Hidden Backlink to Other Websites: Why It Can Destroy Your SEO

In the world of SEO, backlinks are powerful. A good backlink can boost your rankings, traffic, and authority. But not all backlinks are good. One dangerous practice that still exists is using a hidden backlink to other websites.

Many website owners don’t even realize they have hidden backlinks on their site—until Google hits them with a penalty and their traffic suddenly drops.

At SEO Company Jaipur, we often see local business owners come to us after a “cheap” developer or plugin has filled their website with hidden links. Our job then becomes damage control: cleaning up the mess and trying to restore lost Google rankings.

Let’s understand what hidden backlinks are, why they’re risky, and how you can protect your website.

What Is a Hidden Backlink to Other Websites?

A hidden backlink to other websites is a link that is intentionally hidden from users but still visible to search engines.

These links are usually hidden by using tricks like:

• White text on a white background

• Very small font size (like 1px)

• Hiding links using CSS (display:none, visibility:hidden)

• Placing links behind images or off-screen

• Injecting links into the footer or theme files

To visitors, the page looks normal. But in the background, the site is secretly linking to other websites—often spammy or low-quality ones.

Why Do People Use Hidden Backlinks?

Some people use hidden backlinks to:

• Manipulate Google rankings

• Secretly pass link juice to other websites

• Sell backlinks without being noticed

• Promote spam or gambling/adult sites

• Run black-hat link schemes

This is black hat SEO. It may look like a shortcut, but it’s actually a fast track to getting your site penalized.

Does Google Penalize Hidden Backlinks?

Yes. 100%.

Google’s guidelines clearly say that hidden links are a violation of their rules. You can read it directly in Google’s Webmaster Guidelines here:
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies

If Google detects a hidden backlink to other websites, your site can face:

• Sudden ranking drops

• Huge loss of organic traffic

• Manual actions (penalties)

• De-indexing of pages—or even the whole site

• Long-term loss of trust and authority

In simple words: hidden backlinks can destroy months or years of SEO work.

🔧 Technical Box: What Hidden Backlink Code Looks Like

To show how this actually works, here’s a simple example of bad code developers or hackers sometimes use:

Your visitors can’t see this link, but Google can.

So even if your website looks clean on the front end, your site may still be passing link juice to spam websites in the background—and that’s exactly what gets sites penalized.

How Google Detects Hidden Backlinks

Google is much smarter than before. It can detect:

• Hidden text and hidden links in code

• CSS tricks used to hide content

• Unnatural outbound linking patterns

• Spammy or irrelevant links

• Paid or manipulative link schemes

Even if the link is invisible to users, Google’s crawler will still find it.

Signs Your Website Might Have Hidden Backlinks

You might already have hidden backlinks without knowing it, especially if:

• You used a free or nulled theme/plugin

• You hired a very cheap developer or SEO

• Your site was hacked

• Your rankings dropped suddenly

• You see strange outbound links in Search Console

• Your site links to unrelated or shady websites

This is something we frequently see with small businesses in Jaipur and other cities who come to us after their traffic crashes.

How to Check for Hidden Backlinks

You can:

• Inspect your site’s source code

• Use SEO tools to check outbound links

• Check Google Search Console for manual actions

• Scan your site for malware or injected code

• Review theme files (header, footer, functions)

• Look for CSS like display:none or font-size:0

If you find a hidden backlink to other websites, remove it immediately.

What Should You Do Instead?

Follow clean, white-hat SEO:

• Use only visible, relevant, and useful links

• Build backlinks naturally from quality websites

• Create content people actually want to link to

• Avoid link schemes and paid hidden links

• Keep your website secure and updated

• Do regular SEO and security audits

Good SEO is slow—but safe, stable, and long-lasting.

🚀 Final Verdict & Call to Action

Using a hidden backlink to other websites is not smart SEO. It’s risky, unethical, and can get your website penalized by Google.

Worried your site might have hidden links or a Google penalty? Don’t wait for your traffic to drop to zero.
Contact SEO Company Jaipur today for a professional SEO audit and let us help you grow safely.

Because in SEO, clean work always beats risky shortcuts. ✅