In the constantly shifting landscape of SEO, few strategies have clung to life as stubbornly as blog commenting. Despite years of warnings, many SEOs still believe these links hold authority, while website owners frequently panic that spammy comment links are actively destroying their rankings.

A recent exchange on Bluesky between a concerned website owner and Google Search Advocate John Mueller has once again set the record straight: Google neither values these links nor penalizes sites that receive them involuntarily.

The conversation began when a frantic site owner, operating under the handle _Crysta IVF_, reached out to Mueller regarding a wave of spam comments pointing to their domain. The owner had discovered links with irrelevant and potentially harmful anchor text (referencing adult content) on a creative agency’s blog dating back to 2013.

Despite contacting the blog owner and disavowing the links in Google Search Console (GSC), the user noted their traffic was dropping and feared a “[Negative SEO](https://www.stanventures.com/blog/google-ignores-negative-seo-threats/)” attack.

“I would like to bring an issue to your attention,” the user wrote to Mueller. “I have emailed the owner also but no response yet! What I must do now? I have already disavowed in GSC too.”

https://bsky.app/profile/crystaivf.bsky.social/post/3mcmfapspvk2s

## Google’s Verdict: “These Links Have No Effect”

John Mueller’s response was swift and definitive, shutting down the notion that these stray comment links were the culprit behind any traffic loss.

“These links all have no effect,” Mueller stated. “They’re from spammers dropping links into comments. These would not have any effect, positive nor negative, on your site.”

> These links all have no effect – they're from spammers dropping links into comments. These would not have any effect, positive nor negative, on your site.
> — [John Mueller (@johnmu.com)](https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4cv34f5o756rx377sm3mhrhm?ref_src=embed) [2026-01-18T08:25:14.365Z](https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4cv34f5o756rx377sm3mhrhm/post/3mcopc6wb522u?ref_src=embed)

When the user pressed further, asking about the “high spam score” reported by their SEO tools, Mueller clarified a critical misconception about third-party metrics.

“Scores like that are made up by SEO tools – they’re not used by Google,” Mueller replied, effectively confirming that proprietary “toxicity” or “spam” scores found in popular SEO software have no correlation with Google’s actual ranking algorithms.

## Why Pattern Detection Wins

At Stan Ventures, we have long maintained that blog commenting for link building is an obsolete tactic. Even in cases where these links manage to secure a “dofollow” attribute, Google’s machine learning algorithms are now sophisticated enough to detect the pattern of such placements instantly.

The search engine understands the context: a link dropped in a footer or comment section, surrounded by unrelated text, is clearly not an editorial endorsement.

For website owners worried about “Negative SEO”—where competitors or spammers build bad links to your site to hurt your rankings—the reality is far less scary than the myths suggest. Google simply neutralizes these links. They don’t count for you, and they don’t count against you.

Furthermore, if your website has a solid foundation of [high-quality backlinks](https://www.stanventures.com/powerful-link-building-service/), that authority is more than enough to “nullify” any perceived impact from spam. We have seen this firsthand at Stan Ventures; competitors have attempted to flood our backlink profile with spam in the past, yet it had absolutely no impact on our rankings or traffic.

## Key Takeaways

- **Blog Comments are Neutralized:** Google’s algorithms are trained to ignore links in blog comments. They do not pass authority (“link juice”), nor do they trigger penalties.
- **Ignore “Spam Scores”:** Metrics like “Spam Score” or “Toxic Score” are invented by third-party SEO tools. Google does not use them. A high spam score in a tool does not mean your site is being penalized by Google.
- **Pattern Recognition:** Even “dofollow” comment links are ineffective because Google detects the low-quality pattern of their creation.
- **Negative SEO is Mostly a Myth:** You generally do not need to disavow spam links or contact site owners to remove them. Google already ignores them.
- **Quality Wins:** A strong profile of high-quality backlinks will easily outweigh the noise of spam links.