tool, and webmasters everywhere couldn’t be happier.
Matt Cutts, head of the webspam team at Google, announced the unveiling in the middle of his keynote speaking engagement at Pubcon on October 16. Then, a few minutes after Cutts gave the word, the Google Webmaster Central blog posted the official announcement:
“A New Tool to Disavow Links
Tuesday, October 16, 2012 at 1:43 PM
Webmaster level: Advanced
Today we’re introducing a tool that enables you to disavow links to your site. If you’ve been notified of a manual spam action based on “unnatural links” pointing to your site, this tool can help you address the issue. If you haven’t gotten this notification, this tool generally isn’t something you need to worry about.”
Google says its engineers have been beta testing the new feature for weeks now, although there have been rumors of the impending new addition for months. The tool is now live, and you can find it by logging into your Webmaster Tools account and navigating to this page.
How to Use the “Disavow Links” Tool
It’s surprisingly simple to use the new tool right from your Webmaster Tools dashboard. Let’s say you have had a rather persistent set of naughty links from random adult sites pointing to your website for years now. You played detective for a while, trying your best to hunt down webmasters and get the nasty links removed, but nothing ever panned out. Your threats of legal action and Google reports fell upon deaf ears, and every one of your emails went unanswered.
That’s exactly what this tool is for. If you’ve exhausted all options and you’re still at a loss, you can create a simple text file listing the bad links to submit to Big G to disavow. All you must do is navigate to the “Disavow Links” page and start reporting.
You can only disavow links for one domain at a time, so start by picking the domain you’d like to work with first from the drop-down menu that appears when you click the arrows:
Image 1:
Next, Google will display a new dialog box prompting you to upload the text file you’ve created with the list of links you want to get rid of:
Image 2:
That’s it! Easy, no? As for the text file you’re submitting, Google only has a couple of rules regarding format. Simply list one URL per line. Here’s the example given in the official blog post:
Image 3:
As you can see, a pound sign prefaces any comments you choose to add to your request. Although these comments don’t do anything for your search ranking power, they may come in handy if you need to submit a reconsideration request in the future. It’s best to include them so they’re on file in your Webmaster Tools account.
List all offending domains in your request as illustrated above. Use the format domain:example.com. Remember that Google will disavow all links within this domain if your request is granted, so exercise great caution when listing domains. You can list subdomains on which links to your site appear as well if you’d like to drill down even further. The size of the file you may submit cannot exceed 2MB, and it is possible to update or change the file. You just need to download the one you submitted, make your changes, and upload the new file to replace the old one.
Managing Backlinks: Why You Should Care
It’s a fact that Google uses 200 signals (and counting) when it figures out how to place your website in the SERPs. PageRank is the most important – or, at the very least, most well-known – ranking signal around, simply because Google uses the metric to determine how much it trusts your website. The higher the rank, the greater the trust.
Your PageRank is primarily derived from the backlink profile sported by your website. If your website has been stuck at a PR 2 or 3 for multiple updates even though you’ve been steadily adding content and gaining traction, spammy links could be to blame. Think of your backlink profile like your website’s credit report. It does no good to obsess about it, but checking it thoroughly from time to time is essential to the overall health of your site.
That’s why this tool is so cool. You can pop into Webmaster Tools to analyze the list of backlinks pointing to your site, then you can determine which links are shady and which are legit.
Negative SEO and You
Since the major Penguin and Panda updates, negative SEO has become a serious problem for webmasters. Entire industries sprang up seemingly overnight dedicated to spamming links unbeknownst to innocent site owners then extorting them into paying to have them removed. Overly ambitious SEOs spammed their competitors to knock them out of tops spots in the SERPs. The playing field was starting to get mighty dirty.
That’s why this tool was long overdue. Now, webmasters have total control over their backlink profiles. But take heed – there’s also much greater responsibly tied to that. You must take it upon yourself to monitor your backlinks from time to time in order to unearth foul play before it gets out of hand, then you must take action to stop it quickly.
Warnings, Disclaimers, and Skepticism
Matt Cutts issued a series of warnings in his video explaining the new tool. First, he pointed out that Google reserved the right not to honor some requests to disavow certain links. Further, he noted that submissions are just that – requests. Simply submitting a form doesn’t guarantee you’ll get bad links disavowed.
Cutts also offered up a disclaimer – it may take weeks to see results once you file your petition. It will take time for the bots to crawl, the index to update, etc. Keep this in mind and be sure to wait a sufficient amount of time before beginning to fret. He also noted that those who were affected by the recent updates should wait for a period of weeks after submitting their disavow link request before they try to submit a website reconsideration request. The additional period will give the index enough time to update with the newly disavowed links.
I read all the official literature about the new disavow link tool and I watched Cutts’ video. I’ve also been following the lead-up to this announcement with great interest for months now. It was interesting to see all the info (especially the video) urging webmasters to use the “pro tool” (their words) as a very last resort. The warnings seemed hasty, rushed, almost fearful…as if Google’s nervous there will be some kind of flood of requests and the staff will be overwhelmed. Their fears are justified: I’m sure that will happen regardless of their pleas given the intensity of negative SEO over the past few months.
I’m in the “moderation is key” camp. Remember to treat the tool like your credit report and if you look at it every month or so, you’ll be fine. However, if you check it every day, you’ll waste critical time better spent doing what’s most important – building upon and marketing your website.
