website. I've also been faced the same issue where my competitor made some spammy backlinks for my website and I triggered it out.

          I simply made a text file mentioning those links and domains and upload it in google disavow tools.

          You can check it here:

          https://search.google.com/search-console/disavow-links

          I hope this will help for you.

          Thank you.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • Khanrajab8228
            Khanrajab8228 Subscriber Banned last edited by

            I remove these spammy links by following steps.
            What i did was
            Analysed backlink profile
            made a list of spammy links

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • Jamesmartinhub
              Jamesmartinhub @Jamesmartinhub last edited by

              @Jamesmartinhub said in How to remove these spammy links:

              @FredericoSeo To effectively remove spammy links from your website and improve its credibility and search engine rankings, you can follow these steps:

              1. Identify the spammy links: Use tools like Google Search Console, Moz, or Ahrefs to identify the spammy links pointing to your site. Look for links from low-quality or irrelevant websites.

              2. Disavow spammy links: Once you've identified the spammy links, create a disavow file listing these links and submit it to Google Search Console. This tells Google to ignore these links when assessing your website's ranking.

              3. Improve website security: Ensure your website's security measures are up-to-date to prevent future spammy link injections. Regularly monitor your website for any suspicious activity.

              4. Build quality backlinks: Focus on building high-quality, relevant backlinks from authoritative websites through guest posting, content marketing, and networking within your industry.

              5. Monitor and maintain: Continuously monitor your website's backlink profile and regularly audit for any new spammy links. Stay proactive in addressing any issues that may arise.

              By taking these steps, you can effectively remove spammy links from your website and improve its overall credibility and search engine rankings.
              The same strategy i apply on my another website homehospital and its works very well.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • lawyersonia
                lawyersonia @FredericoSeo last edited by

                @FredericoSeo said in How to remove these spammy links:

                I've noticed that my website's spam score has increased recently, and upon further investigation, I found some spammy links pointing to my site. and my website www.fastlandoffer.com Moz Smap Score is 16
                5 I haven't engaged in any spammy tactics, so I'm not sure how they got there.
                Does anyone have any tips or suggestions on how to effectively remove these spammy links from my website and improve its overall credibility and search engine rankings?
                Any insights or experiences would be greatly appreciated!

                If you've noticed an uptick in your website's spam score and suspect spammy links, it's crucial to act swiftly. Start by identifying and contacting the webmasters of the sites hosting those links, requesting their removal. If unsuccessful, utilize Google's Disavow Tool to signal to search engines to ignore those links. Regular monitoring of your backlink profile is key to catching and addressing any new spammy links. Focus on producing quality content and ethical link-building practices to bolster your site's credibility and search engine rankings over time.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • nedirbilgiler
                  nedirbilgiler last edited by

                  Decide if this is necessary
                  Most of the time, Google can evaluate which links to trust without additional help, so most sites don't need to use this tool.

                  You should only disapprove backlinks if:

                  If you think there is a significant amount of spam, fake or low quality links pointing to your site.
                  If the links have caused or are likely to cause manual action on your site.

                  Google works hard to ensure that actions on third-party sites do not adversely affect a website. In some cases, inbound links can influence Google's opinion of a page or site. For example, you or the SEO you hired may have created bad links to your site by leveraging paid links or other link schemes that violate our quality guidelines. First and foremost, we recommend removing spammy or low-quality links to your site from the web as much as possible.

                  The disavow links tool does not support Domain properties. If you own a Domain property, this page does not apply to you.
                  Step 1: Create a list of links to disavow
                  Prepare your list of rejected pages or domains in a text file that you will upload to Google.

                  Link file format:

                  In each line, specify a URL or domain to reject. You cannot reject an entire subpath like example.com/tr/
                  To deny a domain (or subdomain), add "domain:" at the beginning (for example, domain:example.com)
                  The file must be a text file encoded in UTF-8 or 7-bit ASCII
                  File name must end in .txt
                  Maximum URL length is 2,048 characters
                  The maximum file size is 100,000 lines (including blank lines and comment lines) and 2 MB.
                  You can add comments to lines by starting them with the # sign. Lines starting with # are ignored by Google.

