A website that has a good rank on search engines, especially Google is a big task. Backlinks or Inbound links are one of the best ways to achieve this ranking. Sometimes in a haste to achieve this goal, websites indulge in underhanded behaviour like unnatural inbound links. These are considered a big no-no and fall under unethical practices. Google considers these links as a violation and manipulation of Google Ranking algorithm.
In 2018 alone, Google received about 4 million notifications about manual actions due to their Webmasters Guidelines violations. A Google penalty can bring down your visibility dramatically and may result in loss of your organic visibility as well.
Here are some types of unnatural inbound links and how to deal with them -
Link schemes
If you are exchanging links solely for the purpose of boosting your site’s ranking on search engines, it is considered as a link scheme - a clear violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines. Usually, these links are posted on pages created explicitly for this purpose and have too many links to random, unrelated websites with no editing in posts or comments by the moderator. These pages also have a lot of over-optimized anchor texts included. 
There is nothing natural about these links and Google makes it a priority to remove them. The best way to handle these link schemes is to unfollow the page and report the link before it can be connected back to your own website.
Injection of links
There are certain softwares available which help in the placement of backlinks. These are automated softwares which work to get backlinks for your webpage. When you use such a software your webpage becomes vulnerable to attract the penalty of an unnatural link. One might get a little greedy and go for such softwares which later gives undesirable results.
These softwares work on a particular algorithm or script which is irreversible. This adds on some links to the webpage of the publisher using the software. The worst part is that the publisher doesn't get the control to edit the same.
You can get rid of such unnatural linking by boycotting the use of the automated software. Try to remove these backlinks from your webpage or nofollow them. You may contact the webmaster for the same.
Over-optimization of links
Over-optimization costs you a lot more than you think. When we try to optimize the content, often the goal is to include the keyword or the anchor text as much as possible. Now, when you are trying to do this, there are chances that you might over do it. There are many instances when we witness a lot of obvious places where it is clear that keywords or anchor text is forced.
For appropriate optimization, you need to add the anchor text or keyword in such a way that it looks natural to the reader. Forcing it into any sentence ends up making it mundane and absurd. Over-optimization really affects the quality of your content on a large scale.
The only ways to get rid of such types of unnatural links are to alter the anchor text or keyword in a more subtle manner or just get rid of them if that works for your content.
Spammy links in Guest Posts
As a guest blogger, you can place inbound links in your post to your own website. But keep in mind to not go overboard with these links. Adding too many links in a guest post is considered as spamming.Instead of spammy links in large-scale article campaigns which are highly discouraged by Google and go against their guidelines - just for the purpose of attaining more backlinks, use this opportunity to establish long standing relationships with the audience of the blog and build trust in the authenticity of your brand.
Inorganic paid inbound links
The desire to outshine your competitors and rank highly in the search engine ranking may be strong, but think twice before investing your money with any company. Not everyone has the capability of providing SEO services that may not fall under the scanner. Some companies charge you hefty sums and their unnatural inbound links can get you a penalty straight away.
Rather than waste money on paid SEO promotion, focus on SEO agencies like Viralchilly which provide organic SEO and link building services. Having their tools at your disposal may increase your panache in the SEO market.
These trustworthy and authoritative websites can be the right call and just the tool you were looking for to create an impactful digital marketing strategy.
Unnatural links in Article Campaigns and Press Releases
Article campaigns and Press Releases that use exact match keywords in their anchor text with the main purpose of building backlinks are violating Google’s Webmaster guidelines and can lead to heavy penalties - both for the website being redirected to and the website on which the campaign is posted.
This is due to the fact that it is quite clear that these links are of no use to the readers and the search engines realise the link has not been placed for help and building up on the information in the campaign.
In general the best ways to deal with unnatural inbound links are -
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Revisit your link building strategy. Focus on organic link building and long term connections with the engagement these backlinks bring.
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Invest carefully in organic SEO and link building services rather than unnatural paid promotions that will increase your rank in search engines for a very brief period.
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Conduct an in-depth analysis of all your inbound links. As it is said, Prevention is the best cure.
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Maintain a healthy balance of Inbound links in cases of Guest Posting or Blog Commenting to ensure it doesn’t look spammy.
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Set clear objectives of what you want to achieve through these inbound links - a healthy engagement or conversion to sales. Focus on achieving that goal.
Take advantage of inbound links to give the readers another chance to view your content as an outreach project for your SEO strategy. Take things easy and do it one step at a time so that your SEO strategy shines!