What Should I Paste Into the Ahrefs Domain Exclusion List?

If you work with backlink profiles on Ahrefs — whether cleaning fresh domains or recently expired ones — you've likely faced the frustration of inflated metrics caused by spammy backlinks. These spam domains can artificially boost your Domain Rating (DR), backlink counts, and other metrics, misleading your analysis and decision-making. The solution? A carefully curated spam domain list — a custom blocklist you paste into Ahrefs’ domain exclusion list.

In this post, I’ll walk you through exactly what to paste into Ahrefs’ domain exclusion list, why it matters, and how to combine this with the Best links feature and saved default views in Site Explorer for cleaner, clearer backlink insights. I’ll also clarify the difference between filtering and disavow for those still unclear on the nuances.

The Problem: Spam Backlinks Inflate Ahrefs Metrics

Spammy backlinks come from low-quality sources ranging from link farms and PBNs (private blog networks) to previously hacked sites. These domains tend to be forgotten in the SEO community but still generate tons of backlink juice that conflicts with your real link profile.

For example, when I performed a recent audit, I found 3,192 spam domains total sitting within a client's backlink profile — inflating their metrics and throwing off trust signals. These links can cause:

• Artificially high Domain Rating and URL Rating
• Inflated referring domain counts making your link profile appear stronger
• Potential penalties or manual actions if Google flags them
• Confusion when prioritizing link-building efforts because the data isn’t accurate

Addressing these spam domains directly in your reports and analysis is the only way to get a true picture of your backlink profile health.

What is the Ahrefs Domain Exclusion List?

Ahrefs allows users to create a Domain Exclusion List where you paste a list of spam or irrelevant domains that you want to exclude from your backlink analysis. This list filters out these domains from your reports and the metrics calculations within Site Explorer.

This effectively creates a custom blocklist, often referred to in SEO as a backlink spam blocklist, that you control based on your research and experience.

Why Use Domain Exclusion Instead of Relying Solely on Ahrefs' Built-in Filters?

Ahrefs provides some default filters and spam signals, but relying solely on their metrics can be misleading due to:

• False positives: quality domains marked as spam by automated filters
• False negatives: spam domains not caught due to lack of signals
• Over-filtering: aggressive filters hiding backlinks that actually add value

Building and maintaining your own spam domain list gives you precision control and aligns with your agency’s or client’s risk tolerance.

What Should You Paste Into the Ahrefs Domain Exclusion List?

Here’s a practical checklist and example of what domains to include in your exclusion list before pasting them into Ahrefs:

1. Known Spam Links: Domains identified through manual audits or tools like Ahrefs Site Explorer showing spammy backlink patterns — e.g., keyword-stuffed anchor texts, suspicious referral traffic, or previous client blocklists.
2. Link Farms and PBNs: Domains flagged as private blog networks due to linkage patterns, domain age anomalies, or footprinting signals you detected.
3. Expired/Abandoned Domains: Recently expired domains where the backlink profile has decayed and is no longer relevant or trustworthy.
4. Unrelated Niche Sites: Domains in totally unrelated niches with unnatural linking that doesn’t align with your client’s industry.
5. Repetitive Offenders: Domains that appear in your agency’s personal blocklist due to consistent spammy behavior across multiple clients.

Example snippet of what a domain exclusion list might look like:

spamdomain1.com badlinknetwork.net expireddomain123.org linkfarmexample.io repeatoffenderxyz.com

You can have thousands of domains in your blocklist. For context, my current master list holds over 3,192 spam domains total carefully vetted over multiple audits.

How to Use the Domain Exclusion List with Ahrefs Site Explorer and the Best Links Feature

Once you have your curated list of spam domains, here’s how to apply it effectively:

1. Access Site Explorer and enter your domain or URL.
2. Navigate to the Backlinks report.
3. Use the Domain Exclusion filter by pasting your spam domain list. This excludes these domains from the backlink report and metrics calculation.
4. Go to the Best links feature. This showcases your strongest backlinks, filtered by quality metrics. The custom exclusion list here ensures spammy links aren’t influencing your view.
5. Save this filtered view as the default for future visits to immediately see cleaner data.

Why Use "Best Links" With a Custom Exclusion List?

The “Best links” report in Ahrefs shows backlinks sorted by link strength metrics, but if spam domains remain in your dataset, it skews the results by including junk links. Applying your backlink spam blocklist ensures that the “best” really means high quality.

Saving a Default View in Site Explorer

After applying your domain exclusion list and other filters, save this configuration as a default view. This saves time by:

• Automatically excluding spam domains each time you view the backlink profile
• Presenting a reliable, clean snapshot without extra clicks
• Keeping internal consistency across your audit team or reports

To save the view, use Ahrefs’ “Save current view as default” feature available in the filtering interface.

Filtering vs Disavow: Why the Difference Matters

It’s crucial to understand that excluding domains via Ahrefs’ domain exclusion is a filtering tool for analysis and reporting, not a substitute for Google’s Disavow Tool.

Filtering: Temporarily excludes backlinks or domains in your reports, metrics, and dashboards to help you see real backlink value. It does not affect what Google sees or how ranking signals are passed.

Disavow: A formal request to Google to ignore certain backlinks when crawling your site. It requires creating and submitting a disavow file through Google Search Console.

Why this distinction matters:

• Cleaning reports: Use filtering (domain exclusion) to analyze data clearly without junk backlinks.
• Penalty prevention: Use disavow only for backlinks you believe could cause harm — e.g. unnatural links that lead to manual penalties.
• Over-disavowing risk: Don’t disavow links just because they’re filtered out in your report, especially if they don’t appear to pose a real risk.

Quick Recap and Practical Tips

Step Action Why It Matters 1 Compile your spam domain list from audits and known offenders Gives precision over what to exclude, improves data accuracy 2 Paste list into Ahrefs Domain Exclusion in the backlink report Filters out junk backlinks from reports and metric calculations 3 Use "Best links" feature with exclusions applied See truly strong backlinks, not spam-inflated ones 4 Save view as default to streamline future analysis Saves time and keeps consistent, reliable reporting 5 Understand filtering doesn’t replace Google disavow tool Prevents missteps in backlink cleanup and possible penalties

Conclusion

When working in Ahrefs, don’t blindly trust tool filters alone or let spam backlinks inflate your domain metrics. Build and maintain a tailored spam domain list that you paste into the domain exclusion list in Site Explorer. Combine this with the “Best links” feature to highlight real link authority and save your views as defaults to speed up workflows.

Remember, this method is a powerful analytical filtering technique — not a disavow substitute. Use it to get clear, trustworthy backlink insights and supplement it with proper disavow actions only when necessary.

By doing this, you’ll save hours of analysis time, avoid chasing misleading metrics, and deliver more accurate audit recommendations. With a spam domain blocklist of 3,192 evaluate link quality metrics domains or more, your backlink profile accuracy will finally reflect reality instead of inflated noise.