                  Example:

                  http://spam.example.com/stuff/comments.html
                  http://spam.example.com/stuff/paid-links.html

                  A domain name will be rejected

                  domain:xxxxxx.com

                  If you found URLs or sites to disavow in the links report for your site, you can download the data from the Links report by clicking the export button. Be sure to remove any URLs you do not want to reject from the downloaded file.

                  Step 2: Upload your list
                  You can publish a denial list for each property you own. Uploading a new listing for a property replaces all existing listings for that property.

                  You must be a property owner to upload a deny list.
                  Disapproved links still appear in the Links report.
                  The list is valid only for the property on which it is installed and any sub-properties. So, if you have both http and https properties, you need to upload a list for each. If you have a valid deny list for example.com, it also applies to m.example.com. If you have disavow lists for both coloring-free.com and m.example.com, the list for the two properties will be a combination of both lists.
                  To upload a list of pages or domains to reject:

                  Go to the disavow links tool page.
                  Select a property from the property list. The listing applies only to this property. If there is already a listing for this property, you'll see a summary of rejected pages and domains. Uploading another listing to this property replaces the existing listing for this property.

                  Select the reject file on your local computer as directed.
                  If there are errors in the file, you will immediately see a list of errors. Your old list will not be changed. You can correct your new list and try uploading again.
                  If the upload is successful, it may take a few weeks for Google to add your listing to our index while we re-crawl the web and re-process the pages we see.

                  Remove all rejected links from the property
                  If you want to remove all rejected links from a property, follow the steps below. If you want to replace the old list with the new one, you do not need to remove it. Just upload the new list.

                  Go to the disavow links tool page.
                  Select a property from the property list.
                  Click Cancel Rejects. The selected property's deny list is removed. It may take several weeks for Google to index your listing as we re-crawl the web and re-process the pages we see.

                  https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2648487

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • monstrillo
                    monstrillo last edited by

                    Start by disavowing those spammy links through Google Search Console. Focus on creating high-quality content and earning authoritative backlinks. Regularly monitor your backlink profile to maintain credibility. Best of luck with improving your website's rankings!

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • Jamesmartinhub
                      Jamesmartinhub @FredericoSeo last edited by

                      @FredericoSeo To effectively remove spammy links from your website and improve its credibility and search engine rankings, you can follow these steps:

                      1. Identify the spammy links: Use tools like Google Search Console, Moz, or Ahrefs to identify the spammy links pointing to your site. Look for links from low-quality or irrelevant websites.

                      2. Disavow spammy links: Once you've identified the spammy links, create a disavow file listing these links and submit it to Google Search Console. This tells Google to ignore these links when assessing your website's ranking.

                      3. Improve website security: Ensure your website's security measures are up-to-date to prevent future spammy link injections. Regularly monitor your website for any suspicious activity.

                      4. Build quality backlinks: Focus on building high-quality, relevant backlinks from authoritative websites through guest posting, content marketing, and networking within your industry.

                      5. Monitor and maintain: Continuously monitor your website's backlink profile and regularly audit for any new spammy links. Stay proactive in addressing any issues that may arise.

                      By taking these steps, you can effectively remove spammy links from your website and improve its overall credibility and search engine rankings.

                      Jamesmartinhub 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • sarahwalsh
                        sarahwalsh last edited by

                        You do have to very careful with disavowing links, very careful, because what a lot of business do, is upload a disavow excel document to Google, and they break links, that might be good.

                        so you do need an SEO expert on this for sure, they need to know which links are rubbish, which are good. I run Kingsley Fencing and a business South Wales Demolition, both had rubbish links accumulate, if left, without consulting with an expert, the organic rankings would have dropped, so do go and see an SEO agency for advice, make sure the only linking websites are quality.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • 1 / 1
                        • First post
                          Last post

                        Got a burning SEO question?

                        Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                        Start my free trial


                        Browse Questions

                        Explore more categories

                        • Moz Tools

                          Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                        • SEO Tactics

                          Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                        • Community

                          Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                        • Digital Marketing

                          Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                        • Research & Trends

                          Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                        • Support

                          Connect on product support and feature requests.

                        • See all categories

                        Related Questions

                        • Halmblogmusic

                          Should I Report A SEO Agency to Google

                          spam backlink attack spam backlinks

                          Our competitor has employed the services of a spammy SEO agency that sends spammy links to our site. Though our rankings were affected we have taken the necessary steps. It is possible to send evidence to Google so that they can take down the site. I want to take this action so that other sites will not be affected by them again.

