How we reduced a high toxic backlinks score from 78 to 3

Love Bombed by Spammy Backlinks!  An SEO Survival Tale of how I reduced a Semrush high toxic backlinks score from 78 to 3

Let me tell y’all a lil’ tale of digital despair—one fraught with toxic relationships, messy breakups, restraining orders (aka disavows), and… the ultimate redemption. (Also known as: cleaning up a backlink profile.)

It started with a routine SEMrush website audit. Just a little check-in. A wellness visit, if you will.
But instead of a clean bill of SEO health, the report came back like a plot twist no one saw coming—
a cold, ruthless number delivered with the subtlety of a slap across the face at a dinner party.

Toxicity Score: 78.

SEVENTY.   EIGHT.

I gasped.
Somewhere, a glass shattered.

This wasn’t a metric—it was a betrayal.
A SCANDAL!
The kind of revelation that makes you let out a gasp only dogs can hear as you dramatically remove your blue-light glasses in stunned silence.

Stage 1: Denial

“This must be a mistake,” I whispered furiously, clutching my mouse like a rosary, blinking at the screen incredulously!!

“Surely these links are helping, right? I mean… backlinks are good, aren’t they? ”

I refreshed the page. Then again.
Hard-cleared my cache, history, cookies—possibly my soul.

Surely SEMrush was just being dramatic. A glitch. A false positive.  A cry for attention.

But no….
There it was.  78.  It was consistent. Ruthless. Utterly unbothered by my descent into helplessness.

Like a cold, robotic friend delivering brutal honesty with deadpan calm:

“I’m just telling you the truth. Do with it what you will.”

Bold. Red. Judgy.

SEVENTY.   EIGHT.

Stage 2: The Awakening…  Backlinks:  The good, the bad, and the unattainable.

Well, Turns out…. not all backlinks are created equal. Some are actually spammy! (Who’d a thought?)  🤔

Some are ridiculous and irrelevant, like that desperate but overconfident Tinder date who shows up uninvited six months later at your grandma’s birthday party—unhinged, unwanted, still wearing that same old spice cologne ….  and definitely not helping your reputation.

Some of these “backlinks” love bombed my domain years ago, whispered sweet nothings in my ranking report, then ghosted me …leaving behind a toxic residue and broken trust.

A shocking number were in languages I obviously couldn’t read…
because nothing screams local Wisconsin business like a link from a Russian adult toy directory.  Oh yea baby!

But then… There are “the others.”
The backlinks you don’t even dare speak of aloud. Those with pristine domain authority, hundreds of thousands of organic traffic, and a homepage placement that practically glows.

These are the Henry Cavills of backlinks. The JFK Jrs of off-page SEO.

Elegant. Elusive. Verified.

You don’t cold-email them.  You don’t even bother approaching for an autograph.
They come to you.  They show up because you were quoted in The New York Times or featured on Joe Rogan podcast as the attributed expert.

You don’t “build” these backlinks. You earn them.
They arrive like divine blessings—algorithmic miracles bestowed upon the worthy.

And if you’re lucky enough to get one? You screenshot it. You frame it. Then drop it into a LinkedIn post with a hint of modesty and just the right amount of “So this happened…” energy.

You might be scratching your head at this point, thinking, “Wait… what even IS a backlink?” 

What Is a Backlink (…and Why Should I Care)?

In simple terms, a backlink is just a link from another website that points to yours. Think of it like a digital shoutout from another website… someone saying, “Hey, check this site out!”

Sometimes these shoutouts come from trusted, high-authority sites —think respected blogs, news outlets, or industry leaders (remember the pristine backlinks I mentioned earlier? That’s the kind). Those are the golden ones! They boost your credibility, signal to Google that your site is legit, and help you climb the rankings. It’s like being recommended by Oprah. You don’t question it, you feel honored and suddenly very visible.

But other times… those shoutouts come from sketchy, irrelevant, or downright spammy sites. It’s the SEO equivalent of being name-dropped by a guy yelling on a street corner in a trench coat, drinking from a bottle in a paper bag.

Google sees it, raises an eyebrow, and starts to wonder what kind of company you keep.

That’s why cleaning up your backlink profile isn’t just technical…it’s personal and MANDATORY. It’s reputation management for your domain.  Because, oh boy…those backlinks DO matter in SEO!

Stage 3: Anger and the Rage-Clicking

Armed with the SEMrush Backlink Audit Tool, I did what any rational person would do: I clicked every single. toxic. domain. With the energy of someone re-reading texts from a narcissistic ex, half curious, half horrified, fully spiraling.

Every click led to another digital red flag: broken sites, foreign directories, weird subdomains selling SEO potions and dream interpretations.

I wasn’t just cleaning up a profile—I was reliving every bad decision made in the name of “exposure.”

Some had names like “super-pbn-network.info” or “the-best-seo-links.biz.” Others looked like they were cobbled together in 2007 by a sleep-deprived bot with commitment issues.

It was clear: They Love-Bombed me, but good!!!  They came in strong, promising to boost my visibility, and left me penalized, ostracized by Google, and yes…. emotionally fragile.

Stage 4: Filing for a Digital Restraining Order

Enter the Disavow Tool. 
This is where you politely (but firmly) tell Google, “Hey, I know this shady backlink exists, but I’d really appreciate it if you could pretend we never even knew each other.”

