What Is Disavowing Links?

What Does Google's Link Disavow Tool Do?

Google’s Disavow Tool is part of Google Search Console, specifically designed for advanced SEOs to mitigate damage from unnatural backlinks. When you upload a disavow file, you're submitting a text file listing domains or individual URLs that you want Google to ignore for ranking purposes.

The Disavow Tool is intentionally hard to find - you won’t find it in the regular part of Google Search Console - instead, you can only find it by searching for it in Google search. This is because it’s an advanced tool that shouldn’t be used unless you really need to. We’d strongly advise against using this tool unless you’re an SEO professional or have been recommended to use it by your SEO agency.

The warning below is displayed when you visit the Google Disavow Tool page, and rightly so:

Technically, disavowing a link adds it to an internal list that Google references during the link evaluation process of ranking your website. It doesn't "remove" the link from the web - it simply tells Google's algorithm to treat it as if it doesn't exist in the context of your own website’s backlink profile.

Why Disavow Links?

If your website is struggling for rankings, and you know there’s an issue with poor quality backlinks, then using the Disavow Tool could be a solution to your problems. 
Note that it’s always worth checking the Disavow Tool to see if a disavow text file already exists, because if set up incorrectly, it could be damaging to your rankings.
There are several reasons an SEO expert might want to disavow links:

• Manual Actions from Google - If your site has been penalised for unnatural links (you’ll receive a manual action in Google Search Console, along with an email), using a disavow file is often essential in order to regain trust and rankings.
• Toxic Link Profile - If you've inherited a domain with a spammy backlink history, or suffered from an aggressive negative SEO campaign, disavowing links may help to clean up your profile.
• Legacy Link Building Tactics - If you engaged in link schemes in the past, in particular if you bought links in the past, disavowing those links can be a way of disassociating from prior risk.

Should I Disavow Links?

This is where most SEOs make mistakes. In 99% of cases you should not need to disavow links. In fact, Google’s John Mueller has spoken about this several times, stating that “if you weren’t buying links, don’t disavow”.

There are however a handful of occasions where disavowing links might be worthwhile for your domain. These include:

• You've received a manual action in Google Search Console, whereby a Google representative has told you to clean up your backlink profile.
• You're recovering from a penalty or algorithmic drop and have reason to believe links are the cause.
• You have a history of aggressive or manipulative link acquisition.
• You have done a comprehensive link audit and have proof that specific links are harming your visibility.

Google has repeatedly stated that their algorithm is highly effective at ignoring bad links automatically.

SEOs often focus on disavowing ‘low domain authority’ links, thinking that they are making their domain stronger by filtering out the low quality links. This is incorrect.

Every site on the internet has poor quality links. Remember, once upon a time, your site was just starting out and had low domain authority too! Low authority links demonstrate that your backlink profile is natural. Removing them risks your backlink profile looking unnatural, because you’re removing link equity for no apparent benefit.

Disavowing without proper analysis can actually harm your rankings if you mistakenly remove links that were positively contributing to your authority. In some extreme cases, we’ve seen situations where people have managed to disavow their entire backlink profile with incorrect use of the Google Disavow Tool. As such, we’d strongly recommend requesting SEO expertise before using the disavow tool. 

Which Links To Disavow?

Okay, so if you’re set on using the Disavow Tool, you’ll need to analyse your backlink profile at a detailed level. You should only disavow links that meet the below criteria - again, just removing links because they have low authority is not reason enough!

• Unnatural or spammy in nature – Such as auto-generated content, forum spam, paid links with no disclosure, PBNs, etc. However, be cautious with removing these types of links. If every website on the internet has links from these domains, it’s worth keeping as a ‘natural’ link, even if it’s of low value.
• Paid Links – If the link was not earned or placed based on merit. Remember, buying links is against Google’s guidelines.
• No way to remove manually – You've attempted to reach out to the linking site and failed, or it’s not feasible.
• Repeated at scale from suspicious domains – e.g., 50+ links from adult sites, pharma websites, or hacked websites.

