Toxic backlinks is a term from SEO tools for incoming links judged harmful to a site, for example links from spam sites or link networks. Google’s documentation does not use the word. It refers to “spammy, artificial, or low-quality links”.
How toxicity is scored
Tools such as Semrush or SE Ranking calculate a score from several signals. The score is the vendor’s estimate and does not replace a manual review of the linking pages.
When to use the disavow tool
Google says to disavow only if a considerable number of such links point to your site and they have caused a manual action or likely will. Google calls it an advanced feature that can harm performance if used incorrectly. After an upload it can take a few weeks until Google takes the list into account.
Example
A disavow file is a text file with one URL or domain per line. Comments start with #, and a domain is written with the domain: prefix.
# spam network, no reply to removal request on 12 Sep
domain:spam-links.example
https://blog.example/comment-page-17
Sources
- Disavow links to your site – Search Console Helpsupport.google.com
- Spam policies for Google web search – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
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