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What Are Unnatural Links?

Unnatural links are inbound or outbound links created primarily to manipulate a website’s organic search rankings.

These links may be bought, swapped, or artificially built to make a site appear more authoritative than it truly is. In most cases, they offer no real benefit to users and exist only to influence search engines.

Because search engines aim to deliver accurate and valuable results, they penalize websites that rely on manipulative linking practices to gain visibility.

For example, imagine you search for “best pizza in NYC.” You click one of the top organic results and see this:

“The best pizza in NYC is found in pizzerias across the city. New York has a long history of outstanding pizza production.”

Although the keyword appears in the content, it doesn’t actually help you find the best pizza to order. The keyword placement and outbound links to authority sites like nyc.gov may simply be tactics to rank higher.

This type of manipulation is known as link spam.

Google considers links a key ranking factor. Any link meant to influence search rankings unnaturally—whether pointing to your site or from your site—can be classified as link spam.

How Unnatural Links Affect SEO

Unnatural links can seriously damage your SEO performance. Since Google evaluates link quality when ranking websites, low-quality or manipulative links can lower your positions in search results.

When rankings drop, visibility declines. Reduced visibility makes it harder for users to find your content, which often leads to decreased organic traffic.

For instance, a website that had been running for six years received an unnatural links warning on April 1, 2023. The penalty had significant consequences.

Organic traffic dropped from 238,759 visits in March 2023 to just 23,268 in April 2023.

Keyword rankings also suffered. More than 1,400 keywords that previously ranked in the top three positions fell to only 113 after the manual action.

Failing to monitor the quality of your backlinks can put your website at similar risk.

Unnatural Links and Google Penalties

Google outlines linking rules in its spam policies to maintain content quality and user trust. Violating these rules can result in a manual action.

It’s called a manual action because Google’s team personally reviews websites suspected of unnatural linking.

Google penalizes websites that use manipulative link tactics solely to improve rankings. If a manual action is applied, some or all of the site may stop appearing in search results.

This can mean lower rankings—or complete removal from Google’s index.

When reviewing unnatural links, Google focuses on link quality. The age of a link doesn’t matter, so older bad links can still cause harm.

Google also doesn’t factor in domain authority or PageRank when issuing manual actions. Even reputable websites can receive warnings if they violate linking guidelines.

Google’s Link Spam Update

In December 2022, Google rolled out a link spam update to reduce the impact of unnatural links in search results.

This update relies on SpamBrain, an AI-powered spam detection system that Google has refined since 2018. SpamBrain identifies both direct and indirect spam at scale.

It can:

• Detect websites that purchase backlinks
• Identify sites that pass excessive unverified outbound links

Google stated that its algorithms and manual actions aim to neutralize unnatural links at scale and will continue improving detection.

Since then, Google has released multiple core updates throughout 2023. As detection systems improve, the risks of using unnatural links increase significantly.

Common Types of Unnatural Links

Below are seven types of unnatural links you should avoid.

1. Blog Comment and Forum Spam

Posting comments or forum threads on other websites purely to promote your site can be considered unnatural linking.

Spammy user-generated content that includes promotional links may harm your link profile.

2. Spam Business Listings

Fake or misleading business profiles that use keyword stuffing, incorrect addresses, or other deceptive tactics can create unnatural links.

If you discover a fraudulent listing associated with your business, take steps to remove it. Otherwise, it may damage your brand’s credibility.

3. Low-Quality Directories

Generic directories that promise ranking improvements often contain hidden or low-value links that signal spam.

Warning signs of poor-quality directories include:

• Accepting every submission without review
• Poor usability or navigation
• Lack of HTTPS security

Instead, focus on reputable directories like Google Business Profile, Reddit, or Yelp, and relevant industry-specific platforms.

4. Link Exchanges

A link exchange occurs when two websites agree to link to each other.

Google views this practice as manipulative when done purely to influence rankings—especially in large-scale exchanges involving unrelated websites.

Since Google values contextual relevance, links between unrelated industries may raise red flags.

If a link is part of a sponsored arrangement or guest post, use attributes like rel=”sponsored” or rel=”nofollow” to clarify the relationship.

5. Low-Quality Private Blog Networks (PBNs)

PBNs are networks of websites that sell backlinks to boost rankings.

Although they may provide short-term gains, Google’s algorithms are designed to detect such schemes.

Using PBNs can result in penalties or even complete de-indexing. Avoid services that offer paid backlink packages from private networks.

6. Sitewide Links

Sitewide links appear on every page of a website, often in headers or footers.

While navigation links are normal and useful, excessive or irrelevant sitewide links can make a website appear spammy.

Google does not automatically treat sitewide links as unnatural if they are organic and helpful. However, too many can clutter a page and overwhelm visitors.

Use them thoughtfully, primarily for navigation purposes.

7. Automatically Generated Links

Spammers may create automated backlinks to damage your website’s credibility.

To protect your site, strengthen your security measures and monitor suspicious link activity. Otherwise, you risk facing penalties related to link spam.

How to Identify Unnatural Links

You can detect harmful backlinks using tools like Semrush’s Backlink Audit Tool.

Set Up a Backlink Audit

Log in to Semrush and select Backlink Audit. Enter your domain and create a project if necessary.

