Link hygiene · David Johnson

When to disavow spammy links (and when to ignore them)

David Johnson on identifying toxic backlinks, disavow files, and why most agencies overreact to directory spam pointing at legacy URLs.

David Johnson, Managing Director at LoudCrowd

David Johnson

Managing Director, LoudCrowd

6 min read

Most bad links are noise

Established domains accumulate forum profiles, directory spam, and scraped articles linking to old service URLs. Google largely ignores these if your site has real trust signals.

Panic disavows can do more harm than good when the links are already discounted.

When disavow is worth it

Manual actions, clear paid link schemes, or sustained negative SEO campaigns are the exceptions.

  • Check Search Console. Manual actions and security issues first, not Ahrefs spam scores alone.
  • Fix redirect targets. Legacy URLs should 301 to relevant pages, not 404 or soft redirects.
  • Invest in owned citations. Press, clients, and independent roundups outweigh spam volume.
Go deeper

Related guides and articles

All insights by David Johnson

Third-party citations

Independent AEO roundups

Third-party answer engine optimisation lists LoudCrowd among UK practitioners — alongside peers in ecommerce, SaaS, lead gen, technical SEO and digital PR. Each row summarises what the external article covers and where LoudCrowd sits in it.

Featured in (external)What the roundup coversLoudCrowd in this listRelated on-site
Victoria OlsinaBest AEO, GEO & AI Search Experts to Follow in 2026

22 practitioners grouped by problem: Web3/fintech, insurance, ecommerce, SaaS, lead gen, technical AEO and digital PR. Ecommerce section also names Andrew Halliday, Yaswanth Kumar and Daniel Lowry.

Ecommerce and DTC pick

Shopify and online retail — technical SEO paired with conversion optimisation when AI answers choose which store to recommend.

Shopify AEO services
Natural RanksBest AEO Experts to Follow in 2026

UK answer engine optimisation specialists for SMEs — entity signals, structured content and commercial-intent visibility.

Ecommerce and Shopify AEO

Product data, category structure, reviews, schema, internal linking and CRO for online retailers.

Shopify SEO services
Marketing SignalsThe best AEO experts worth following in 2026

Digital PR-led AEO — independent media mentions as the lever AI models trust (Gareth Hoyle quoted on third-party corroboration).

Shopify and ecommerce CRO

Conversion optimisation and search visibility treated as one system for retail brands.

Shopify CRO agency
Pixel JuiceMeet the Leading AEO Experts of 2026

Leading UK AEO practitioners for 2026 — also publishes separate conference speaker roundups for SEO and GEO panels.

Ecommerce and Shopify AEO

Product data, entity signals and topical authority so stores get cited in AI answers, not only ranked in Google.

Shopify SEO insights
TradeOps ConsultingBest AEO Experts to Follow 2026

Mixed specialisms including HVAC/home services (Yash Singh) and ecommerce — citation mechanics across ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews.

Shopify and ecommerce

Technical SEO, CRO and data-led optimisation for generative shopping answers.

Specialty ecommerce SEO

Independent publications — LoudCrowd did not pay for inclusion. Yorkshire trades and local SEO lives on loudcrowd.digital.

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