Article updated: 16 Mar 2019
Update Note (December 2018): Google is gradually shutting down good-old Google Webmasters Tools (GWT) console, and replacing it with a shiny new Google Search Console (GSC) tool. Everything in this article essentially stays the same, except to reach new report you must now visit a different URL:
https://search.google.com/search-console/links
After you verify (select) your PROPERTY (“website” or domain in layman terms), in the center section select Top linking sites report (equivalent of old Links to your site section).
More information here in Frequently Asked Questions section.
Recently, our website became a victim of what is known as “backlink bombing“. In SEO terms, this is known as negative blackhat SEO technique aimed to discredit or demote Google PageRank value and credibility of a certain targeted domain.
Google Webmaster Tools – My Website Is Bombed With Backlinks – What To Do?
You can perform regular checks of websites that link to your(s) in your backlinks report with Google Webmasters Tools:
Google Webmasters Tools Search Console > Search Traffic > Links to Your Site
or in new Google Search Console:
Google Search Console > Links > Top linking sites
If you suddenly notice a huge increase in amount of links, usually accompanied with inappropriate anchor text, then your website is definitely a victim of backlink dirty campaign.
What is the best protection to apply in such case? What solution(s) can you implement to protect your asset(s)? Finally, should you be worried? Read to find out.
According to Matthew “Matt” Cutts, software engineer and a prominent former Google employee greatly involved in web spam and linking issues, you have several options at your hand:
OPTION #1:
Ignore the ‘dirty’ links and simply let Google deal with them. Most of the time, they will not do you any harm at all, as Google engineers give their best to determine a detrimental influence of backlinks. Algorithms behind the scene are continuosly evolving and improving, trying to determine which links seems to be genuine, and which ones are artificial, inorganic, paid, promotional, or aimed to destroy competition. And, especially, those links with abnormal counts, as it is often the case with spam links bombing techniques.
OPTION #2:
If you have a reasonably small amount of links that you find offensive, inappropriate or unacceptable in any way, you can try to contact problematic website owners and kindly ask them to remove those links from their website(s). In case that this strategy fails, you have one final option to force link removals from your Google Webmaster console.
OPTION #3: DISAVOW LINKS WITH LINKS / DOMAINS TEXT FILE
- Go to your Google Webmaster Tools console and open the following link: webmasters/tools/disavow-links-main
- Select your domain from the drop-down list and click on red DISAVOW LINKS button:
- Click on another Disavow Links button to acknowledge warning message:
A new popup (modal) window will appear asking you to upload a new file. It must be with a .txt extension, containing one URL or domain syntax per line!
Click Choose File button to select a file from your computer and click Submit to finish upload procedure. Disavowing links is completely automated procedure, and from this point your job is done.
- You can always remove the uploaded file or replace it with an updated version later.
OPTION #4: SEND FEEDBACK REPORT TO GOOGLE TEAM
If you see a detrimental influence to your site’s traffic, you should create a report to Google staff and hope for the best.
In (now abandoned) Google Webmaster Tools:
- Open your GWT console > Select Asset (website) > go to Search Traffic > Links To Your Site
- From there, you should see a HELP drop-down menu, click on it and at the bottom you will see a SEND FEEDBACK menu item. Click on it.
- Automatic screenshot will be generated and you can send a message to Google about spam backlinks and keywords issue.
- After couple of days/weeks, they should be removed. Your website should be back to normal again.
In updated Google Search Console procedure is very similar:
- Open your GSC console > Select Property (website) > go to Links > Top linking sites
- From there, you should see Submit feedback in the left panel menu. Click on it.
- Automatic screenshot will be generated and you can send a message to Google about spam backlinks and keywords issue. Try to position your links so that most offending ones are visible in the generated screenshot, and you should highlight them with yellow-colored select tool.
- After couple of days/weeks, they should be removed. Your website should be back to normal again.
MOST EFFICIENT WAY TO GENERATE YOUR BLACKLISTED BACKLINKS DISAVOW FILE
Google Webmaster Tools allows you to download DOMAINS and LINKS lists in a .csv (comma-separated values) format or store them on your Google Drive.
However, you should be careful here – downloading a complete list of backlinks and going through 50,000+ thousand (update: now it’s over 70,000 – seems to be growing each day!) LINKS manually in our case was a nightmare! Helpful fact is that they are sorted in a natural numeric/alphabetical order (thank goodness!), but it is still very painful (to say at least) to manually revisit each and every one of them!
Google Webmaster Tools – Website Bombed With Backlinks 2 – Above links from various domains usually link to a single URL!
More efficient way is to simply download or directly copy/paste selection of top DOMAINS who link the most of your content, and simply disavow them instead.
