Let\u2019s play word association! What\u2019s the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word \u201cpenguin\u201d?<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re thinking about a cute, flightless bird, then there\u2019s nothing wrong with you, congratulations. But if you immediately thought of link schemes, spam backlinks, and Google penalties, then your tastes are very... singular. Which means that you\u2019re working in SEO! Feel free to be a little proud.<\/p>\n
However, I\u2019ve found out that even if people can distinguish a penguin from Penguin, they often can\u2019t stop spam backlinks from damaging their website. That\u2019s because we\u2019re inclined to think that each new backlink is a good one.<\/p>\n
Sadly, that\u2019s not the case. This is why I want to talk about bad backlinks, how they can hurt your rankings, and what can you do to stop them from doing so.<\/p>\n
I know what you\u2019re thinking. Each time we get a new backlink, we\u2019re making a tiny step towards a better search position. The more, the merrier. Backlinks should be great, right?<\/p>\n
Wrong. Well, at least not exactly right.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the thing. Some backlinks are so nasty that they can throw a shadow on your whole backlink profile<\/a> which you\u2019ve been building for so long. That shadow may eventually lead to a Google penalty.<\/p>\n [bctt tweet=\"Some backlinks are so nasty that they can throw a shadow on your whole backlink profile. That shadow may eventually lead to a Google penalty.\" username=\"\"]<\/p>\n Not all backlinks are created equal. At the back of SEO, there\u2019s a thing called spam backlink<\/a>, which is basically a link to your page placed on a trashy, irrelevant website with some random, ill-fitted anchor text.<\/p>\n Not good for your image, right? That\u2019s what Google thinks of it, too.<\/p>\n
![\"What](\"http:\/\/prowly.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/backlinks-1.png\")
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