Blacklisted? James, Karl & Kasra Explain Why!
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What Does “Blacklisted? James, Karl & Kasra Explain Why!” Talk About?
This episode of the James Dooley Podcast brings together James Dooley, Karl Hudson, and Kasra Dash to discuss the dangers of blacklisted domains in SEO and the launch of a new domain blacklist checker tool. The conversation kicks off with a frank discussion about why checking links against a blacklist is essential, covering how toxic backlinks from PBN guest post farms and zero-traffic sites can actively harm rankings rather than help them. James shares candid personal experiences, including spending as much as $80,000 a month on links only to later have to disavow many of them, illustrating just how costly the problem can be.
The trio walk through the mechanics of their new blacklist checker tool, which is available across multiple websites including FatRank, SEO's website, Kasra Dash, and Karl's own site. Kasra demos the tool live, explaining how users can paste in domains, receive two free checks by default, and unlock the full list by providing an email and website. They highlight real client emails showing tangible savings, including one client who avoided spending £1,800 on spam links and another who discovered that a previous agency had charged them over $60,000 without properly vetting backlinks. The episode wraps up with James emphasizing that proactive disavowing is far preferable to reactive penalty recovery, and Karl noting that the blacklist currently contains around 700 sites with plans to grow significantly.
“The amount of times that I've bought links and it's had a detrimental effect and I've lost rankings has been crazy. So having something like a toxic backlink checker is absolutely unbelievable. I wish it was here 10 years ago.”
— James Dooley
Who Are the Guests on “Blacklisted? James, Karl & Kasra Explain Why!”?
James Dooley is a well-known figure in the SEO industry with years of experience purchasing and analyzing backlinks at scale. He has spent tens of thousands of dollars monthly on link building campaigns and speaks candidly about the lessons learned from both successful and harmful link strategies, making him a trusted voice on the risks and realities of link acquisition.
Kasra Dash is an SEO professional and co-creator of the domain blacklist checker tool discussed in this episode. He brings a practical, demo-focused perspective to the conversation, walking listeners through the tool's functionality and sharing real client feedback that demonstrates its value. Karl Hudson is another SEO practitioner involved in the tool's development and distribution. He contributes a grounded, straightforward take on why blacklist checking is a no-brainer for anyone investing in link building, and provides context on the current size and growth trajectory of the blacklist database.
What Are the Key Takeaways From “Blacklisted? James, Karl & Kasra Explain Why!”?
Here are the key points discussed in this episode:
- Google does not simply ignore toxic links as many SEO myths suggest, and those zero-value links can actively cause rankings to drop rather than being safely disregarded.
- Using a blacklist checker before purchasing backlinks can save significant budget, as demonstrated by a client who avoided wasting £1,800 on links that were almost entirely spam.
- High DR and high-traffic sites can still appear on a blacklist and provide no real SEO value, meaning metrics alone are not sufficient for evaluating link quality.
- Proactive disavowing of blacklisted links is strongly recommended over waiting to react after a Google penalty, as recovering penalized sites is increasingly difficult.
- The domain blacklist checker tool is free to use and continuously growing, making regular proactive checks a low-cost way to protect a site's long-term SEO health.
“I'm always like prevention is better than cure so I would always try to do a proactive disavow then try to wait and be reactive after you've been penalised because it's very difficult nowadays to try and recover sites when they've been in a penalty from Google.”
— James Dooley
Is “Blacklisted? James, Karl & Kasra Explain Why!” Worth Listening To?
This episode is worth listening to for anyone who buys backlinks or manages link building campaigns, as it delivers hard-won practical wisdom from SEOs who have collectively spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on links. James Dooley's personal account of spending $80,000 a month on links and still ending up in disavow sessions is the kind of real-world cautionary tale that cuts through theory and gets to the heart of why vetting links matters.
Beyond the war stories, the episode provides genuine utility by walking through an actual free tool that solves a real problem. The client testimonials shared during the demo, including one person who saved £1,800 in a single check and another who uncovered 12 months of wasted spend, make the value concrete and immediately actionable. The discussion around when to disavow manually versus hiring a specialist like Backlink Doctor also gives listeners a practical decision-making framework they can apply right away.
Who Should Listen to “Blacklisted? James, Karl & Kasra Explain Why!”?
This episode is ideal for:
- SEO professionals and link builders who regularly purchase backlinks and want to avoid spending on toxic or blacklisted domains
- Digital marketing agency owners who manage link building campaigns on behalf of clients and need tools to validate link quality
- Business owners who have invested in SEO services and want to audit whether their current or previous agencies have been delivering legitimate backlinks
- Website owners concerned about potential Google penalties who want to take a proactive approach to cleaning up their backlink profiles
Where Can You Listen to James Dooley Podcast?
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You can also subscribe using the RSS feed: https://feeds.transistor.fm/james-dooley-podcast
What Are Listeners Saying About This Episode?
“The part where Kasra reads out the client emails was eye-opening. Finding out that eight out of nine links from a well-known agency were spam is exactly the kind of thing that never gets talked about openly. Really appreciated the honesty here.”
“James casually mentioning he used to spend $80,000 a month on links puts the whole conversation in perspective. This isn't theory, it's people who have genuinely been burned sharing what they've learned. The demo of the blacklist tool was also genuinely useful.”
“I came for the SEO advice and left immediately checking my own backlink profile. The point about high DR sites still being blacklisted was something I hadn't considered before. Short episode but packed with actionable information.”