Remember earlier that your disavow file must be an ordinary text file (with a common .txt extension)? Now, you can either enter a single URL address per line to be disavowed from your backlinks, or more efficiently – you can disavow entire domains simply by putting this:
domain:example.com
(there is no need to enter http:// or https:// in front)
Here is an example of a valid domain-based disavow file that will block all the links (both old and new links in the future, like some sort of a regex filter):
domain:1000space.tk
domain:1d4.us
domain:890m.com
domain:adr.com.ua
domain:aivili.ru
domain:artmusic-group.ru
domain:as-consultants.ca
domain:baaxi.com
domain:bipvorota.ru
domain:burhanettinuysal.de
domain:city-blog.ru
domain:csdushu.org
domain:cshuke.org
domain:deliaspizzeria.com
domain:domybest.ru
domain:doushulou.org
domain:drzeke.com
domain:ethica.xyz
domain:feishul.org
domain:felmplumbers.com
domain:fmslou.org
domain:gaolengwx.org
domain:gillanbedsets.com
domain:googfen.com
domain:gramaton.ru
domain:gxwxw.org
domain:haoshuge.org
domain:heliqun.org
domain:helloweb.org
domain:hkshuz.org
domain:hol.es
domain:huishuz.org
domain:hypersito.com
domain:hys.cz
domain:iconshut.com
domain:iwebsiteworth.com
domain:jasongregory.biz
domain:jianwenlou.org
domain:jianziw.org
domain:jingcais.org
domain:jishuju.org
domain:jp0.ru
domain:jxwxw.org
domain:jyxwu.org
domain:kajoom.ca
domain:kavkasion.ru
domain:kino-polka.ru
domain:kl.com.ua
domain:kxsla.org
domain:kyshuku.org
domain:lady-area.ru
domain:lyricsby.in
domain:mirra-kosmetik.ru
domain:mmcischarity.ru
domain:mopspb.ru
domain:mp3fri.com
domain:mrt72.ru
domain:mustmake.ru
domain:mydns.jp
domain:mzf.cz
domain:namelesssurveys.com
domain:newstarinvitational.ru
domain:npoelar.ru
domain:phuketmatrioshkatour.ru
domain:pinwenwo.org
domain:pluscentrmedi.ru
domain:potianshu.org
domain:present-vip.ru
domain:primechania.ru
domain:profimedik.ru
domain:psprint.com
domain:qaster.com
domain:qhscun.org
domain:qiangushu.org
domain:qirina.com
domain:qishuyuan5.org
domain:qjslou.org
domain:qushuge.org
domain:rabotanasto.ru
domain:regionsts.ru
domain:richardbakeretc.com
domain:sassycouponoffers.com
domain:sbdushu.org
domain:shilishu.org
domain:shishuge.org
domain:shishuge5.org
domain:shishuge8.org
domain:shumantang.org
domain:shuxianglou.org
domain:shuziguan.org
domain:sibir-agro.ru
domain:siphomoganedi.co.za
domain:siteranklist.com
domain:spektr-gk.ru
domain:stroy-portal36.ru
domain:stxiaoshuo.org
domain:supremecoupongags.com
domain:sv-cs.com
domain:tanshuju.org
domain:tanwenlou.org
domain:tarbozavr3d.ru
domain:tode.cz
domain:transportationinchina.org
domain:ulmamattresses.com
domain:villakurs.ru
domain:wanyebedmattress.com
domain:webstatsdomain.org
domain:weikanshu.org
domain:weiweixs.org
domain:wg23.ru
domain:xfxiaoshuo.org
domain:xianshulou.org
domain:xieshut.org
domain:xiusewx.org
domain:xwdian.org
domain:xxwxw.org
domain:yiduzhai.org
domain:z8.ru
domain:zh0pka.hol.es
domain:zsxsw.org
domain:zsxswu.org
domain:zyxsw.org
domain:zzz.com.ua
CONCLUSION
The main source of confusion and fear that arises in regard to problem with spam backlinks and disavow links tool are kind of a “mixed signals” users / webmasters receive from Google. As you can see in the above YouTube video (now over 3+ years old), there was no penalty if you don’t take manual actions against those websites and kindly ask them to remove your links from them. However, this looks like an impossible effort in case of massive scale campaigns. There is just no way a single-person (administrator or website owner) can go through and sort it out. It’s just pointless.
But, as you can see from the presented screenshots, Google does kind of insist that you first try manual methods:
(FROM GOOGLE) If you believe your site’s ranking is being harmed by low-quality links you do not control, you can ask Google not to take them into account when assessing your site. You should still make every effort to clean up unnatural links pointing to your site. Simply disavowing them isn’t enough.
Read more here: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2648487
Hopefully, our short guide will help you make best decisions and deal with the nasty backlinks and dirty campaigns against your website(s) and assets. Sometimes, they may temporarily have a negative impact, bombing you with dirty unrelated words and what not, but in a long run their effect is fairly limited. Nevertheless, they are taking precious space in your GWT console, being listed on the top, you find it very hard to make sense of the vast amount of data and figure what’s real and what’s not. Usually, those are not hard to recognize, as the amount of links are abnormally high and definitely look unnatural, so you can easily disavow them. They will be listed in the console for some time, though.