Choose your audit scope—typically the root domain—and adjust optional settings like:

• Brand name tracking
• Domain categories
• Target countries

Start the audit and wait for the report to generate.

Evaluate Link Quality

Backlink Audit categorizes links as toxic, potentially toxic, or non-toxic.

It also provides an Overall Toxicity Score based on the percentage of harmful backlinks.

Websites with:

• 10% or more toxic links are considered highly toxic
• 3%–9% are moderately toxic
• Less than 3% have low toxicity

You can review toxic links in detail within the Audit section.

Detect Suspicious Patterns

Google looks for unnatural patterns such as repeated anchor text, PBN links, directory spam, or excessive comment links.

The tool flags suspicious anchors, authority scores, and toxicity scores.

You can classify backlinks into:

• Whitelist
• Remove
• Disavow

Running monthly audits helps maintain a healthy link profile.

How to Remove Unnatural Links

Once you identify harmful links, you can either remove or disavow them.

Contact Website Owners

Reach out to the webmaster and request link removal.

You can:

• Use the site’s contact page
• Check Whois records for contact details

Provide clear information, including screenshots and exact URLs. Follow up if necessary.

Semrush also allows you to move selected links to a “Remove” list and send outreach emails directly from the tool.

Track progress using status labels such as Not sent, Sent, Opened, and Replied.

Use Google’s Disavow Tool

If removal isn’t possible, use Google’s Disavow Links tool.

Disavowing tells Google to ignore specific backlinks when evaluating your site.

Only use this option when necessary.

Prepare a .txt file listing unwanted URLs and upload it through the Disavow tool in Google Search Console.

Semrush can help you generate this file, but you must manually upload it to Google.

Remember: each property can have only one disavow file, so update and re-upload it whenever needed.

Best Practices for Natural Link Building

Cleaning up unnatural links is only part of maintaining a strong backlink profile.

Focus on ethical link-building strategies such as:

• Outreach to relevant websites and influencers
• Positioning your brand as a trusted source for journalists
• Replacing broken links with your content
• Creating valuable resources like research, guides, and infographics
• Converting unlinked brand mentions into backlinks
• Studying competitors’ legitimate backlink strategies

Strengthen Your Backlink Profile

Google rarely provides specific examples when issuing unnatural link warnings.

Tools like Backlink Audit can quickly identify toxic backlinks that may trigger penalties.

Combined with a Link Building Tool, you can uncover new backlink opportunities, manage outreach, and monitor newly acquired links—helping you build a sustainable and penalty-free SEO strategy.

FAQs

1. What are unnatural links in SEO?

Unnatural links are backlinks that are created to manipulate search engine rankings rather than provide real value to users. These links often come from spammy websites, paid link schemes, link farms, or irrelevant directories.

Search engines like Google consider unnatural links a violation of their spam policies.

2. How do unnatural links affect rankings?

Unnatural links can:

• Trigger algorithmic penalties
• Cause ranking drops
• Reduce domain trust
• Lead to manual actions

In severe cases, websites may be partially or completely deindexed.

3. What is a Google manual action for unnatural links?

A manual action occurs when the webspam team at Google reviews your website and determines that it violates link guidelines. You’ll receive a notification inside Google Search Console explaining the issue.

4. How can you identify unnatural backlinks?

You can identify suspicious links by analyzing:

• Low domain authority sites
• Irrelevant niche websites
• Over-optimized anchor text
• Spammy foreign domains
• Paid or sitewide footer links

SEO tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush help audit backlink profiles.

5. What is the Google Disavow Tool?

The Disavow Tool is a feature provided by Google that allows website owners to ask Google to ignore specific backlinks when evaluating their site. It should only be used when harmful links cannot be removed manually.

6. Should you always disavow unnatural links?

Not always. Google’s algorithms can ignore many low-quality links automatically. You should consider disavowing only if:

• You have a manual penalty
• You’ve engaged in link schemes
• You see a significant ranking drop linked to toxic backlinks

7. How do you clean up your link profile?

Steps include:

1. Conduct a backlink audit
2. Identify toxic links
3. Request removal from site owners
4. Create and upload a disavow file (if necessary)
5. Monitor performance improvements

8. What is over-optimized anchor text?

Over-optimized anchor text is when too many backlinks use exact-match keywords unnaturally. A natural link profile includes:

• Branded anchors
• Generic anchors (“click here”)
• Partial match keywords
• Naked URLs

9. How long does it take to recover from unnatural links?

Recovery time varies:

• Algorithmic issues → A few weeks to months
• Manual actions → After reconsideration request approval

Consistent cleanup and monitoring are essential.

10. Can competitors create unnatural links to harm your site?

This is known as negative SEO. While rare, it can happen. Fortunately, Google claims its systems are designed to ignore most spammy links automatically.

11. What is the difference between toxic and unnatural links?

• Unnatural links → Intentionally created to manipulate rankings
• Toxic links → Links that may harm your site’s authority

All unnatural links are risky, but not all low-quality links are intentionally manipulative.

12. How often should you audit your backlink profile?

It’s recommended to:

• Audit quarterly for stable sites
• Audit monthly for competitive industries
• Monitor continuously if you’ve had past penalties

Regular monitoring helps maintain a healthy link profile.