{"id":20048,"date":"2022-11-30T23:40:52","date_gmt":"2022-11-30T23:40:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/11\/30\/disavowing-random-links-flagged-by-tools-is-a-waste-of-time\/"},"modified":"2022-11-30T23:40:52","modified_gmt":"2022-11-30T23:40:52","slug":"disavowing-random-links-flagged-by-tools-is-a-waste-of-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/11\/30\/disavowing-random-links-flagged-by-tools-is-a-waste-of-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Disavowing Random Links Flagged By Tools Is A Waste Of Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Google\u2019s John Mueller answered a question about using the link disavow tool and offered a tip about the best way to use it, specifically mentioning links flagged by tools.<\/p>\n

Although this tool was introduced ten years ago there is still much confusion as to the proper use of it.<\/p>\n

Link Disavow Tool<\/h2>\n

The link disavow tool was introduced by Google in October 2012.<\/p>\n

The disavow tool followed in the wake of the Penguin Algorithm from May 2012, which ushered in a period of unprecedented chaos in the search marketing community because so many people were buying and selling links.<\/p>\n

This period of openly buying and selling links came to a stop on May 2012 when the Penguin algorithm update was released and thousands of websites lost rankings.<\/p>\n

Getting paid links removed was a huge pain for because they had to request removal from every site, one by one.<\/p>\n

There were so many link removal requests that some site owners started charging a fee to remove the links.<\/p>\n

The SEO community begged Google for an easier way to disavow links and in response to popular demand Google released the Link Disavow tool<\/a> on October 2012 for the express purpose of disavowing spam links that a site owner was responsible for.<\/p>\n

The idea of a link disavow tool was something that had been kicking around for many years, at least since 2007<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Google resisted releasing that tool until after the Penguin update.<\/p>\n

Google\u2019s official announcement<\/a> from October 2012 explained:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u201cIf you\u2019ve been notified of a manual spam action based on \u201cunnatural links\u201d pointing to your site, this tool can help you address the issue.<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t gotten this notification, this tool generally isn\u2019t something you need to worry about.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Google also offered details of what kinds of links could trigger a manual action:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u201cWe send you this message when we see evidence of paid links, link exchanges, or other link schemes that violate our quality guidelines.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

John Mueller Advice on Link Disavow Tool<\/h2>\n

Mueller answered a question about disavowing links to a domain property and as a side note offered advice on the proper use of the tool.<\/p>\n

The question asked was:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u201cThe disavow feature in Search Console is currently unavailable for domain properties. What are the options then?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

John Mueller answered:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u201cWell, if you have domain level verification in place, you can verify the prefix level without needing any additional tokens.<\/p>\n

Verify that host and do what you need to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Then Mueller added an additional comment about the proper way to use the link disavow tool.<\/p>\n

Mueller continued his answer:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u201cAlso, keep in mind that disavowing random links that look weird or that some tool has flagged, is not a good use of your time.<\/p>\n

It changes nothing.<\/p>\n

Use the disavow tool for situations where you actually paid for links and can\u2019t get them removed afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Toxic Link Tools and Random Links<\/h2>\n

Many third party tools use proprietary algorithms to score backlinks according to how spammy or toxic the tool company feels they are.<\/p>\n

Those toxicity scores may accurately rank how bad certain links appear to be but they don\u2019t necessarily correlate with how Google ranks and uses links.<\/p>\n

Toxic link tool scores are just opinions.<\/p>\n

The tools are useful for generating an automated backlink review, especially when they highlight negative links that you thought were good.<\/p>\n

However, the only links one should be disavowing are the links one knows<\/em> are paid for or are a part of a link scheme.<\/p>\n

Should You Believe Anecdotal Evidence of Toxic Links?<\/h2>\n

Many people experience ranking losses and when checking their backlinks are shocked to discover a large amount of extremely low quality webpages linking to their websites.<\/p>\n

Naturally it\u2019s assumed that this is the reason for the ranking drops and a never-ending cycle of link disavowing commences.<\/p>\n

In those cases it may be useful to consider that there is some other reason for the change in rankings.<\/p>\n

One case that stands out is when someone came to me about a negative SEO attack. I took a look at the links and they were really bad, exactly as described.<\/p>\n

There were hundreds of adult themed spam links with exact match anchor text on unrelated adult topics pointing to his website.<\/p>\n

Those backlinks fit the definition of a negative SEO attack.<\/p>\n

I was curious so I privately contacted a Googler by email.
They emailed me back the next day and confirmed that negative SEO was not the reason why the site had lost rankings.<\/p>\n

The real cause for the loss of rankings was that the site was affected by the Panda algorithm.<\/p>\n

What triggered the Panda algorithm was low quality content that the site owner had created.<\/p>\n

I have seen this many times since then, where the real problem was that the site owner was unable to objectively review their own content so they blamed links.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s helpful to keep in mind that what seems like the obvious reason for a loss in rankings is not necessarily the actual reason, it\u2019s just the easiest to blame because it\u2019s obvious.<\/p>\n

But as John Mueller said, disavowing links that a tool has flagged and that aren\u2019t paid links is not a good use of time.<\/p>\n

Citation<\/h2>\n

Featured image by Shutterstock\/Asier Romero<\/em><\/p>\n

Listen to the Google SEO Office Hours video at the 1:10 minute mark<\/p>\n