How to disavow links?

In the world of SEO, backlinks play a critical role in determining your website’s authority and rankings. However, not all backlinks are beneficial—some can be toxic and harm your site’s search engine performance. If your site has toxic backlinks, one effective way to address them is through the disavow tool provided by Google. By disavowing certain links, you tell Google to ignore them when assessing your website’s backlink profile, protecting your site from penalties and ranking drops.

This guide will walk you through how to disavow links, explain when to use this tool, and the steps to create and submit a disavow file.

What Does Disavowing Links Mean?

Disavowing links is the process of telling Google to ignore certain backlinks that point to your website. When you disavow a link, you essentially ask Google to disregard it in your SEO rankings calculation. This process can help protect your site from penalties associated with spammy or toxic backlinks.

Google’s Penguin algorithm is designed to catch sites with manipulative link profiles and unnatural link-building practices. If you’ve acquired harmful backlinks—whether through black hat SEO techniques or through no fault of your own (e.g., negative SEO)—disavowing those links is crucial to maintaining a healthy backlink profile.

When Should You Disavow Links?

Before jumping into disavowing links, it’s essential to determine if disavowing is necessary. Google advises using the disavow tool only when you have a large number of spammy, artificial, or low-quality links pointing to your site, and when manual removal attempts have failed.

You should disavow links if:

• Your site has received a manual penalty or warning from Google regarding unnatural links.
• You’ve identified toxic backlinks from spammy websites, link farms, or sites unrelated to your niche.
• You notice a sudden drop in rankings after acquiring a large number of low-quality backlinks.
• You’re a victim of negative SEO, where a competitor or malicious entity is building spammy links to harm your rankings.

Do NOT disavow links if:

• The backlinks pointing to your site are natural and from reputable sources.
• You are unsure whether a link is truly toxic—disavowing healthy links can harm your SEO.
• You have a healthy backlink profile without signs of spammy links or unnatural link-building.

How to Identify Toxic Backlinks

Before you can disavow links, you need to identify which backlinks are harmful. Several SEO tools can help you audit your backlink profile and flag suspicious links.

1. Use Backlink Analysis Tools

Several tools can help you identify toxic backlinks:

• Ahrefs: This tool provides a comprehensive backlink analysis and allows you to see toxic or low-quality backlinks pointing to your website.
• SEMrush: SEMrush’s Backlink Audit Tool gives each backlink a Toxic Score and helps you analyze the quality of each link.
• Moz: Offers a Spam Score feature, which helps identify potentially harmful backlinks.

2. Check Domain Authority and Relevance

Look for backlinks coming from sites with low Domain Authority (DA) or Domain Rating (DR). Also, check the relevance of the linking site—if it’s from a completely unrelated niche, the link could be harmful.

3. Look for Spammy or Irrelevant Links

Common characteristics of toxic backlinks include:

• Links from link farms or private blog networks (PBNs).
• Links from websites with minimal content, filled with ads, or marked by poor design.
• Exact-match anchor text that seems manipulative.
• Links from sites with a high Spam Score or from sites involved in malicious activities.

Once you’ve identified the toxic links, you can move on to the next step of disavowing them.

How to Create a Disavow File

A disavow file is a simple text file that lists all the links or domains you want Google to ignore when calculating your site’s ranking. This file is submitted through Google Search Console.

Step 1: Compile a List of Toxic Links

After identifying the harmful links through your backlink analysis tool, you’ll need to compile them into a list. You can choose to disavow:

• Specific URLs: This disavows individual links from a specific webpage.
• Entire Domains: This disavows all backlinks from a particular domain. Use this when an entire domain is spammy.

Step 2: Format Your Disavow File

The disavow file must be a plain text file in .txt format and should follow specific guidelines.

• Use one URL or domain per line.
• To disavow an entire domain, use the domain: prefix followed by the domain name (e.g., domain:example.com).
• For individual URLs, simply list the full URL (e.g., http://example.com/spammy-page).
• You can also add comments in the file by starting a line with a # symbol, but these comments will be ignored by Google.

Example of a disavow file:

# Disavowing toxic backlinks from spammy domains
domain:spamdomain1.com
domain:spamdomain2.com

# Disavowing specific URLs
http://example.com/spammy-link
http://spamwebsite.com/toxic-url

Step 3: Save the File

Save the file as a .txt file, and ensure there are no extra spaces, characters, or formatting issues. The file should be clean and follow Google’s specifications.

How to Submit the Disavow File in Google Search Console

Once your disavow file is ready, you can submit it using the Google Disavow Tool. Here’s how:

1. Access Google Disavow Tool:
   • Visit the Google Disavow Links Tool.
   • Select your website from the dropdown list.
2. Upload Your Disavow File:
   • Click the Upload Disavow File button.
   • Select and upload the .txt file you created with your list of disavowed links.
3. Confirm the Submission:
   • Google will review the file, and you’ll receive a confirmation once the file has been successfully uploaded. It may take several weeks for Google to process the disavowal and update your rankings accordingly.

Tips for Managing the Disavow Process

• Review your backlink profile regularly: Disavowing links isn’t a one-time task. Regularly audit your backlinks to catch any new toxic links.
• Disavow carefully: Be cautious when choosing which links to disavow. Removing legitimate, high-quality links could harm your rankings.
• Track progress: After submitting your disavow file, monitor your rankings and backlink profile to see how it impacts your site’s performance.

What Happens After Disavowing Links?

Once Google processes your disavow file, it will stop considering the toxic backlinks when assessing your site’s backlink profile. This doesn’t guarantee an immediate improvement in rankings, but over time, you should see a reduction in the negative impact of those links.

• Algorithmic recovery: If toxic backlinks have caused your rankings to drop, disavowing them may help your site recover over time.
• Manual actions: If your site has received a manual penalty, disavowing the harmful links and then filing a reconsideration request to Google can help you regain lost rankings.

Disavowing toxic backlinks is an important process for protecting your site from penalties and ensuring a healthy backlink profile. By identifying harmful links and submitting a disavow file through Google Search Console, you can safeguard your website’s SEO health.

However, use the disavow tool carefully. It should only be applied when you’re dealing with large numbers of toxic links or after manual removal attempts have failed. Regularly auditing your backlink profile and ensuring you acquire high-quality, relevant links are essential steps to maintaining good SEO practices.