Backlinks are crucial in building a strong website, significantly influencing your site’s search engine ranking. However, managing backlinks can be a tricky and uncertain process, particularly when it comes to disavowing them. While there’s plenty of discussion about acquiring backlinks, disavowing them often raises questions. Should disavowing links be a concern for the average SEO professional? Let’s dive into why disavowing links might be necessary and how to effectively manage the process.
Google has been fairly clear about the role of link disavowal in search engine optimization (SEO). The primary reason to disavow links is to address penalties imposed on your website. If you receive a notification from Google regarding “unnatural links,” your site is being penalized, regardless of whether you know the problematic links.
Being a webmaster involves addressing these penalties as they arise. While sticking to white hat SEO practices generally keeps you clear, understanding how to maintain a clean backlink profile is essential for your long-term SEO strategy.
Most organic backlinks are considered “good backlinks,” as they represent the type of internet ecosystem that Google strives for—one where high-quality content is referenced naturally and frequently. While most of these links might not significantly impact your site’s ranking individually, they contribute to building your reputation as a reliable and authoritative resource.
On the other hand, “bad backlinks” are typically inorganic. The worst offenders include links that can be purchased in bulk from dubious SEO services and links generated through private backlink networks (PBNs). Additionally, you might receive a link from a spammy site filled with irrelevant content and random links. These links, often placed by automated systems, do nothing to benefit your site and should be removed.
Bad backlinks can also be used in a malicious strategy known as a Negative SEO Attack. Even those with basic SEO knowledge understand that buying hundreds or thousands of backlinks can lead to penalties. However, a competitor might attempt to sabotage your site by purchasing these harmful backlinks and pointing them at your domain. This underhanded tactic ensures that your site gets penalized. If your site is the victim of a Negative SEO Attack, the only way to recover is to disavow all the harmful links directed at it.
Disavowing backlinks is not something to be taken lightly. It’s a serious action that can significantly affect your search rankings, for better or for worse. Generally, you should only disavow a link if you are certain that it is harming your site’s performance. For a more detailed list of harmful links, refer to Google’s Quality Guidelines.
It’s important to note that a link from a low-traffic or low-domain authority site isn’t necessarily bad. While such links may not provide a substantial boost on their own, every link counts as a vote of confidence in your site, which Google takes into account when ranking your pages.
So, what exactly does it mean to disavow a backlink? Essentially, it’s a request for Google to ignore specific links to your domain. If Google honors your disavow request, those links won’t be counted for or against you when determining your site’s ranking in search results.
It’s important to note that Google isn’t obligated to accept your disavowal request. In their documentation, Google describes the disavow tool as a “suggestion” rather than a guarantee. However, they also acknowledge that the tool is intended to help rectify bad linking practices or undo the damage caused by poor SEO decisions, so it’s reasonable to expect that they will honor valid disavowal requests.
Yes, it is possible to undo a disavowal, though it’s unclear how Google handles previously disavowed links. You can delete a disavowed file that you previously uploaded. Still, it’s uncertain whether Google retains a copy of the list or if they immediately reinstate the disavowed links and their influence on your ranking. For this reason, it’s not advisable to experiment with link disavowal to manipulate search rankings.
If your site has been hit with a manual action for unnatural links or you're concerned that it might be due to problematic backlinks, it's important to act quickly. Begin by contacting the owners of the sites with harmful links to request their removal. If these efforts don't succeed, you can turn to Google’s Disavow Tool within the Search Console. This tool lets you tell Google to disregard certain links, which can help protect your site from further penalties and maintain your search ranking.
Once you have your link data, you can use Backlink Audit Tool to identify problematic links and create a text file (*.txt) formatted for submission to Google’s Disavow Tool.
Here’s an example of what your disavow file might look like:
domain:spammysite.com
domain:niche.pbn.com
domain:blackhat.com/link-to-my-site
It’s generally more efficient to disavow entire domains rather than individual URLs, as there are a few situations where you’d want to disavow a specific link while keeping other links from the same domain.
After creating your disavow file, head over to the Google Disavow Tool. Follow the prompts, which include several warnings, until you reach the dialogue box that allows you to upload your disavow file.
If you manage multiple accounts, make sure you select the correct property. After selecting the disavow file, click “Open” to upload it to the tool. Within a day, Google will stop considering the listed domains when determining your site’s ranking.
By following these steps and carefully managing your backlink profile, you can help protect your site from penalties and maintain a strong, healthy presence in search engine rankings.