In January 2014 , Google's Matt Cutts declared guest posting dead, noting: "So I'll say it: if you're using guest posting as a way to get links in 2014, you should stop. Why? Because over time, it's become increasingly spammy, and if you're doing a lot of guest blogging, you're hanging out with some pretty bad company."
Today, Google's link scheme guide lists the following as a violation of its guidelines:
If you're using guest posting to generate links with anchor text and lots of keywords on sites that have no topical relevance and don't actually offer any value outside of the link, you're earning toxic backlinks as a result.
That said, you could do high-quality guest posting in an industry outlet as an industry expert, writing a column every month.
Since this isn't being done at scale, it's meant to build brand awareness before building links and is topically related.
This is still a valuable tactic.
Links in widgets
If you develop a widget or plugin (say, for WordPress) and distribute it with an embedded link (this used to be common in sidebars all over the web), you are violating Google's Webmaster Guidelines and creating toxic links:
Toxic Backlinks - Widgets
If you did this in the past, it's time to remove these links.
But be careful, there could be tens of thousands of them!
Generation of reciprocal links
While reciprocal link building often happens naturally (two sites linking to each other), if this is done at scale and the links come from largely irrelevant “link pages,” you will end up with a lot of unnatural links as a result.
When you link to a site that links to you, you don't get editorially placed links, sample cell phone number in philippines and it's a tactic you should try to avoid in 2020.
A note on unnatural outbound links
Many people mistakenly assume that they can only be penalized for spammy inbound links, but that is not the case.
You can also be penalized for linking unnaturally to other sites.
For example, when you accept payments for placing links that pass PageRank, for excessive use of anchor text with many keywords, and other reasons.
This excellent guide from Tony Edward at Search Engine Land will give you more information on how to avoid violating Google's guidelines for toxic outbound links.
Every SEO specialist is dedicated to detecting toxic backlinks.
Some do it routinely while others do it after seeing a drop in rankings or after receiving a manual penalty.
I'll show you how to use SEMrush's Backlink Audit tool to discover spammy links pointing to your site.
Step 1: Set up your audit
When it comes to setting up your audit, it is recommended that you scan the root domain (unless you want to specifically scan a subdomain) and specify your brand name.
You will then need to set your target country and category.
The last three points are optional and should be filled out already, but it would be good to review them.