Use Google's Disavow Software for Higher Rankings
I was recently asked for help by a friend because their website rankings were full.
Always ready to help, I asked her what she was doing to build links and improve SEO.
Everything she did was fine. So I cheered on Ahrefs and checked out their backlink profile. I saw it there.
Tons of spam links pointed to their website. These links killed their ranking.
Then I looked at their Google Webmaster Tools account and found that a manual actions report stated that their site was being penalized for poor quality links.
Here is an example from linkresearchtools.com of what this report looks like.
I asked her if she tried to remove these spam links using the disavow tool. She looked at me like a deer in headlights.
This is the deal:
It's no secret that spam links can hurt your website's rankings.
Knowing how to create links is a cornerstone of search engine optimization. The downside, however, is that you know how to avoid malicious links pointing to your website.
If you don't know how to protect yourself from bad backlinks, you could be setting your website up for an epic mistake.
The good news is that you can check your link profile and use Google's disavow tool to prevent or reverse penalties.
If used incorrectly, you can do more harm than good to your website. You should make sure that you are careful while using the tool.
This article will teach you how to use the tool well.
What is Google's Disavow Tool and When Should You Use It?
Before we get into the tool, let's delve into the concept of link denying.
Good backlinks can increase your Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA) scores, increase your visibility on search engines, and help you rank better.
Bad backlinks do just the opposite. They harm your SEO and cause you to lose ranking.
With that in mind, don't reject Left Left and Right.
When you decline a link, you are telling the search engines not to consider a specific link when crawling your website.
There are a few categories of faulty backlinks that you should consider disapproving:
- Websites set up for links only
- Obviously spam sites
- Links in spam comments
- Backlinks from websites in your non-target country (s) (e.g. a backlink from a German website if your target group is in the USA)
If you have no control over the spam links, use the disavow tool to have Google ignore them.
Warning about Google's disavow tool
According to Google, incorrect use of this tool can negatively affect your ranking.
That sounds pretty intense, but don't worry. Google just wants to make sure you aren't disapproving the wrong links. You should apply for a move first, and I'll talk about that later.
Just make sure to use the tool if you have a lot of low quality backlinks pointing to your website and if you are sure they are causing problems.
The good news is that if you use it the right way, you can improve your rankings.
Best practices for disavow tools
There are a few important rules of thumb to keep in mind when using the Disavow tool:
First, try removing links via email
Google prefers that you try to remove links yourself before using the disavow tool.
You can do this with a link removal request.
A link removal request occurs when one website owner emails another to request the removal of a link.
Moz shows an example of a link removal request here.
Unfortunately, requests to remove links get a bad rap. Often times they are ignored, missed, malicious, and even spammy. Sending successful link removal requests is an art.
Use it when you need it
Matt Cutts (former head of Google's webspam team) gives the green light to using the Disavow tool:
You may be concerned about negative search engine optimization or a bunch of spam links pointing to your website. In that case, it would be a good step to decline. It's okay to disable links even if you don't see a message in your webmaster console.
If your removal request emails are ineffective, you can always use the disavow tool.
Use it like a shotgun, not a rifle
Instead of selecting broken links one at a time, you should instead use the domain operator to instead disable all broken backlinks for an entire domain. This is also a faster way to improve your ranking. It may take longer to display results if you select broken links one by one.
Using the Disavow Tool: A Step-by-Step Guide
Now is the time to take a step-by-step look at how to use the Disavow tool
Make a list of backlinks
There are many different tools you can use to get a list of your backlinks.
These services often try to automate the review process. While this saves time, it won't produce a clean result like checking every link manually.
To manually create your own backlink list, do the following.
Download your links from all sources
First, switch to Google Webmaster Tools. Click search traffic and links to your website. Download both the latest links and sample links.
If your website has a large number of domains linked (over 1,000), you can find more links by downloading the sample link list every day for a few days.
