Google's John Mueller said that link spam left in the comments section have no effect on Google Search or SEO, (and maybe even your website's performance in Google Search?).
He wrote on Bluesky, "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."
It seems like John is specifically saying that even if I have a lot of spammy links in the comments section on my site, those links would not have a positive or negative impact on the performance of this site in Google Search.
Here was the post he was replying to:
I would like to bring an issue to your attention that is caused via below mentioned domain. I have emailed the owner also but no response yet! What I must do now? I have already disavowed in GSC too but our web traffic is constantly dropping.URL - mattsoncreative.com/blog/2013/09...
This was the message I sent to the owner last week [We would like to remove this unwanted anchor tag (porn) directing to our blog either you remove it completely and block the user & its IP for further creating more such links/ or change it to sperm cramps.
For more details Kindly have a look at the below image.]
Here is John's reply:
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) January 18, 2026 at 3:25 AM
Google has long downplayed link spam as a waste of time to deal with. Google also said link spam doesn't work in forums and that you can generally ignore link spam.
Forum discussion at Bluesky.
