(Entry was posted by Lauren EngÃ«l on this post in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 05/14/2020).

My site has nearly 30M spammy backlinks

A site I handle has nearly 30M spammy backlinks from German and Chinese sites. Does this negatively affect my site/ranking? The authority score is 73 though so not bad. Thanks!

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YOUR ANSWERS

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

Michael Martinez: The real question to ask is how does the search referral traffic look?

Authority scores mean nothing. Search referral traffic tells you what you need to know.
Lauren EngÃ«l: You mean the organic search traffic number? I mean what could I compare that to if its good or bad how would I know?
Michael Martinez: Lauren EngÃ«l Look at the history. I prefer to examine 3 years` worth of data when I can get it.

If you don`t know the site`s history the metrics don`t tell you anything meaningful.
Lauren EngÃ«l: Michael Martinez got it but what if all this bad backlinks accumulated overtime so i dont know what the data could have been if these were removed? the traffic has been pretty stagnant over the years
Michael Stricker: Michael Martinez check trends among industry competitors to compare whether this site was stagnant while others soared past. Check link accumulations over time in AHREFs, then overlay GA data on organic Search trends for those same periods. Check GSC fâ€¦See More
Michael Martinez: Lauren EngÃ«l At the end of the day you have to make a judgment call. But keep in mind that what most people consider to be `spammy links` aren`t, according to the search engines.
Bill Hartzer: How do you know they are spammy links? You have to understand German and Chinese to see if they are on topic or not.

As for rankings. Have you noticed a drop?