What is the best way to remove unwanted backlinks?

[john]

Hi,

If have a website with 2000 backlinks, but 400 are really poor quality. What will be the best way to remove them? Is it to go though webmaster tools? if I just build more quality links so the 400 poor links get diluted will this help my rankings? Or will the 400 poor links (no PR or relevance) hamper my progress?

Also if you link to website that then gets taken down so the link is no longer active, how long does it take Google to remove the link? (no longer associate it too your website) I heard it was 90 days but I just want to confirm as I check my 'lost backlinks' in seomoz and I am losing a lot due to blogs which no longer exist.

Thank you for taking the time to read my 2 questions, I look forward to hearing your response

[sukanya]

Disavow the links in webmasters

[JeffreyS]

Sukanya is right. But before using Disavow tool you should try contacting the webmasters of those sites linking to you to remove your link. As Google has specified that before disavowing the link you should try doing so manually.

[Borislav Arapchev]

Disavow tool - but is seems not so effective or not so quick - i wait 1 month and more and no progress ......

[Ilianasize]

Backlinks are links that connect to your website from external sources. Experts believe that they account for an estimated 80% of the weight that search engines consider when they award page ranks to websites. Thus, they are essential if you want to be more visible in the results pages of search engines. Backlinks perform an even more important function that would benefit your online business more.

[Rashida]

Google Disavow Tool is the best to remove unwanted backlinks.