If you’re a physician with a website and you’ve been told to “clean up toxic backlinks” as part of your SEO strategy—breathe. That’s no longer something to really worry about.
Let’s break it down.
The Disavow Tool: Not Your SEO Multivitamin
Back in the Wild West days of SEO (circa 2012), people were buying links to game Google rankings. Google’s Penguin update cracked down on that. SEOs panicked. Enter the Disavow Tool, which lets you say, “Hey Google, ignore these shady links.”
But here’s the key point: that tool was made for guilty parties—sites that bought links and got slapped with a manual penalty.
Fast forward to today, and some SEO tools are still pushing this idea of “toxic backlinks” like it’s an emergency—and surprise—they conveniently sell tools to detect and remove them.
Google’s Official Take? Chill.
John Mueller from Google recently clarified: Google doesn’t even use the term “toxic backlinks.” That’s SEO tool marketing jargon, not something Google recognizes internally.
“So internally we don’t have a notion of toxic backlinks… random foreign links coming to your website, that’s not bad nor are they causing a problem.” – John Mueller, Google
Translation: you don’t need to panic every time a weird backlink shows up.
Unless you were actually buying links like it’s 2011 and got hit with a manual spam action, you really don’t even touch the disavow tool anymore.
What This Means for Your Website
Let’s keep it real. If your rankings are down, it’s probably not because of sketchy backlinks from a Slovenian recipe blog. More often than not, it’s your content, your site structure, or how fast your site loads.
Here’s where to look instead:
- Are your services clear and easily scannable?
- Do you have helpful, patient-focused content?
- Is your site mobile-friendly and fast?
- Are you earning real links from local news, hospitals, or medical directories?
Those are the things that move the needle.
Stop Paying for SEO Snake Oil
Some agencies love to send scary backlink reports and recommend monthly disavow campaigns. Let me say it clearly: that’s not normal maintenance, and Google has confirmed it.
So if you’re being charged monthly for “toxic link cleanup,” ask: Did we even get a manual penalty? (Hint: probably not.)
Do This Instead:
- Focus on great content. Answer common patient questions. Add FAQs. Share your perspective on trending medical topics.
- Build real relationships. Local partnerships, podcasts, press mentions—they’re the kind of backlinks Google loves.
- Fix on-site issues. A confusing site or poor mobile experience will do more damage than some random backlink ever could.
Final Word: Trust the Source, Not the Sales Pitch
If Google’s own team says the disavow tool isn’t part of regular site maintenance, maybe it’s time the SEO industry stops acting like it is.