Google's John Mueller has once again slammed the “toxic link concept,” posting on Reddit that “the concept of toxic links is created by SEO tools that users have to pay for on a regular basis.” As you know, John is not a fan of link selling, buying, and removal services (including tools that tell you which links to remove).
This new thread on Reddit asks whether links should be disavowed even without manual action, claiming that a large number of links are “toxic.” The question posed is:
I know it's been said before that you shouldn't disavow until you've received a manual penalty, but we have sites that are about a year old, in 6-8DR depending on where you look.
There are a ton of toxic backlinks – 25% are toxic and 50% are potentially toxic according to Semrush – and almost all of them link to images, which seems odd.
We're in a very competitive field, so I'm a bit worried that it might be a competitor ordering a ton of spammy links, but I don't want to hurt the authority of the site by disavowing half the domains that link to us (if Google is ok with that).
I would be grateful for any advice, preferably with a long term perspective, in general. Thanks in advance.
John responded: “The concept of a toxic link was created by SEO tools, and you have to pay for it periodically.” Update: John later edited this response to write, “Nothing's changed here. You can still save yourself some effort.”
Now, this is nothing new for John. He's no fan of these tools and services. In February, he slammed agencies that sell disavow services. Also in February, he said that disavowing these links won't help your rankings. Earlier this month, Google's John Mueller stated in strongly worded terms that Google will one day remove the Disavow Links tool.
In fact, Google has repeatedly told SEOs not to use the link disavow tool. Despite repeatedly telling you not to disavow, in some cases, disavowing can do more harm than good. Google has even harshly criticized agencies that sell disavow services. Not long ago, Google also told you to ignore the toxic link reports, saying that disavowing based on third-party metrics is not a good idea.
Discussion on Reddit forum.