How to Disavow Backlinks in Google Search Console

Building high-quality backlinks or link building is one of the most important aspects of SEO.

Backlinks are essentially links from other domains or webpages that point to your website.

When a website links to your site, it tells search engines that your content is valuable and authoritative.

As a result, your website is more likely to appear at the top of SERPs when someone searches for keywords related to your business.

However, not all backlinks are created equal.

Some backlinks may be low-quality, spammy, or even harmful to your website’s search engine rankings.

For example, if your website receives a lot of backlinks from low-quality directories or link farms, search engines may penalize your website, causing it to drop in rankings.

When you discover low-quality or spammy backlinks pointing to your website, you have a few options.

One option is to try to remove the links manually by reaching out to the website owners and requesting that they remove the link.

However, this can be a time-consuming and challenging process, especially if you have a large number of backlinks to review.

Another option is to use Google Disavow Tool, which allows you to inform Google which backlinks you want to disavow.

When you disavow a backlink, you are essentially telling Google that you do not want it to consider that backlink when calculating your website’s search rankings.

In this article, we will discuss what disavow is, what Google says about it, and whether you should use the Disavow Tool.

We will also provide step-by-step instructions on how to disavow links in Google Search Console and how to determine which backlinks to disavow.

What is Disavow in SEO?

Disavow is a feature in Google Search Console that allows website owners or SEO specialists to ask Google to ignore specific domains or pages pointing to their site.

When you disavow links, you are essentially telling Google that you do not want those links to be considered when assessing your website’s ranking.

Disavowing a link of a webpage or domain does not remove the link from the web or the page it is on, but it tells Google to ignore it when assessing your website’s ranking.

What Does Google Say About Disavowing?

Google recommends that website owners disavow backlinks only as a last resort.

In most cases, Google recommends that website owners try to remove spammy or low-quality backlinks manually by contacting the website owner or webmaster who created the link.

Only when all attempts to remove the links manually have failed should you consider disavowing the links using Google’s Disavow Tool.

Google also warns that the Disavow Tool should be used with caution and only when necessary.

Disavowing too many good links can hurt your website’s ranking and can even result in a manual action against your site.

Should You Use The Disavow Tool?

As previously mentioned, the Disavow Tool should only be used as a last resort.

You should try to remove spammy or low-quality links manually first.

However, if you have received a message from Google notifying you of a manual action against your site due to unnatural links or if you have many spammy or low-quality links from wepgages or domains pointing to your site, then you may need to use the Disavow Tool.

At times, your competitors may engage in a negative SEO attack against you, causing your website to lose rankings and traffic. Unfortunately, this unethical practice can occur.

Therefore, it is crucial to disavow every link from such attacks.

How to Create a Disavow File?

You can easily create a disavow file by using our Free Disavow File Generator.

Or you can do the following steps:

1. Identify the links: You need to identify the links that you want to disavow. This can be done using various tools such as Google Search Console, Ahrefs, SEMrush, or any other backlink checker.
2. Create a list: Create a list of all the links that you want to disavow. Make sure that the list includes the complete URL of the linking page.
3. Create a text file: Open a text editor such as Notepad and create a new text file.
4. Format the file: The file should be formatted in a specific way. Each link should be on a separate line, and the format should be as follows: “domain:example.com”. If you want to disavow a specific page, you can use the format “domain:example.com/page.html”.
5. Upload the file: Once the file is ready, save it with a .txt extension and upload it to Google Search Console. Go to the “Disavow Links” section and upload the file.
6. Monitor your website: After uploading the disavow file, it may take some time for Google to process it. Monitor your website’s traffic and rankings to see if there are any improvements.

How Do You Disavow a Link in Google Search Console?

To disavow links, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your Google Search Console account.
2. Click on the website for which you want to disavow backlinks.
3. Click on “Links” in the left-hand navigation menu.
4. Click on “Disavow links” at the top of the page.
5. Click on “Disavow links” again on the next page.
6. Click on “Choose file” and select the list of pages or domains to upload.
7. Click on “Submit” to upload the file.

How Do you Determine Which Backlinks to Disavow?

To determine which backlinks to disavow, you need to analyze your link profile thoroughly.

Look for links that seem spammy or low-quality. 

There are many tools available online that can help you audit your backlinks and assess which links to trust without additional analysis.

One tool that many SEO professionals use is Ahrefs, which is a paid link audit tool.

This tool provides detailed information about each backlink pointing to your site, including the anchor text, domain authority, and the URL where the link is located.

Using Ahrefs or a similar tool, you can quickly identify problematic links and create a list of links to disavow.

If you don’t have access to a paid tool like Ahrefs, you can use free tools to find out bad backlinks to remove like our Free Bad Backlink Cheker.

You can then export this data and use it to create a disavow list.

What Is a Bad Backlink?

A bad backlink is a link that comes from a spammy or low-quality website.

Google considers these links to be unnatural and can penalize your site for having too many of them.

Bad backlinks can come from sites that use black hat SEO techniques, like link farms or paid link schemes.

They can also come from low-quality directories or blog networks.

Do You Need to Disavow Spammy Links?

If you have many spammy or low-quality links pointing to your site, it’s a good idea to disavow them.

If you don’t, your site’s search rankings could suffer.

Google has gotten much better at identifying and penalizing sites with unnatural links, so it’s important to take action to remove or disavow these links.

However, it’s important to note that not all spammy or low-quality links are worth disavowing.

If you only have a few bad links, it’s usually better to try to remove them manually. 

How Long Does It Take to Disavow Links?

From when you upload the file to Google It can take several weeks for it to process your disavow file and ignore the links you want to disavow.

During this time, it’s possible that the links could still be impacting your rankings.

However, once Google processes your disavow file, you should start to see the effects of the disavowed links within a few weeks.

What Happens When You Disavow A Backlink?

When you disavow a backlink, you’re telling Google to ignore that link and not consider it when assessing your site’s rankings.

This means that the link won’t pass any link juice to your site, and it won’t be a factor in determining your site’s domain authority.

What Happens If I Don’t Disavow Spammy backlinks?

If you don’t disavow spammy backlinks, your site could be penalized by Google.

Google can issue a manual action against your site, which could result in a drop in search rankings or even a complete deindexing of your site from search engine results.

This can be devastating for your site’s traffic and can take months to recover from.

Is It Possible To Undo A Link Disavow?

Yes, it is possible to undo a link disavow.

If you have mistakenly disavowed a link or if you want to re-include a previously disavowed link, you can undo the disavow by following these steps:

1. Open your disavow file: Access your disavow file through Google Search Console or your text editor.
2. Remove the disavowed link: Locate the line in your disavow file containing the link you want to re-include and delete it. Save the file.
3. Upload the updated file: Once you have removed the disavowed link from the file, upload the updated file to Google Search Console.
4. Wait for Google to re-crawl the link: Google will eventually re-crawl the link and consider it for ranking purposes again.

In conclusion, disavowing backlinks is an important part of maintaining a healthy link profile and ensuring your website’s SEO success.

The disavow tool provided by Google Search Console is a powerful resource that allows you to take control of your backlink profile and remove links that could potentially harm your website’s ranking.

While it’s important to exercise caution when using the tool, by following best practices and guidelines, you can safely remove problematic links and improve your website’s search engine rankings.