Backlink Fixes: Clean Up, Reclaim, Then Earn
A backlink is a link from another website to yours. Search engines still treat links as a sign that others find a page worth pointing to, which makes your link profile one of the main signals outside your own site.
The Backlink Tools pull your live link profile, score each link for quality and toxicity, find links you have lost and links that point to broken pages, and compare your referring domains and anchor text with competitors. This page explains every finding, which ones deserve action, which are safe to ignore, and the guides for cleaning up and earning better links.
What a healthy link profile looks like
There is no ideal number of links and no official formula for how they should be mixed. Healthy profiles share a few traits instead: links come from a variety of real sites, many of them relevant to your subject; they grow gradually as the business does; and the words used to link to you mostly look like things people would naturally write, such as your brand name, your web address or a description of the page.
The findings the tools raise are departures from that picture. Some point to lost value you can recover quickly. Others point to patterns that look manufactured. A few are simply comparisons with competitors that show where there is room to grow.
| Finding | Kind of problem | Typical effort |
|---|---|---|
| Broken inbound links | Value lost on your side | Low: redirects. |
| Lost backlinks | Value lost on the other site | Low to medium: outreach. |
| Toxic links and disavow | Risk from manipulative patterns | Medium: review and judgement. |
| Anchor text, nofollow ratio, velocity | Patterns that look unnatural | Diagnose first; often no action. |
| Referring-domain gap | Opportunity compared with competitors | High: ongoing link earning. |
The guides for each finding
Recovering value you already earned
Fixing broken inbound links covers links pointing to URLs on your site that now return 404, and how to restore the page, add a 301 redirect to the closest equivalent, or ask the linking site to update, including bulk redirects after a migration. Fixing lost backlinks covers links that have disappeared from the other site, why that happens, and how to prioritise and word a reclamation request.
Dealing with risky links
Fixing toxic or spammy backlinks covers link farms, private blog networks, scraped copies and comment spam, and a decision path between ignoring, asking for removal and disavowing. Fixing or building a disavow file covers when a disavow is appropriate, the file format, domain versus URL entries, submission in Search Console and the mistake of disavowing good links.
Reading patterns
Fixing anchor text distribution covers profiles dominated by exact-match keyword anchors, which can look engineered, and how to let the mix become more natural. Fixing an unnatural nofollow ratio covers profiles that are almost entirely followed or almost entirely nofollow, and what each can indicate. Fixing unnatural link velocity covers sudden spikes or drops in new links and how to tell a successful campaign from an attack.
Growing the profile
Fixing a referring-domain gap covers using competitor overlap to find sites that link to several competitors but not you. Three guides cover ways of earning links: content and digital PR, with original research and expert comment; outreach, including broken-link building, resource pages and guest contributions done properly; and tools and assets such as calculators, templates and datasets people want to reference.
Which findings to fix first
- A manual action for unnatural links. If Search Console's Manual actions report shows one, it overrides everything else. Remove or disavow the links involved and file a reconsideration request explaining what you did.
- Broken inbound links. The cheapest win in link work: the links already exist, and a redirect on your own server restores their value.
- Lost links from strong, relevant sites. Worth a personal message, especially when the loss came from a redesign on their side.
- Clear spam patterns you created. If an agency or previous owner bought links or built networks, deal with them before they cause a problem.
- Referring-domain gap. The long game. Start once the clean-up is done so new links are not diluted by old problems.
- Anchor text, nofollow and velocity patterns. Investigate, but act only if the investigation shows manipulation.
rel="sponsored"
or rel="nofollow".Toxic links without the panic
Toxicity scores are the finding most likely to cause unnecessary worry. Every site that has been online for a while collects junk links from scrapers, auto-generated directories and spam sites it has never heard of. Google has said for years that its systems ignore most of these automatically, and that most sites do not need to use the disavow tool.
That makes the question not "are there bad links?" but "is there a pattern that could look like I tried to manipulate rankings?" Signs that it might:
- Many links with the same keyword-rich anchor text pointing to money pages.
- Links from networks of sites that share design, hosting or content and exist mainly to link out.
- Paid articles or placements without
rel="sponsored". - A known history of link buying by the site's previous owners or agencies.
If none of those apply, recording the finding and moving on is usually the right call. If they do, the toxic backlinks and disavow guides explain how to act without throwing away good links along with bad ones.
Anchors, nofollow and velocity
The same thinking applies to pattern findings. A profile dominated by brand and URL anchors is normal.
