Buying backlinks can accelerate rankings—when done correctly. But a bad backlink purchase can do the exact opposite, triggering ranking drops, manual actions, or long-term trust issues with Google. If you’ve found yourself dealing with toxic links from a low-quality provider, it’s essential to act fast.

This guide walks you through how to reverse a bad backlink purchase through strategic removal, proper disavow techniques, and structured recovery steps. If you’re planning to buy backlinks the right way next time, don’t forget to review this guide: How to Buy Backlinks.

1. Step One: Identify the Bad Backlinks

Before you start removing or disavowing anything, you need a clear picture of the damage.

Common Signs You Bought Bad Links

A sudden spike in spammy referring domains
Links from obvious PBNs or deindexed websites
Anchor text manipulation (too many exact-match anchors)
Foreign or irrelevant domain sources
Automated or comment-spam backlinks

Use tools like Google Search Console, Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Majestic to flag suspicious domains. Focus on links that are:

Irrelevant
Low DR/DA
Coming from auto-generated content
On hacked or penalized websites

These are prime candidates for removal or disavow.

2. Step Two: Attempt Manual Link Removal

While time-consuming, manual outreach shows Google you’re making a genuine effort to clean up your link profile.

How to Request Link Removal

Contact the site owner (when possible) and request the link be taken down. Your message should be:

Clear
Polite
Professional

Example Outreach Template:
“Hello, I recently discovered a link pointing to my site from one of your pages. Unfortunately, it appears to violate Google’s quality guidelines. Would you kindly remove the link? Thank you for your help.”

Not all webmasters respond—but even a handful of removals can help.

3. Step Three: Use the Google Disavow Tool (Correctly)

If outreach fails—or if the bad backlinks come from thousands of automated domains—you need the Google Disavow Tool.

When Disavow Is Necessary

You purchased a batch of spammy backlinks
A link vendor used a PBN or mass-directory blast
Your site is under manual action for unnatural links
You are experiencing unexplained ranking drops

How to Build a Proper Disavow File

Create a .txt file
Add full domains (preferred) or individual URLs
Format like this:

Upload the file in Google Search Console’s Disavow Tool

This tells Google to ignore those backlinks completely.

4. Step Four: Rebuild Your Site’s Trust

After you disavow or remove toxic links, recovery won’t happen overnight. Google needs time to re-evaluate your site’s authority and trustworthiness.

Ways to Speed Up Recovery

Publish fresh, high-quality content
Boost internal linking structure
Acquire safe, high-authority backlinks (editorial, niche-relevant, white-hat)
Improve on-page SEO and site speed
Strengthen E-E-A-T signals

If you need guidance on buying backlinks safely in the future, review our guide on how to buy backlinks and follow a vetted, strategic approach.

5. Step Five: Monitor Rankings After Cleanup

Recovery can take weeks or months depending on:

The severity of your toxic backlinks
Whether manual action was involved
How quickly Google recrawls the disavowed domains

Track changes through:

Google Search Console
Rank trackers (SERPRobot, Ahrefs, etc.)
Backlink profile monitoring

If rankings begin to stabilize or rise, you’re on the right path.

Final Thoughts

A bad backlink purchase isn’t the end of the world—as long as you take action quickly. With the right combination of removal, disavow, and trust-building techniques, your site can fully recover and even come back stronger.

Going forward, always choose backlink strategies that prioritize:

Relevance
Quality
Editorial placement
Long-term SEO value

If you want to learn how to buy backlinks safely, make sure to revisit our quality resource:
👉 How to Buy Backlinks

Keep reading…

Geographic & Language Targeted Backlinks: Buying Across Regions

Disclosure & Compliance: Legal Considerations in Buying Backlinks

The Future of Paid Links: Trends to Watch in 2025 and Beyond

Reversing a Bad Backlink Purchase: Removal, Disavow & Recovery