Over on Twitter, John Mueller was asked about bad and toxic links.
One SEO professional asked him: Suppose a bad or toxic linking site or backlink is stopped/down/404.
Should they still consider it for disavowing?
John explained that the concept of toxic links is something that’s made up by SEO tools. He would just ignore it, and perhaps move on to more serious tools.
The SEO professional also asked: old links which have a higher spam score than DA or toxic link—which one should they consider?
John then expounded that: “Google doesn’t use the SEO tool’s spam score, DA, nor toxic links. These are all things which distract you from making awesome sites. Focus your energy.”
A number of SEO professionals also weighed in, including Dr. Marie Haynes, backing up John Mueller’s information:
The concept of toxic links is something that's made up by SEO tools — I'd just ignore it, and perhaps move on to more serious tools.
— 🐝 johnmu.xml (personal) 🐝 (@JohnMu) June 6, 2022
Google doesn't use the SEO tool's spam score, DA, nor toxic links. These are all things which distract you from making awesome sites. Focus your energy.
— 🐝 johnmu.xml (personal) 🐝 (@JohnMu) June 6, 2022
If I may add to this…John's right…most sites don't need to worry about "toxic" links. However, if you have links that point to 404 pages, those links don't pass signals, so there would be no need to disavow anyway.
— Dr. Marie Haynes🐧 (@Marie_Haynes) June 6, 2022
Actually, the idea of toxic links started with Google's "bad neighborhood" stuff in the days of Matt – the first time links to you could hurt you, and Google's old wording changed ("Links to you can help but never hurt" wording)
— Ammon Johns♞ (@Ammon_Johns) June 6, 2022
I'm one of the people who popularized the phrase "toxic links". I only intended it to refer to links that were proven to have led to a penalty (manual action). John is right: ignore the SEO tools.
— SEO-Theory.Com (@seo_theory) June 6, 2022
