Backlink Hygiene Toolkit

Summary#

The Backlink Hygiene Toolkit answers one question: is anything in your backlink profile hurting you? It scores spam exposure, lists the referring domains worth disavowing with the reason for each, and builds the disavow file Google's tool expects.

Purpose#

Anyone can link to your site, and not every link helps. Link farms, spam networks and irrelevant directories attach themselves to domains without asking. You did not build them, they do not show in your analytics, and left alone they make your site look like the company it keeps.

The full Backlink Profile report contains this information among twenty other sections. This toolkit strips everything else away so a clean-up takes one screen and ends in a downloadable file. It carries the LIVE badge in the tool list. See Tool status badges.

Overview#

You enter your domain. The toolkit runs the same live backlink analysis that powers Backlink Profile, then renders only the hygiene half of it: spam score, trust score, the toxic referring domains with a risk level and a reason, lost links, and a Download disavow file button.

Because it runs that same analysis, it costs the same as Backlink Profile even and its button reads Run Hygiene Scan · 5 reports. That is the single most important thing to know before you press it.

Benefits#

• One screen, one decision: which domains to disavow.
• Every flagged domain comes with a risk level and a written reason, so you are not disavowing on a score alone.
• The disavow file is formatted for Google's tool — one domain: line per entry, with a header — so it uploads without editing.
• A clean profile gets an explicit all-clear rather than an empty table.
• Lost links are tracked alongside toxic ones, so you see the profile's net direction while you clean it.

Use Cases#

• Taking on a new client. Scan on day one and hand over a clean-up plan instead of a vague worry about their link history.
• Responding to a suspected negative-SEO attack. A competitor pointing spam at your store shows up as a rising toxic count.
• Preparing a disavow submission. Get the file, review it, upload it in Search Console.
• Post-clean-up verification. Re-scan after a disavow and watch the toxic count and spam score fall.
• Due diligence before buying a domain. A high spam score on an otherwise strong domain is the reason it is cheap.

Requirements#

• A signed-in Metric Vault account.
• A paid plan. This is a premium tool and is not available on Free.
• At least 5 credits of your monthly allowance remaining.
• A website selected in the switcher. The domain scanned is the selected website and is filled in for you, so with none selected the run button reads Add Your Website instead. The website does not have to be verified.

Permissions#

Any workspace member can run it. Access is by plan.

Cost#

5 credits per scan.

The Run Hygiene Scan button does not print a credit figure, unlike most run buttons in the app. It still charges 5 credits, because it runs the full backlink analysis behind the scenes.

A cached result still charges. Backlink data is shared for 10 days, so if you or another customer analyzed the same domain recently the scan returns instantly and still costs 5 credits. Reopening a saved result costs nothing. See How credits work and Result caching and freshness.

Because the toolkit and Backlink Profile share one analysis, running both on the same domain in the same window charges twice for the same data. Run the full profile if you want everything; run the toolkit if you only want the clean-up.

Navigation Path#

Dashboard → Competitors & Backlinks → Backlink Hygiene Toolkit

Inputs#

Try sample fills the field with nike.com if it is empty. It does not start a scan, so nothing is charged until you press the run button.

Step-by-Step Guide#

1. Open Dashboard → Competitors & Backlinks → Backlink Hygiene Toolkit.
2. Type your domain into the field marked your domain (e.g. yoursite.com).
3. Press Run Hygiene Scan, or press Enter in the field.
4. If you have analyzed this domain before, choose Open saved result (free) or Run fresh (5 credits).
5. Wait for Scanning your backlink profile for toxic links… to clear.
6. Read the spam score and the toxic domain table.
7. Review every row. Decide which ones you genuinely want to disavow.
8. Press Download disavow file (N) to save the file.
9. Upload the file in Google Search Console's disavow tool.

Reading the Results#

The header names the domain with Backlink hygiene · Live DataForSEO and a verdict chip that comes straight from the spam score: 10 or below reads Clean profile, 11 to 30 reads Some risk, above 30 reads Toxic links found. That chip is your whole answer if you only have five seconds.

