Bad link management can actually have a negative impact on a website’s search engine optimization (SEO). This is because search engines use links to help determine the relevance and authority of a webpage. If a webpage has a lot of links from reputable sources, it can signal to search engines that the webpage is trustworthy and contains valuable information. On the other hand, if a webpage has a lot of low-quality or spammy links, it can signal to search engines that the webpage is not as trustworthy or valuable.

Here are a few ways that poor link management can negatively impact a website’s SEO:

1. Low-quality links: Links from spammy or low-quality websites can hurt a website’s ranking in search results.

2. Broken links: Broken links, or links that lead to pages that are no longer available, can confuse search engines and make it harder for them to crawl and index a website.

3. Overuse of certain anchor texts: Using the same anchor text excessively can appear unnatural to search engines and may be considered as a manipulation of rankings.

4. Linking to irrelevant websites: Linking to websites that are not related to the content of the webpage can confuse search engines and may be considered as a manipulation of rankings.

In general, it is important to carefully manage the links on a website in order to improve its SEO. This includes regularly checking for broken links, avoiding low-quality or spammy links, and using relevant and diverse anchor text.