What is Google’s ‘disavow links’ tool?

In October 2012, Google launched its ‘disavow links’ tool. What this means is that you can decide which of the backlinks to your site you want Google to ignore when it assesses your site. But hang on – why would you want Google to ignore anything?

If any of your old SEO companies have engaged in underhand linkbuilding tactics, such as paying for thousands and thousands of cheap, poorly written, spun articles to be planted on spam-riddled blogs, you could well benefit from disavowing these links. This is because Google sees a lot of these spammy, low quality links pointing to your site and assumes you’re part of the same network.

Negative SEO campaigns from competitors can also put you in a position where you’ll need to disavow links without even realising. If rivals decide to hit your site with link after link submitted to unreputable sites, you may find yourself with a huge number of links negatively impacting on your site.

So how do you disavow a link? Well, unless it’s just the one or two, it’s not an easy task, and should be taken on by an expert. You need to submit the links you wish to disavow to Google to ask them not to consider them when they look at your site. This shows them that you’re aware that this is a ‘bad’ link and that you don’t want the negative impact of its link.

Unfortunately there can be a bit of a delay while Google reviews your disavowal request, but this is better than the alternative. You can get all the good links you want, but if they’re sitting alongside hundreds of bad links, you’ll be fighting a losing battle. If you suspect you might have lots of spammy backlinks pointing to your site, contact Artemis today to find out how we can help.