Google’s Disavow Tool allows you to reject low-quality or spammy backlinks to your site. Normally, Google can ignore harmful links with its own algorithms, but manual intervention may be necessary for sites that have experienced intense spam attacks or have had bad link practices in the past. With this tool, you can report links that could negatively affect your site’s ranking to Google, ensuring that they are ignored.
For example, if your site has hundreds of links from p*rn, gambling, or hacking sites in different languages, this could negatively impact your ranking. In such a case, by identifying these domain names and uploading them to the Disavow Tool, you are telling Google, “I have no connection to these links; please disregard them.” This process is one of the most important steps in protecting your SEO efforts in the long term.
When Should You Use the Disavow Tool?
The Disavow Tool is not a solution that should be used for every backlink issue. If you only have a few low-quality links, Google may already ignore them. However, if you have received a manual spam penalty, if a large part of your backlink profile consists of suspicious sites, or if you are the target of a negative SEO attack by your competitors, then you should definitely use it.
For example, let’s say an e-commerce site receives thousands of backlinks from sites offering “cheap credit,” “betting,” or “adult content.” These types of links seriously damage your site’s credibility. This is where the Disavow Tool comes in, helping you create a clean profile in Google’s ranking algorithms by rejecting domain names or individual page links.
Sample Disavow Tool File
The disavow file is prepared in a simple .txt format and uploaded via Google Search Console. You can click here to access the upload page. Each line in the file contains a link or domain name to be disavowed. A single URL can be disavowed, or the domain: command can be used to disavow an entire domain name. The # sign can also be used to add comments.
For example:
# Malicious URL Addresses
https://spamsite.com/spam-page.html
# Malicious Domain Addresses
domain:spam-site.comWhen this file is uploaded to Google, all listed links are ignored by search engine algorithms. This makes your site more reliable with a clean backlink profile. If you would like professional support in this matter, please contact us.
Source: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2648487
