Could cleaning up your artificial backlinks really cause your Google rankings to plummet?

What happens when Google detects artificial links?

A manual action for artificial links means that a member of Google's Quality Raters team has identified manipulative backlinks in your profile. Unlike algorithmic penalties that hit automatically, these sanctions are manual and targeted.

The site then experiences a brutal devaluation in the SERPs. To lift this sanction, the profile must be cleaned: disavowing toxic links, removing those that can be taken down at the source, documenting efforts in the Search Console. However, here, John Mueller points out a side effect that many overlook.

Why does the ranking drop after the correction?

Before the manual action, these artificial links boosted the site in the results. Even if Google had spotted them, they still contributed to the calculation of PageRank and relevance signals. Once cleaned or disavowed, these signals vanish from the profile.

The ranking achieved then reflects the true authority of the site — the one it should have always had without manipulation. If 60% of your profile was from PBNs and paid networks, don’t expect to maintain your rankings after disavowal. It’s harsh but consistent.

Does the extent of the drop really depend on the volume of removed links?

Mueller clarifies that the impact varies according to the importance of the links removed in the overall profile. A site with 500 backlinks, 480 of which are artificial, will see a far more violent collapse than a site with 5000 links, of which only 200 are problematic.

It’s a question of proportion and relative quality. If your few good links were already carrying most of your authority, the drop will be contained. If your strategy relied entirely on manipulation, the return to normal will be painful.

• Manual action: targeted human sanction, different from algorithmic filters
• Profile cleaning: disavowing and removing toxic links to lift the sanction
• Ranking loss: logical consequence of the disappearance of artificial signals
• Proportional impact: depends on the weight of the removed links in the total profile
• New reality: the site regains its true organic authority level

Is this statement consistent with field observations?

Absolutely. For years, we have observed that lifting a manual action does not guarantee a return to initial positions. Many SEOs expected to regain their traffic once the sanction was lifted — this is rarely the case. Mueller's statement formalizes this phenomenon.

What was less clear was the timing and extent of the post-cleaning drop. Some sites experience an immediate decline as soon as the disavowal is processed, while others see the effect stretch over several weeks. Google does not specify if the devaluation is instantaneous or progressive — [To verify] in practice, this seems to depend on crawling and recalculating PageRank.

What nuances need to be applied to this rule?

Not all disavowed links are equal. If you disavow a truly toxic link, you lose nothing real — you are correcting an artificial inflation. But if you disavow legitimate links (partners, editorial citations) out of excessive caution, you are cutting off part of your real authority.

The risk is over-disavowal. Faced with a manual action, some panic and disavow everything that resembles a dubious link. The result: they lose positive signals and worsen the drop. Let’s be honest, distinguishing a good link from a bad one remains a subjective exercise — and Google does not provide a clear rubric.

In what cases does this rule not apply?

If your link profile was already mostly healthy before the manual action, the cleaning will be painless. Let’s say you have a solid base of 3000 editorial links, and a malicious campaign (negative SEO) added 500 bad links. Disavowing those 500 will not affect your rankings.

Another case: sites that undergo a manual action when the algorithm had already devalued artificial links. Some profiles are so obvious that Penguin or other filters neutralize them before a reviewer even gets involved. In this scenario, lifting the manual action changes nothing — the site was already stagnant.

What concrete actions should be taken after a manual action?

First step: audit the link profile rigorously. Export all backlinks from Search Console, Ahrefs, Majestic, Semrush. Identify suspicious patterns: over-optimized anchors, low-authority domains, PBN networks, footers and widgets at scale. Don’t rely on an automated tool — review the links manually.

Next, attempt to remove at the source the most obvious links. Contact webmasters, remove undeclared sponsored articles, delete your own creations (if you had set up a PBN). What remains after this phase must be disavowed via the disavow.txt file. Document each action in the reconsideration request.

What mistakes should be avoided during cleaning?

Don’t disavow everything as a principle. Some SEOs fall into massive preventive disavowal, thinking Google will appreciate the effort. False. You risk losing legitimate signals — press citations, real partnerships, naturally obtained editorial links. A link is not toxic simply because it comes from a modest site.

Another trap: believing that lifting the sanction is enough. Even once the manual action is removed, your site stays at its true authority level. If this level is low, you need to rebuild a healthy profile — obtain real editorial links, develop content worth citing, boost brand recognition. It’s fundamental work, not just a technical fix.

How can I check that my link profile is clean?

Use spam detection tools to spot anomalies. Check anchor distribution: if 70% of your links use your exact target query, it’s a red flag. Analyze the diversity of referring domains — a healthy profile presents a long-tail curve, not a concentration on 10 domains.

Compare your profile to that of well-ranked competitors in your niche. Look at their dofollow/nofollow link ratio, their distribution by TLD, their geographic origin. If your profile shows major discrepancies (100% dofollow, 80% .info and .xyz, explosion of links from a single country), it means the cleaning is not complete.

• Audit the link profile with multiple tools (Search Console, Ahrefs, Majestic) to cross-check the data
• Manually remove toxic links at the source before disavowing the rest
• Do not disavow massively as a principle — analyze each suspicious link individually
• Document all actions in the reconsideration request to facilitate lifting of the sanction
• Rebuild a healthy profile with editorial strategies after the correction
• Monitor the ranking developments post-cleaning to measure the real impact