Toxic backlinks are links from low-quality, spammy, or irrelevant websites that Google uses as a negative signal. In most cases, Google's algorithm ignores them rather than penalising them, but if you have a large volume, or if a competitor is pointing spam at your site ("negative SEO"), a disavow file may be necessary.
Do You Actually Have a Toxic Link Problem?
Most Wix sites do not need to disavow anything. Before creating a disavow file, check whether your site has actually received a manual action in Google Search Console (Manual Actions section). A manual action is Google's explicit confirmation of a link penalty. Without one, be very cautious about disavowing, incorrectly disavowing good links can destroy rankings.
Identifying Toxic Links
Backlink audit process
- 1Export your full backlink profile from Ahrefs, Moz, or SEMrush
- 2Look for warning signs: sites with no topical relevance, very low domain authority (DA 0-10), foreign-language sites unrelated to your audience, gambling/adult/pharmaceutical sites
- 3Check if links are from link farms: sites with hundreds of outbound links per page and no real content
- 4Export all flagged domains into a separate spreadsheet
- 5Before disavowing, attempt manual outreach to remove the worst links
Creating and Submitting a Disavow File
# Disavow file for yoursite.com - created 2026-03-01 # Links from spam network identified in March 2026 domain:spammy-linkfarm.com domain:another-spam-site.net https://specific-bad-page.com/your-link
Submitting the disavow file to Google
- 1Create a plain .txt file following the format above
- 2Go to search.google.com/search-console/disavow-links
- 3Select your property and upload the disavow file
- 4Google confirms receipt, note that disavow files can take weeks to take effect
Complete How-To Guide: Auditing and Disavowing Toxic Backlinks
Toxic backlinks can suppress your rankings or trigger a manual penalty if left unchecked. This step-by-step guide walks you through a full backlink audit, from identifying genuinely harmful links to creating and submitting a disavow file to Google, so you can protect your Wix site's search performance.
Follow these steps to audit your backlink profile and disavow toxic links
- 1Step 1: Log into Google Search Console, navigate to Security and Manual Actions, and check whether your Wix site has any active manual actions related to unnatural links
- 2Step 2: Go to the Links section in Google Search Console and export your complete list of external links pointing to your site by clicking Export External Links
- 3Step 3: Sign up for a free Ahrefs Backlink Checker account and run your domain through it to get an additional view of your backlink profile including domain ratings of linking sites
- 4Step 4: Combine both exports into a single master spreadsheet with columns for Referring Domain, Referring URL, Target URL, Domain Authority, Anchor Text, and a Toxic flag column
- 5Step 5: Flag any linking domains that show clear toxic patterns such as domain authority below 10, foreign-language sites with no relevance to your niche, gambling or pharmaceutical spam sites, or sites with hundreds of outbound links per page
- 6Step 6: Check each flagged domain manually by visiting the actual page to confirm it is genuinely spammy rather than simply a low-authority but legitimate site
- 7Step 7: For confirmed toxic links, attempt manual removal first by finding contact information on the linking site and sending a polite email requesting link removal
- 8Step 8: Wait 7-14 days for responses to your removal requests and document which sites responded and removed the link versus which did not respond
- 9Step 9: Create a plain text disavow file using the correct format with one domain per line prefixed with "domain:" for site-wide disavows or the full URL for individual page disavows
- 10Step 10: Add comment lines at the top of your disavow file using the hash symbol to document the date created and the reason for each group of disavowed domains
- 11Step 11: Navigate to search.google.com/search-console/disavow-links, select your Wix property, and upload the completed disavow file
- 12Step 12: Save a copy of the disavow file and your audit spreadsheet in a dedicated folder so you have a complete record of what was disavowed and why for future reference
- 13Step 13: Set a quarterly calendar reminder to repeat this backlink audit process and update your disavow file if new toxic links appear over time
Final Checkpoint
After completing this process you should have a documented backlink audit spreadsheet, attempted manual removal of the worst offending links, and a properly formatted disavow file uploaded to Google Search Console. Remember that disavow files can take several weeks to take effect and should only be used when you have a genuine toxic link problem, not as a preventative measure for healthy sites.
Essential Resources
Google Search Console
Monitor how Google crawls, indexes, and ranks your Wix site pages
Ahrefs
Industry-leading SEO tool for keyword research, backlink analysis, and competitor research
SEMrush
Keyword research, position tracking, site audit, and competitor analysis tool
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
Crawl up to 500 URLs free to find broken links, orphan pages, and technical SEO issues