A spike in new links after press coverage or a viral post is normal. Nofollow links from social platforms,
forums and news sites are normal too; Google treats nofollow, sponsored and
ugc as hints rather than strict rules. Investigate the cause of an odd pattern before changing
anything.
Earning links that last
Clean-up protects what you have. Growth comes from giving other sites a reason to link. The approaches that hold up are the ones where the link would exist even if search engines did not count links:
- Original information. Surveys, data from your own work, local figures or a useful analysis that journalists and bloggers can quote.
- Expert comment. Answering journalists' requests for sources in your field, through the request services and social channels journalists use.
- Useful tools and resources. A calculator, checklist, template or guide that people in your industry bookmark and share.
- Real relationships. Suppliers, trade bodies, partners, events you sponsor and clubs you support often list or link to businesses they work with.
- Fixing others' broken links. Finding dead links on relevant pages and offering your equivalent resource.
Links to your homepage are only part of the picture. Internal linking spreads the value of external links around your site, which the Internal Links Guide explains.
A sensible order of work
- Run the tools. Use the Backlink Tools with two or three competitors you genuinely compete with in search. Save the results.
- Check Search Console. Look at the Manual actions report and the Links report to confirm what Google itself sees.
- Fix broken inbound links. Export the list of linked URLs returning errors and add 301 redirects to the best matching live pages.
- Reclaim lost links. Start with the most relevant and authoritative sites, and write a short, specific message for each.
- Review toxic links. Decide whether there is a manipulative pattern. Only if there is, prepare a disavow file.
- Look at the referring-domain gap. List sites linking to several competitors but not you, and sort by relevance.
- Choose one earning approach. Content and PR, outreach or a linkable asset, and commit to it for a few months.
- Re-run monthly or quarterly. Watch for new broken links after site changes and for unusual spikes.
1. Do I need to disavow toxic backlinks?
Most sites do not. Google has said its systems ignore most spammy links automatically, and that the disavow tool is mainly for sites that have a manual action for unnatural links or know they have a history of manipulative link building. Disavowing links that were actually helping you can reduce your visibility. Review the links first, look for a clear pattern of paid or network links, and only then consider a carefully prepared disavow file.
2. How do I fix links pointing to pages that no longer exist?
Find the inbound links that point to URLs returning a 404 error, then decide for each URL whether to restore the page, redirect it with a permanent 301 to the closest relevant live page, or ask the linking site to update the link. Redirects are usually the quickest option because they are under your control. Avoid redirecting everything to the homepage, since a redirect to an unrelated page may not pass value as well.
3. What is a good anchor text ratio for backlinks?
There is no official ratio, and figures quoted online are estimates. Natural profiles tend to be led by brand names, web addresses and generic phrases, with a smaller share of links using descriptive keywords. The warning sign is a profile where many links use the same exact keyword phrase, which suggests links were placed rather than earned. You cannot easily change existing anchors, so focus on earning new links naturally and avoid asking for specific keyword anchors.
4. Are nofollow backlinks worth anything?
They can be. Google treats nofollow, sponsored and ugc attributes as hints, so it may still use some of these links in its understanding of the web, although it does not promise to pass ranking credit. More practically, a nofollow link from a popular news article, forum or social post can bring real visitors, brand recognition and further links from people who discover you there. A natural profile usually contains a mix of followed and nofollow links.
5. Why have I lost backlinks from other websites?
Common reasons include the linking page being deleted or redesigned, the site moving to a new domain without redirects, content being updated and the link removed, or the page being set to noindex. Sometimes the link still exists but points to an old URL on your site. Check the page yourself before contacting anyone. For valuable lost links, a short, friendly message explaining what changed and suggesting the correct URL often gets the link restored.
6. How many referring domains do I need to rank?
There is no fixed number. What matters is how your profile compares with the sites ranking for the searches you want, and how relevant and trusted the linking sites are. A small local business may need only a modest number of local and industry links, while competitive national terms can require far more. Comparing referring domains with your real search competitors, as the Backlink Tools do, gives a more useful target than any general figure.
7. Is it safe to buy backlinks?
Buying links that pass ranking credit breaks Google's spam policies and can lead to a manual action or to the links simply being ignored, so the money is often wasted. Paying for advertising, sponsorship or a featured listing is fine if the link is marked with rel sponsored or nofollow. The safer long-term approach is earning links through useful content, expert commentary, genuine partnerships and resources people want to reference, as the acquisition guides explain.
The Backlink Tools pull your live link profile, score each link for quality and toxicity, identify lost and broken inbound links, compare your referring domains and anchor text with competitors, and surface acquisition opportunities, each linked to the guides above.
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