James Dooley Nowadays that's not the case and the amount of people still rehash the same old stuff and SEO myths that Google are good at ignoring links honestly it's the bane of my life. I purchased a lot of links over the years and I remember probably about two or three years ago you had recently purchased maybe 20,000 worth of links in one month a lot of the time. Google would do a very very good job of links that were pretty much toxic with just zero value. Checking your links in a blacklist checker would be very important because you're going to find out. Kasra Dash So today we're going to be talking about blacklisted domains. I am joined with Carl and also James. How you doing? So very quickly without going on a big massive rant why are checking blacklisted domains important? Karl Hudson Do you want me to go? Do you want James to go? Kasra Dash You can go Carl. Karl Hudson So I would say obviously checking your links in a blacklist checker would be very important because you're going to find out very quickly whether or not the sites are toxic. They have no traffic. They might be PBN guest post farm. You're going to very quickly find that out and potentially save money on investing in those links so it's a no brainer really. Kasra Dash What about for yourself James? So James you’ve purchased a lot of links over the years and I remember probably about two or three years ago you had recently purchased maybe 20,000 worth of links in one month for maybe four or five websites and fast forward six months later we actually sat there disavowing those links. James Dooley For sure. I mean there's nothing worse than you're paying money and wasting money and more importantly wasting time on buying links that are actually causing more harm than good. The amount of times that I've bought links and it's had a detrimental effect and I've lost rankings has been crazy. So having something like a toxic backlink checker is absolutely unbelievable. I wish it was here 10 years ago. When you say 20 grand a month there's some months I used to spend 80,000 a month and back then there was a lot of links that used to work. It seemed to be back then a lot of the time Google would do a very very good job of links that were pretty much toxic with just zero value. Nowadays that's not the case and the amount of people that still rehash the same old stuff and SEO myths that Google are good at ignoring links honestly it's the bane of my life. Kasra Dash With the recent algorithm leaks it is clear that Google does zero value links and there's people that are actually still purchasing links on some of these guest post farms on some of these PBNs etc. So that's why we have decided to create the domain blacklist checker. It will be on SEO’s website, it's going to be on Kasra Dash website, it's going to be on Carl's website, it's also going to be on FatRank. We think this is going to be really important especially if you are acquiring any links. We’ll do a very quick demo on how it actually works. It's very very easy to use and also if you guys think that we potentially don't have a set of links that are blacklisted feel free to reach out to us. We will obviously do some manual free checks for you as well. But very quickly this is what it looks like. If you paste in the links here click on check domains. By default it will give you two free checks and if you want the entire list all you need to do is provide your actual email and your website. Once you have got that it will unblur all of it for you. So as you can see Forbes, Magazine Direct and SERP.com they’re not blacklisted. I'm glad that SERP.com is not blacklisted. As you can see we've got ActiveRain.com, you’ve got TendersInfo. Some of these websites are actually getting a lot of traffic. They've got some serious DR. Some of them are DR80 plus websites but they don't actually provide any value. So in some cases other link building agencies would charge you for some of these links and they're not actually checking the blacklist. We also demoed this with a few of our clients. These are some emails we've recently got back. “Hey guys I just wanted to say thank you for spam checking the list of links. I can't believe eight out of the nine backlinks I was going to acquire from X link building agency was marked as spam. You guys have saved me £1,800. Can I place an order with you guys?” That’s from John. Another email to Carl: “Hey Carl thanks for spam checking my existing backlinks. The annoying thing is my previous link building agency said they were doing this for the past 12 months. I've spent well over $60,000 with them. Can I start a campaign with you guys? And should I worry about a disavow?” Thanks Joel. Kasra Dash Very quickly James if somebody has got some toxic links that are sparking up in this tool do you think that they should get a disavow? James Dooley Yes for sure. I mean it depends on if they've been hit hard on rankings then you might need to go and get a specialist to come like Backlink Doctor to do a disavow file for yourself especially if you've got any unnatural link penalties. You need to do the disavow and the reconsideration request. Apart from that if you only have let's say a thousand referring domains and you're not thinking that you've got a penalty you can just go and get the list of URLs that are blacklisted and toxic from that list and just do it manually yourself. Load it into the disavow file yourself and on a done-for-you type service or like you said you can use a specialist to get it done. But I'm always like prevention is better than cure so I would always try to do a proactive disavow then try to wait and be reactive after you've been penalised because it's very difficult nowadays to try and recover sites when they've been in a penalty from Google. It can be done but it is just more difficult. Kasra Dash And just one thing to add to that this tool is only going to get better over time. So proactively looking at this tool it's free to use so I don't know why you wouldn't use it. If you check a link today it might be a toxic link or a blacklisted link in two or three months’ time so highly recommend you guys proactively check this out. Karl Hudson Have you got any ending points? No obviously I believe the list up to now is going to be around 700 sites in there give or take but going to very quickly grow because we have quite a sizable list. It’s just getting it into the right sort of setting or format for the tool. So like what Kasra mentioned before the link will be in the description check out the actual tool itself. It's free to use and give us some feedback. If you guys think there's anything that we've got wrong there is a big green get in touch button on all of the websites. You can get in touch and we will actually do a manual check for you as well. So I hope you guys have enjoyed this video and please remember to leave a like.
Creators & Guests
Host
James Dooley is a UK entrepreneur.