                          White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Halmblogmusic
                          0
                        • Tv24.ro

                          Unsolved when is the spam score updated?

                          spam score spamscore technicalsupport spam backlink attack

                          when is the spam score updated?
                          we have been waiting since December to see an update of the spam score and moz is lying to us continuously. Shame, whenever we ask questions, they don't answer us, I think they almost make fun of people.
                          I requested an update to antena24, tv24, digi24, alba24, g4media, b1tv,newsela

                          Link Explorer | | Tv24.ro
                          0
                        • Ryka1234

                          Unsolved How to Disavow links with Google Console

                          backlinkaudit

                          I have a list of links I want to disavow, but I can't because I have a domain property so google console does not let me submit anything. What do I do?

                          Link Explorer | | Ryka1234
                          0
                        • netcomsia

                          block primary . xxx domain with disavow tool

                          search results spam spam score disavow seo audit

                          Hi friends I discovered spam url attack on top sites with good google positions for specific keyword. Can I block primary domain like .xxx with disavow tool? There is hundreds of different domains but primary domain is always the same. for example like this domain:xxx? Thanks

                          Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | netcomsia
                          0
                        • amzonestep

                          My Website's Links Are Not Showing In Moz Link Explorer

                          Hello Team, I was analyzing my domain (https://www.amzonestep.com) in link explored but there are many websites that are not showing there. Questions
                          1. Is this reason website's DA is not increasing 2. Is there wrong steps taken by me for this website. Well, I know there are many factors work in increasing DA but what is should do if these kind on links are not indexing in MOZ. I things these are one of the factors my DA is not Increasing. Please save my job guys. The company has sent me an ultimatum mail of 2 months that they will take back the projects from me. Please save my job. Thanks & Regards Aashirvad Kumar moz.png Screenshot-2020-02-19-at-11.48.21-am.png

                          Link Explorer | | amzonestep
                          0
                        • IanWatson

                          Moz's new Link Explorer, including our revamped index and DA/PA scores is now open to everyone!

                          Hey Moz Community, Link Explorer is now open to the public! Everyone can access it via a subscription or a free Moz ‘Community’ account. As you may know by now, the brand-new Link Explorer tool is primed to replace Open Site Explorer as Moz’s link building and analysis tool. The Link Explorer project is the result of an incredible amount of perseverance and hard work by the team, and we’re proud to be able to finally share it with you — we know it’s going to revolutionize how you approach link building and make your job easier. You can read more about the tool here in Sarah Bird’s announcement post. Because Link Explorer improves on almost every aspect of Open Site Explorer, the metrics have improved, too. That means you’re likely going to see some Domain Authority and Page Authority discrepancies between OSE’s index and Link Explorer’s index. We definitely suggest you use the new DA/PA from Link Explorer, as they’re more accurate and refresh daily rather than monthly, as was the case with OSE’s index. However, we also realize that many of you use these metrics to report to your clients and colleagues, and a sudden change or fluctuation could potentially make your job harder. Which DA is the real DA? The new DA is based on a much larger index that has many improvements, several of which are designed to make the index more like Google’s than ever before. You should consider moving towards the new DA (and the old DA won’t be updated after April 26th 2018, so the sooner the better). While there will be fluctuations as we improve the model and add features to the index, we expect it to remain largely stable and to be a far more accurate picture of a site’s authority according to how it’s seen by Google. Why is Link Explorer’s DA/PA considered better than OSE’s, and which should I trust? The larger link index with improved crawl selection allows us to produce a stronger model that includes a much larger proportion of the web. That being said, DA and PA should always be considered in the context of your competitors. A drop in PA or DA relative to the old OSE is of little concern if your competitors saw similar movement. Is Domain Authority/Page Authority an absolute score or a relative one? Both DA and PA are relative to the Internet as a whole. If Facebook acquired a billion new links, everyone’s PA and DA would drop relative to Facebook. Because of this, it’s always best to look at PA and DA in comparison to your competitors. What does a drop/raise in DA mean in Link Explorer vs OSE? How can I explain this to my clients when I’m reporting it? DA and PA should always be considered in the context of your competitors. A drop or raise in PA or DA relative to the old OSE is of little concern if your competitors saw similar movement. Reporting that your site has moved from a DA of 45 to a DA of 42 doesn’t tell the whole story, but reporting that your site has a DA of 42 while your main competitor moved from a 43 to a 37 shows that, relative to the sites you’re competing against in the SERPs, your site has significantly more authority and ranking power. What’s happening to MozTrust and MozRank and why, and what should I replace those with? The improvements to our DA/PA and Spam Score metrics now now account for more important nuances in helping you determine one site’s ability to rank higher than another. Because they no longer correlate with Google’s ranking model as well as they used to, MozRank and MozTrust are being deprecated for better metrics. Users should rely on Page Authority, Domain Authority, and Spam Score to determine the importance and quality of pages, domains, and links. I have historical data I use to help my clients benchmark their progress. What do I do now that DA is calculated differently? You should annotate any KPI changes referencing the change in DA and PA. However, most importantly, you should compare those changes to your competitors, as this will best show how strong your site’s authority is relative to the sites you’re competing against in the SERPs. We take updating our metrics very seriously, and our last major update to the model was 7 years ago. Users of Domain Authority and Page Authority can expect us to continue to produce steady, reliable metrics for the long haul, and only make changes to these metrics when we believe the benefits dramatically outweigh the stability of the metric. Do you have any questions about the new metrics? Anticipating a tough time reporting changes to clients or bosses? Metrics, features or functionality missing that you would want to see? Let us know in the thread, and we’ll work to find a good answer for you. Hope you enjoy the new Link Explorer product and the amazing new link index powering it. We are very excited to provide this valuable data to our community and customers.