SEMrush made this step pretty painless. I filtered all the toxic domains, exported the list, formatted it according to Google’s rules (a tidy little TXT file containing every bad actor I was ready to disavow), and submitted it through Google’s Disavow Tool in Search Console, just like I would file court papers.

Restraining order: GRANTED.

It felt like building a case—each spammy link, another piece of evidence in a very messy digital custody battle.
Google was the judge, and I was the emotionally exhausted plaintiff, saying,

“Your Honor, these backlinks are unstable, unpredictable, and a threat to the integrity of my domain. I’m requesting full custody of my SEO—effective immediately.”

I didn’t even want alimony—just peace, clarity, and maybe a few clean links that respected my boundaries.

Was it dramatic? Yes.
Was it necessary? Absolutely.
Did I fantasize about showing up to Link Court in a Turquoise Pantsuit with a USB full of screenshots?

You already know I did.

Note: You will doubt yourself. You’ll worry that you’re cutting ties with someone who just needed a little attention.

But trust me: you’re doing the right thing. You can’t fix toxic.

Stage 5:  Acceptance and Saying goodbye to old friends.

Then came the sites I didn’t want to disavow:  client sites I once loved, old portfolio pieces that once made me proud, or well-meaning directory listings that didn’t age well (looking at you, “top-business-links.biz”).

These weren’t malicious. They weren’t spammy on purpose. They were the digital equivalent of that high school friend who means well but still forwards you chain emails and uses Comic Sans unironically. Bless them, but I couldn’t let them tank my reputation.

So I took a breath, opened up the code, and gently added the line of code that every link dreads:  rel=”nofollow”

This part took hours. I scoured footers, widget areas, and Frankenstein codebases I hadn’t touched since Obama was in office. But each one made the weight feel lighter.

“It’s not you”, I whispered with each firm keystroke. “It’s my domain authority.”

I wasn’t cutting them off completely. We could still be friends… but….. they could no longer affect my algorithmic self-worth.

The whole thing felt oddly personal. Like saying,

“I’ll always appreciate what we had… but please don’t talk to Google about me ever again.”

Stage 6: Redemption – Watching the Toxicity Drop Like a Hot Rock!

Slowly but surely, the SEMrush graph started to shift.   

→ The red bar of shame? Melting away like dignity on reality TV.
→ The orange “maybe still friends” zone? Disappearing like that awkward “we should catch up sometime” wave while already walking away…

→ And the green—oh, the glorious green “non-toxic” bar?

Glowing. Thriving. Emotionally available.

It didn’t just exist—it had main-character energy. It made eye contact and said, “You deserve better backlinks.”

When the toxicity score dropped to 3, I didn’t just smile, I shrieked and I leapt for joy!

Like full-body, feet-off-the-ground, Snoopy-dancing-in-the-yard kind of joy, arms flailing, head back, soul light. (okay, okay…. there may have been Jazz Hands)
I was two seconds from building a little animated stage and hiring Woodstock and his piano as my SEO hype man.

Because in that moment, it wasn’t just a score.

It was proof that all the digging, formatting, disavowing, nofollowing, muttering at spammy domains under my breath—it had worked.  I had fought the bots. I had filed the digital restraining orders. I had pulled myself out of the algorithmic gutter…

I went from red-flagged to Google-approved.

From toxic to sparkling clean.  From buried in spam to strutting through the SERPs like a slow-motion makeover montage “Beyoncé walking away from the wreckage – look who’s thriving now” ….unbothered, flawless, and in full control of the narrative.

The Lessons I Took with Me (and Will Absolutely Overshare Online)

1. Not all backlinks are good backlinks. Some are manipulative, clingy, or straight-up scammers pretending to support you while ruining your rep. If you don’t maintain your profile, the algorithm will assume you’re fine with the chaos. Keep an eye on this on a weekly basis; you can’t allow the scammers in.

2. Don’t ghost your own domain. Be Vigilant.  If something seems off and your rankings start slipping, find out why. It could be a few too many toxic backlinks (and you probably didn’t even know there was such a thing.)

3.  Disavowing is self-care. Boundaries matter—even in your backlink profile.

4.  “Nofollow” is your SEO friend zone. It’s not cutting ties—it’s clarifying the relationship.

Final Thoughts: Detoxing Your Digital Love Life

Managing your backlink profile isn’t glamorous. It’s emotional (and manual) labor.

Did it take 3 days of angst, sweat, multiple loud profanities, and gritted teeth?

Yes…  But like finally blocking that one guy who still likes your Instagram stories after three years—it’s necessary.

When you clean up the mess, remove the toxic ties, and set new standards, that’s when your site gets seen for what it really is: relevant, credible, and worth ranking.  If you’re looking for proactive ways to build a cleaner, stronger backlink profile moving forward, Outreach Monks outlines great link-building strategies you can combine with your detoxed domain.

Wondering why you’re showing up on page 3 instead of page 1?   

As Taylor Swift sings in “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me”….  YOU SHOULD BE!!!  YOU SHOULD BE!!

Maybe you just need a little help detoxing your backlink history…  and that’s where I come in.

At Accent Graphix, we don’t just build beautiful, user-friendly, searchable websites …we help keep them clean, optimized, and Google-friendly. If your SEO is feeling a little codependent, we’re here for the digital breakup you didn’t know you needed.

Let’s Chat – Because Your Website Deserves Better.