You can also download links from other sources:
- Open the Site Explorer: A great tool from Moz, one of the biggest brands in the advanced SEO community.
- Ahrefs: One of the most accurate and largest databases for live backlinks
- Majestic SEO: Breaks down a lot of information into digestible, granular pieces. This tool is great at preventing overpowering.
- Ubersuggest: View your backlink profile, view content suggestions, and more.
Put your links in a table
After you've compiled the tables from your sources, find the URL column of the websites that are linked to you and copy that column into a new table. You can also use Google Docs or Excel – whichever you prefer.
Now you have a main list of all the links that lead to your website. You will see some duplicates but don't worry, we'll fix that later.
Divide the URLs into subdomains
Create a new column immediately to the left of your URLs. At the top of table (A1), enter the following formula:
= left (B1, find ("/", B1,9-1)
Now highlight the entire column and press CTRL + D on your keyboard. This will fill every cell in the row with the formula.
Then select the entire column again and convert the results of the formula into values. This allows you to copy and paste data into the column.
To do this, press Ctrl + C to copy, then press Edit, Paste Special, and Paste Values Only.
Next, use the Find and Replace tool to break everything down into its subdomain.
With column A highlighted, click Edit and Find and Replace. Enter "HTTP: //" (without the quotation marks), don't enter anything in the replacement box, and click "Replace All".
Repeat the same steps with these two sets
- https: //
- www. (Do you remember the time after www)
After you are done, Column A will now contain the subdomains or domains of each URL pointing to your website.
Get rid of duplicate Left
You will likely have a few domains with multiple links. We want there to be only one link from each domain. Sort column A in alphabetical order, then add a new column to the left of the domains. Enter this formula:
= if (B1 = B2, "duplicate", "unique")
Copy this across the entire table again (you can also click the little plus sign in the lower right corner of a highlighted cell – also known as the Fill button).
Next, filter that column to only show the duplicates. Finally, delete any duplicate URL.
Now you have a url for each domain that gives you a backlink.
Check your backlinks
Now click on each URL in your table and decide whether you want to keep or reject all links from each domain.
If you're not sure, you can always mark links as "Maybe" and refer to them later after you've checked all of your links.
Sometimes you can spot patterns after looking at all of the links that you would not otherwise have seen.
If you're not sure whether or not to decline a link, consider the following questions:
"Does this link help me?" i.e., "Could I actually get business and / or traffic from this link?"
"Was this link made 100% just for SEO?"
"If a Google employee saw this link, would I be concerned?"
Remember, Google will only penalize websites that try to play the system. Every page has its share of unnatural links.
You will not be fined for following the rules. So if you see unnatural links, don't sweat it.
Create a disavow file
When you've checked all of the links, filter the column to show only the links that you want to decline.
Next, create a new table and copy and paste your domains into the new table.
Next, you'll want to add "domain:" (no quotation marks) in front of each domain name.
If you disallow at the domain level, it will cleanly search all broken links on that domain. If you reject the URL, you are more likely to miss bad links.
You always want to decline at the domain level.
Enter the following formula in B1 to add "domain:" before each domain name.
= "Domain:" & A1
Use the Fill button to paste the formula into the entire column. Select the column again and then choose Insert special and insert as values.
Now column B will be full of disavow statements.
Create a text file
Your disavow file must be in 7-bit ASCII or UTF-8 format. You can do this in a number of ways.
On a Mac, open TextEdit, copy and paste column B into TextEdit. Then click Format and create simple text.
In Google Docs, open a Google Docs document, copy column B into a document, then click File, Download As, and Plain Text.
Add comments
Feel free to add comments to your disavow file by starting your comment with a #. However, keep in mind that Google staff will not view your disavow file.
The disavow tool is 100% automated. Any comment you add is related to your own records. You can include them to free your memory on certain things when you visit the file again in the future.
File your disavow
Go to the Disavow tool and select your file from the drop-down list. Click Disable Links twice, then choose Choose File. Then you want to upload the TXT file you created.
This is what a successful rejection looks like:
Top Disavow Tool Errors
Attempting to disable links can result in errors.
Fortunately, there is a common mistake when disabling links. In this video, Matt Cutts talks about common mistakes people encounter while using the Disavow tool.
- You should only upload a normal text file. No collations, fonts, or syntax should be added to this file. The users try to upload spreadsheets, Word documents, and other file formats. Upload a text file (TXT) only.
- First, use the domain: command when disabling links so that you disable all links from the entire site. Often times, users try to disable certain URLs with a fine comb. Do not do that.
- Incorrect syntax is another problem that is common. Make sure you are using a .txt file with the correct syntax.
- If you have a comment on why Google should decline certain links, please save it for re-examination request. Don't write it in the text file.
- When commenting with the Disavow tool, make sure you are using tags. Failure to do this will result in syntax errors. In fact, it's best to narrow your comments.
- The disavow tool is not a magic wand that fixes every url. You should manually clean up your link profile in addition to using the tool.
frequently asked Questions
Do you have anymore questions? Here are some of the most frequently asked questions
How often should I use the Disavow tool?
It all depends on your link profile. For example, if your website has a track record of unnatural links, you may need to do a monthly denial.
In other cases, it is best to do a link audit first and then a disavow.
By removing any rejection, you are giving yourself time to identify recurring issues and trends. That way, you can make better decisions with your link building strategies.
But if you have an average website that doesn't have links with low quality links, and if you're not in a competitive environment where negative SEO isn't a big deal, you can only opt out once or twice a year .
When should I manually remove a link and when should I use the disavow tool?
Removing a link manually should always be your first option.
However, if you are being algorithmically penalized by, for example, Penguin, there is no need to send long, lengthy email emails to website owners asking them to remove links.
In that case, you should refuse. However, if you have been given a manual penalty, you should definitely try removing links manually first.
Can I reconfirm a link if I make a mistake?
To confirm again, modify your disavow file by removing the directive and uploading again. Matt Cutts has stated that it takes "a lot longer" to rediscover a link than it does to deny it.
Google intentionally builds in this delay time to keep spammers from playing the system.
How long will it take to see better traffic and rankings?
Google will apply your disavow instructions to your links as soon as they crawl your website.
After you've uploaded your instructions, Google will apply an invisible nofollow tag to the disallowed links pointing to your website.
This means that these links will be removed from the equation if the Google algorithm takes your website into account.
You'll have to wait for Google to run the algorithm again so you don't see any changes right away. Most links only take a month to be removed.
Quick guide to using the Disavow tool
The disavow tool is a powerful tool for cleaning up your link profile. Here's how to use it.
- Download all links from all sources
Go to Google Analytics, Ubersuggest, and Ahrefs to see all of your links.
- Sort the data
Pull all lists together, then remove duplicates and sort them.
- Check your backlinks
Check which links are problematic and remove the good ones.
- Try manual removal
Send emails to websites asking you to remove the links.
- Create a text file
Your disavow file must be in 7-bit ASCII or UTF-8 format. You can do this in a number of ways.
- Add comments
Use # to add comments or notes as needed.
- Submit the file to Google
Submit your file and wait for Google to decide.
Conclusion
Whether you are hiring a seedy SEO agency or falling victim to negative SEO, you need to turn down bad links before you are penalized.
However, be careful and do not abuse the tool. Rejecting the wrong links can damage your ranking as much as bad backlinks can.
If you neglect links carelessly, your backlink profile may look unnatural and lead to a punishment.
You need to check individual backlinks before submitting your disavow file. There's no way around it.
However, if you do everything right and your traffic and search engine optimization will improve.
The Disavow tool isn't the magic end-all-be-all button that sends tons of traffic on your way.
However, it is a great SEO tool to have in your arsenal that every website owner should be familiar with.
What results did you get with the Disavow tool?
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