What to avoid disavowing:

• Links from legitimate directories.
• ‘Nofollow’ links (they don’t pass link equity anyway).
• Low Domain Authority sites that are still genuine.
• Links with keyword-rich anchor text that were naturally placed.
• Any link where you’re not sure it’s worth disavowing - keep it!

Always review the context of a link before labeling it toxic. Use tools like Ahrefs, Majestic, or SEMrush to assess link quality, but don’t blindly trust a "toxicity score". Most tools score ‘toxicity’ literally based on the website’s domain or page authority only, and this is simply not sufficient enough information to disavow links.

How Do I Disavow Links?

If you’ve read all of the above and are still sure that using the Disavow Tool is what you want or need to do, then here’s a step-by-step guide to disavowing links properly:

#1 Conduct a Link Audit

Use link analysis tools (Ahrefs, SEMrush, Majestic, Google Search Console) to extract your backlink profile. Use metrics such as Domain Authority to guide you towards links that are likely to be worth removal, but don’t use this as gospel.

Make sure to also import other important data such as the Location of the website, as well as things like Page Title and Language. This will help you to be able to filter by spam topics, e.g. gambling or adult terms.

#2 Identify Unnatural Links

Filter for:

• Links from spammy or irrelevant sites.
• Irrelevant Page Titles or metadata.
• Irrelevant link anchor texts, particularly if they’re topics totally unrelated to your website.
• Link networks or suspicious websites (e.g., identical content on multiple linking domains).

#3 Attempt Manual Removal

Email or contact webmasters and request removal. Make sure to give them the exact URL where your link exists, and use screenshots to make it easy for them to understand where the link is that you want them to remove.

Make sure to keep a record. If you’re submitting a reconsideration request for a Manual Action then it’s a requirement that you’ve contacted webmasters to ask for links to be removed. 

#4 Create Your Disavow File

The format of a Disavow File is that it’s a basic text file - no formatting, just plain text. An example is shown below:

Use ‘domain:’ to disavow an entire domain, or list the individual URLs to be more precise.

Avoid using ‘domain:’ unless you’re certain the whole domain is problematic - don’t be lazy!

You can use a # to add comments about the URLs thereafter. This is particularly useful if you’ve received a Manual penalty and need to add some context about the URLs you’re disavowing - or just if you want to leave a note to your future self!

#5 Upload to Google

• Go to the Disavow Tool.
• Select your property. Note that you’ll need to have full access to the website’s profile in Google Search Console to be able to access the Disavow Tool.
• Upload the text file, or replace the text file if one exists already.
• Wait for the file to be processed, and check that the number of URLs and domains matches up to the number you’re expecting to see disavowed.

How Long Does It Take For Google to Disavow Links?

There’s no exact timeline. In fact, it’s similar to a Digital PR strategy, where it takes time for Google to see all of the new links and update your rankings accordingly. Typically, the timeline is as follows:

• Crawling: Google needs to re-crawl the disavowed URLs/domains before the disavow takes effect. This can take several weeks for the entire list to be re-crawled.
• Processing Time: Once crawled, it can take 2-4 weeks for the impact to be reflected in the algorithm and therefore with your keyword positions.
• Manual Actions: If you’re addressing a Manual Action, expect a response from Google in 2-3 weeks, though it can take longer. You’ll get an email letting you know if you were successful, or if not, examples will be provided for how to fix it.

In Summary

Google’s Link Disavow Tool is a complicated tool that you should only be using if absolutely necessary, and only with an SEO expert’s guidance. Nearly every backlink profile online includes spammy or low quality links, and this is perfectly natural! You should only be using the disavow tool if there is something unnatural that you need to remove.

If you need help with analysing whether you should be using the disavow tool, or if a disavow file is already hurting your site, it's worth running a link audit - which we can help with. Just get in contact with us today.