The four KPI tiles:

• Spam score out of 100, marked lower is cleaner. Under 10 is a healthy profile that needs no action. Between 10 and 30 there is a tail of low-quality links worth reviewing but rarely worth an urgent disavow. Above 30 is a real penalty risk and should be worked through this week.
• Trust score out of 100, referring-domain quality. This is the positive counterpart. High trust with a moderate spam score means a strong profile with a small bad tail — leave it alone. Low trust with a low spam score means the links are not toxic, just weak.
• Toxic domains, flagged for disavow. This is a count of referring domains in the flagged sample, not of individual links. One toxic domain can be sending hundreds of links.
• Lost backlinks, with the net change for the period beneath it. A large loss alongside a rising toxic count is the signature of a link network going down — which is usually good news.

Spam exposure repeats the spam score as a meter, with the total referring domain count beside it. Use the ratio: 12 toxic domains out of 1,200 referring domains is a rounding error; 12 out of 40 is your entire profile.

Toxic referring domains is the table you act on. Three columns:

• Referring domain — the site sending the links.
• Risk — High, Medium or Low. High is a clear spam signal, Low is a weak one.
• Reason — why it was flagged, in plain words. Read this column. A domain flagged for being unrelated to your industry is a different case from one flagged as a link farm, and only one of them is worth disavowing.

Work top down. High-risk domains sending many links are the ones that move the score. A Low-risk row on an otherwise clean profile is usually not worth the disavow.

If nothing is flagged you get an explicit all-clear: No toxic referring domains detected in the sampled links. Your profile looks clean. There is no download button in that state, because there is nothing to disavow.

Download disavow file (N) builds a plain text file named after your domain. It opens with comment lines identifying the target and the source, then one domain: line per flagged referring domain. Domain-level entries cover every link a site sends you, now and in future, which is why the file is written that way. A toast confirms Disavow file downloaded.

What this means closes the report with the findings in plain language. When the scan flags problems, a recommendations panel is attached beneath so you can turn them into steps. See Get Recommendations.

Examples#

Screenshots#

Tips#

• Scan before you disavow, and scan again two weeks after. The score movement tells you whether the clean-up worked.
• Read the Reason column before the Risk column. The reason is what tells you whether a flag matters for your site.
• If you only want the clean-up, run this rather than the full profile — same price, far less to read.
• A rising toxic count with no change in your own activity is worth watching. It is the earliest visible sign of a negative-SEO attempt.

Best Practices#

• Disavow at domain level, which is what the generated file does. One line covers every link that site sends you.
• Keep every disavow file you upload. Google replaces the previous file each time you upload, so the newest file must contain everything you still want disavowed.
• Do not disavow on volume. Cleaning links that were never hurting you removes value you earned.
• Scan quarterly on a healthy profile and monthly while you are actively cleaning.
• Pair with Backlink Profile when you also want growth, anchors and outreach targets — but run one or the other, not both.

Common Mistakes#

• Assuming the scan is free. The button shows no credit figure. It charges 5 credits every time.
• Uploading the file unedited. The list is a candidate list, not a verdict. Every row needs a human decision.
• Uploading a new file that omits earlier entries. Each upload replaces the last one, so previously disavowed domains come back unless you include them.
• Reading Toxic domains as a link count. It counts referring domains.
• Disavowing to fix a ranking drop with no evidence of a link problem. If the spam score is under 10, links are not your problem.

Limitations#

• The toxic list is drawn from a sample of the profile, not from every link. It finds patterns, not every individual bad URL.
• Risk levels and reasons are the data provider's judgement, not a statement from Google. Google does not publish a toxicity score.
• The disavow file contains domain-level entries only. If you need to disavow a single URL, edit the file by hand.
• The toolkit does not submit the file for you. Uploading is a manual step in Google Search Console.
• Only referring domains appear. Individual link URLs, anchors and placements live in Backlink Profile.

Troubleshooting#

FAQs#

How much does a scan cost? The button does not say. 5 credits, every run. The button label is the exception in the app, not the rule — it runs the same analysis as Backlink Profile, which is priced at 5.

Can I scan a competitor's domain? Technically yes, and the numbers will render. It is written for your own domain, and the disavow file is only meaningful for a site you control.

What exactly is in the downloaded file? A plain text file named after your domain. It starts with comment lines naming the target and the source, then one domain: line for each flagged referring domain. That is the format Google's disavow tool accepts.

Will disavowing recover a lost ranking? Only if bad links were the cause. If your spam score is low, look at content, technical health or a competitor's gains instead. Domain Overview and Site Audit are the better starting points.

Is a spam score of 20 bad? It is the middle band — Some risk. It usually means a tail of low-quality links that are not doing damage. Review them, disavow the clear offenders, and do not lose sleep over the rest.