Is Your Website Being Penalised by Bad Backlinks? Here's How to Check

Your website used to rank reasonably well. You might not have been on page one for everything, but you were visible. Then something changed. Your rankings dropped. Traffic declined. And you have no idea why.

Before you blame Google algorithm updates or increased competition, there's a critical question you need to answer: have you built (or paid someone to build) backlinks to your website?

If the answer is yes, there's a real possibility that those links are actively harming your rankings rather than helping them. Google's algorithm has become sophisticated at identifying manipulative link building, and websites with toxic backlink profiles face serious penalties that can devastate their search visibility.

At Lucid Media, we regularly audit websites for New Zealand businesses and discover backlink profiles filled with spammy, low-quality links from previous SEO campaigns. These businesses paid for "SEO services" that promised quick rankings but delivered long-term damage. Let's walk through how to identify whether bad backlinks are hurting your website and what to do about it.

Understanding Google's View on Backlinks

Backlinks—links from other websites pointing to yours—remain one of Google's most important ranking signals. In principle, they work like votes of confidence: if reputable websites link to you, it suggests your content is valuable and trustworthy.

But here's where it gets complicated. Not all backlinks are created equal, and Google's algorithm has evolved to distinguish between:

Natural, editorial links: Someone genuinely found your content valuable and linked to it

Manipulative, artificial links: Links you paid for, created yourself, or obtained through schemes specifically to manipulate rankings

For years, SEO agencies exploited this system by mass-producing backlinks through:

• Private blog networks (PBNs)
• Link exchanges and reciprocal linking schemes
• Paid directory submissions to low-quality sites
• Comment spam across blogs and forums
• Article directories with keyword-stuffed anchor text
• Guest posting on irrelevant, low-quality sites

These tactics worked for a while. Then Google got smarter. Now, these same tactics don't just fail to help—they actively trigger penalties that can completely tank your rankings or even remove you from search results entirely.

The Two Types of Google Penalties

When Google identifies manipulative link building, they respond with penalties. Understanding the difference is crucial:

Manual Penalties

Google's human review team manually penalises your site for violating their guidelines.

How you know:

• You receive a notification in Google Search Console
• The message explicitly states the violation (usually "unnatural links")
• Your rankings drop suddenly and significantly

How to fix:

• Clean up the bad links
• Submit a reconsideration request explaining what you've done
• Wait for Google to review (can take weeks or months)

Algorithmic Penalties

Google's algorithm automatically devalues your site based on detected patterns.

How you know:

• No notification in Search Console
• Rankings drop after algorithm updates
• Decline is often gradual rather than sudden
• No explicit communication from Google

How to fix:

• Identify and remove toxic links
• Build quality links to balance your profile
• Wait for Google to recrawl and reassess your site
• Recovery can take months

The tricky part about algorithmic penalties is that you won't receive clear confirmation. You have to identify the problem through analysis rather than notification.

Warning Signs Your Backlinks Might Be Hurting You

1. You Hired a Cheap SEO Service

If you paid for SEO services that promised "1,000 backlinks per month" or guaranteed "page one rankings in 30 days," there's a strong probability those links are toxic.

Legitimate link building is time-consuming and expensive because it requires creating valuable content and building genuine relationships. Services offering thousands of backlinks for a few hundred dollars are using automation and spam tactics that violate Google's guidelines.

2. You've Experienced Sudden Ranking Drops

If your rankings suddenly plummeted after an algorithm update (particularly Penguin updates, which specifically target link manipulation), your backlink profile is a likely culprit.

Check the timing of your ranking declines against known algorithm update dates. If they align, you're probably dealing with a link-related penalty.

3. You Have Links from Irrelevant Sites

If you run a plumbing business in Auckland, why would you have backlinks from:

• Russian pharmacy websites
• Gambling sites in foreign languages
• Generic blog networks with no clear topic
• Adult content websites

Irrelevant, off-topic links are a clear signal of manipulation. Natural links come from related industries, local directories, relevant blogs, and sites with topical connection to yours.

4. Your Anchor Text Profile Looks Unnatural

Anchor text is the clickable text in a link. Natural anchor text varies widely:

• Your brand name
• Your website URL
• Generic phrases like "click here" or "read more"
• Descriptive phrases that happen to include keywords

Unnatural anchor text is repetitive and obviously optimised:

• "Emergency plumber Auckland" used in 80% of links
• Exact match keywords with no variation
• Commercial terms with no branded or generic anchors

Google expects variety. If your anchor text profile is dominated by exact-match keywords, it's a red flag.

5. You Have Links from Low-Quality Directories

Legitimate business directories (Google Business, Yellow Pages, industry associations) are fine. But if you have hundreds of links from sketchy directories with names like "Best Links Directory 2024" or "Submit Your Link Free," that's a problem.

Low-quality directories exist solely to manipulate search rankings. They provide no real value to visitors and Google knows it.

How to Audit Your Backlink Profile

You can't fix what you can't see. Here's how to systematically audit your backlinks:

Step 1: Access Your Backlink Data

Google Search Console (Free):

• Log into Search Console
• Go to "Links" in the sidebar
• Review "Top linking sites" and "Top linking text"

This gives you a basic overview but doesn't provide comprehensive data.

Third-Party Tools (Paid):

• Ahrefs
• SEMrush
• Moz
• Majestic

These tools provide much more detailed backlink data, including metrics like domain authority, spam scores, and historical link acquisition patterns.

Step 2: Evaluate Individual Links

For each significant linking domain, ask:

Is this site relevant to your industry? A link from a local business association or industry blog is good. A link from a random foreign website about pharmaceuticals is bad.

Is this a real website with real content? Visit the linking page. Is it a genuine website with actual content and visitors? Or is it clearly a spam site with auto-generated content?

Would a human ever actually find and follow this link? If the linking page exists solely to host links with no other purpose, it's not a natural link.

Does the anchor text make sense in context? Natural links use anchor text that fits the surrounding content. Artificial links have awkwardly inserted keywords.

Step 3: Calculate Your Toxic Link Ratio

Not every link needs to be perfect. All websites accumulate some questionable links naturally. The question is proportion.

If 5% of your backlinks are from low-quality sources, that's probably fine. If 50% are toxic, you have a serious problem.

Look for patterns:

• Large numbers of links acquired in a short time period
• Links from the same group of domains
• Links with identical or very similar anchor text
• Links from known spam networks

Step 4: Identify Your Most Toxic Links

Prioritise links that are: