How To Get Rid Of Toxic Backlinks
Updated: May 11, 2022
A Quick Guide To Managing Your Law Firm's Backlink Profile
Any type of negative SEO, like toxic backlinks, will most certainly pull your rankings down. Of course, you can recover, but why wait for your rankings to slip before doing something about it? When it comes to toxic backlinks, catching them before they cause any damage is the best way to go.
So, how can you identify poisonous backlinks before they harm your Lawyer SEO?
Step 1. Monitor And Manage Your Backlinks
Google Search Console offers a free backlink tool that can be used to track your website's backlinks. Using the console, you'll be able to see every backlink from every site across the internet.
Remember: Backlinks, unless you went out of your way to get them, are often out of your control. Sometimes, you don't even know that a website has linked one of your pages.
Consider using backlink auditing as part of your Lawyer SEO strategy. Doing so enables you to check for good and bad backlinks that can directly affect your SERP rankings. So, make sure backlink auditing is incorporated into your lawyer SEO marketing plan.
Step 2. Manually Check Each Backlink
Go review each item individually. To begin, study the websites from which the backlinks originate. Then, check to see whether:
They've ever been penalized by Google
They've ever posted spam or plagiarized content
They've ever posted high-quality content that draws organic traffic
You need to remember that backlinks associate one page with another. So if you're getting backlinks from shady, spammy, and plagiarized websites, Google will also assume that your law firm's content is the same.
Remember: Backlinks also play a huge role in content marketing for lawyers. The more high-ranking websites link to your content, the better it is for the page's ranking. For example, if you wrote a great legal guide, people are going to start linking to is, sending positive signals that informs the algorithm of the page's quality and relevance.
In addition, don't forget to check for anchor texts. It might be a toxic backlink if the anchor text used in the backlinks has nothing to do with your website or page. For instance, if one of the links has anchor text about plumbing, it should have no business linking to your law firm's website.
Some websites may legitimately cite your legal information, but they aren't employing the proper anchor text. However, because this can still hurt your Lawyer SEO, you should request the author modify the anchor text.
Step 3. Make A List Of Backlinks You Don't Want
Take note of the poisonous backlinks you wish to remove or disavow as you're browsing through a list of backlinks. Diligently go through your attorney marketing website's backlinks to make sure nothing's negatively affecting your rankings.
It is more effective to list all of the harmful backlinks before taking action. Google's disavow tool also requires a list of backlinks to be disavowed, so going through them ahead of time makes sure you don't miss anything.
You might want to leave notes or observations on the list to keep things organized. These notes can also be kept for future reference, so you know what's worth saving and what's not.
Step 4. Disavow Toxic Backlinks
Now that you have a complete list, it's time to eliminate the bad backlinks. There are two ways to get rid of bad backlinks:
You can work out a solution with the owner of the domain that links to your website. This can be as simple as asking for the unnatural anchor wording to be modified or removed.
If you are unable to contact the owner of a domain that is spamming you with unrelated links, contact the web host and request that they be removed.
Make a request to Google to remove these harmful backlinks. When disavowing, upload a list or file containing domain links utilizing the Google search console's disavow tool or the SEO tool you're using.
Keep in mind that these are the only methods for separating your website from potentially hazardous information. Because you don't always have control over your backlinks, be on the lookout for malicious Negative SEO tactics that create low-quality backlinks with the intent of lowering your rankings.
Remember: Lawyer digital marketing is highly-competitive. Hence, why it's not all that surprising to see malicious entities sending bad backlinks to their competitors.
Bottom-line
The Panda and Penguin adjustments, which focused on quality backlinks and content, have finally made cheating your backlink strategy difficult. Backlinks aren't all created equal, so you'll want to get rid of any that could hurt your Lawyer SEO.
You should keep an eye on your backlink profile on a frequent basis, as bad backlinks can hurt your website, audience, and ROI.
You may utilize the above strategies to increase your backlink profile and, as a result, boost your Lawyer SEO, retain your ranks, and prevent search engine penalties.
The SEO Experts At LawyerLeadMachine Can Help You
LLM is a digital marketing agency for attorneys that can help you with law firm search engine marketing, local SEO for attorneys, content marketing for lawyers, and GMB management.
Lawyer SEO improves traffic on your firm's website. Auditing and regular optimization make sure you maintain that traffic. To have a Lawyer SEO expert help your law firm's marketing efforts, review your options here.