                          Link Explorer | | IanWatson
                          9
                        • RyanRhodesGW

                          How to download full list of internal links properly with OSE?

                          Hi Moz Community, I am having issues getting a full list of my internal links when I go to the Open Site Explorer. When I export the internal links into excel, I am getting half of my URLs and 80% of what I am getting is absolutely crazy URLs that are super super old. Plus, these old URLs are not even showing in my campaign crawls. So the crawls themselves are different. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated, since I am trying to get a full picture on the internal link structure of my site. Thanks!

                          Link Explorer | | RyanRhodesGW
                          0
                        • usDragons

                          How does spammy linked site have zero spam score?

                          I came across a law firm site with hundreds of horrible spam links to it. Of the 3330 links, all but 231 links have anchor text that has to do with "jordan 11s for sale". I'm trying to see how useful the moz spam score is, but clearly it's not reliable if this site has a score of zero. Many of the obviously spammy sites linking to it also have low to zero spam scores, although there are plenty in the 5-10 range. (see attached image). I also noticed that many sites were legit sites, but if you look at the source code, there's tons of hidden spam links in the code (e.g., www.chickasawgardens.net) Why would this site have a zero spam score? If you're curious, put it into open site explorer and have a look. It's a law firm based in Pennsylvania, most anchor text has to do with jordan sneakers and most links are foreign: penn-criminallawyers.com Is the spam score too lenient? Is the moz tool unable to find spam links coming from legitimate sites with hidden spam links? DrokMbP

                          Link Explorer | | usDragons
                          0

                        Get started with Moz Pro!

                        Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                        Start my free trial
                        Products
                        • Moz Pro
                        • Moz Local
                        • Moz API
                        • Moz Data
                        • STAT
                        • Product Updates
                        Moz Solutions
                        • SMB Solutions
                        • Agency Solutions
                        • Enterprise Solutions
                        Free SEO Tools
                        • Domain Authority Checker
                        • Link Explorer
                        • Keyword Explorer
                        • Competitive Research
                        • Brand Authority Checker
                        • MozBar Extension
                        • MozCast
                        Resources
                        • Blog
                        • SEO Learning Center
                        • Help Hub
                        • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                        • How-to Guides
                        • Moz Academy
                        • API Docs
                        About Moz
                        • About
                        • Team
                        • Careers
                        • Contact
                        Why Moz
                        • Case Studies
                        • Testimonials
                        Get Involved
                        • Become an Affiliate
                        • MozCon
                        • Webinars
                        • Practical Marketer Series
                        • MozPod
                        Connect with us

                        Contact the Help team

                        Join our newsletter
                        Moz logo
                        © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                        • Accessibility
                        • Terms of Use
                        • Privacy

                        Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.