Unless you build unnatural, “intentionally” gamed backlinks, Google probably overlooks your site’s spammy inbound links. But how can you tell one from the other?
One of the lessons of the recent algorithm update —the crackdown on AI-content fluff aside— is that Google penalties are real. As such, anything spammy and unnatural is unsafe.
The same rule applies to your toxic backlinks [Semrush’s term]. Will you also be de-indexed and slapped with a manual action?
Should you disavow or remove the “bad” links to avoid the backlash? Does Google care if you do or not?
This article will provide the much-needed answers to your questions.
Let’s start from the basics…
What Does It Mean to Disavow Links?
Disavow, in its dictionary definition, means to disown something. It still works the same for backlinks.
Now, the question is, what are you disowning and to whom?
You are disowning the low-quality links pointing to your site and informing Google to not count such when evaluating & crawling/indexing you [your site] for search rankings.
While the definition makes disavowing backlinks easy on the eye, it isn’t.
Simplicity aside, the whole process can harm your site if done incorrectly. Even Google recommends caution when disavowing links.
📌 Is disavowing the same as removing links?
No!
Disavow informs Google to discredit/overlook a backlink for indexing/crawling and search rankings.
Removal means contacting your referring domains to stop linking to you.
Should You Disavow Your Spammy Links?
While dreading the backlash of “bad backlinks” is okay, you don’t necessarily have to use Google’s disavow tool. You can ignore the links instead. Google probably doesn’t care.🤷🏾♂️
Otherwise, Google [and its brand ambassadors] won’t advise caution using the disavow tool.
Besides, not all “bad links” are harmful to your site. Let me clarify what I mean.
What Makes a Link Bad?
There are generally two types:
- Spammy Links
- Unnatural/manipulative links
Spammy Links
Low-quality, spammy links are not exactly the “bad boys.” In fact, they are harmless and worthless.
Imagine getting links from scraper sites [e.g., domain or keyword stats and low-quality directories]. What will that do to your Google rankings?
Nothing — positively or negatively.
Besides, spammy links are not even what you build intentionally. They [the spammy referring domains] scrap the authority sites that link to you and follow suit.
In other words, you’ll have hundreds of such links, and they won’t stop coming. Disavowing or removing them is irrelevant to your rankings. Google doesn’t count them in the first place.
Bottom line:
Disavowing spammy links is a complete waste of your time.
Unnatural/Manipulative Links
Manipulative/harmful links — unlike the spammy kinds — are a different ball game. They are the original “bad boys.” How so?
The difference is the intention…
Remember that spammy links are not built manually. You might not know you have them until you do a link audit.
Well, manipulative backlinks are different. You build them intentionally and sometimes even pay someone else to game the system.
These schemes are intentional acts to game search rankings that birth unnatural inbound links. And if [and when] you’re found to use the method across your entire domain, you’ll receive a manual action.
Bottom line:
Unnatural backlinks are “bad” eggs you must stump out.
Still worried even with my explanation?
If yes, check this out:
While I don’t always agree with John, I see reason with what he said [in a deleted tweet].
Google has a robust system for finding and tagging irrelevant links. So, if a random tool can find such links, Google probably already did [and ignored the backlinks]. After all, search indexing and ranking are Google’s property.
But…
Again, remember that I mentioned “necessarily.” In essence, there are some cases where a disavow tool is needed. Below are some examples.
When MUST You Disavow the Links to Your Site?
I’ll only recommend disavowing your inbound links under these conditions:
- Manual action
- Link farms
- Negative SEO attack
- Algorithm update backlash
- You can’t get your links removed
Manual Action
Regardless of what any third-party SEO tool or “SEO guru” tells you about toxic backlinks, know this:
The only recommended use case of the disavow tool [as found on Search Console Help] is when you have a manual action. In other words, you’ve been penalized for paid backlinks or other link building schemes.
In such cases, you will receive a notification like this on the Google Webmasters Tools:
Fortunately, the notification often includes tips [recommended actions] to fix the issues.
After the fix, check the manual action tab on Google Search Console for updates.
FYI:
Only the unnatural links [explained earlier] end up on manual actions.
📌 How about Semrush’s toxic links report?
Did you get the “Warning — Penalty risk is increasing” email from Semrush?
It often looks like this:
Well, no diss intended, but toxic backlinks are not big deals. They are only “spammy” links that Google probably knows and ignores.
Worst case:
The suggestions often include mentions on listings and directories.
Link Farms
These are sites built primarily to sell backlinks. And often, they do a poor job even at that. How so?
- For starters, the articles are poorly written [bunch of unedited AI content] and generic [they post about everything — from construction to techy niches].
- Also, the web design of these link farms is often off.
The worst part: link farms try to game authority and reputation building by using expired domains. Unfortunately, that method won’t work again. Google knows.
That said, if you use link farms, the end product will be an unnatural backlink. I’ll recommend that you stop.
And while you are at it, send a link removal request to the link builder or the webmaster. Use the disavow tool as a last resort.
📌 Are link farms the same as PBNs?
While link farms are outrightly used to manipulate search rankings, PBNs (Private Blog Networks) are not as straightforward. Often, the latter only results in spammy backlinks, which Google [and other search engines] disregards.
Either way, link farms and PBNs don’t yield sustainable SEO results. Don’t waste your time and money.
Negative SEO Attack
The case of negative SEO attacks is different from building backlinks using link farms. Here, you don’t have to do anything to receive manual actions. How so?
Like the name, this technique is a black hat SEO strategy where a competitor intentionally sends an unnatural link to its competition.
The idea is to de-index competing pages by pointing links Google hates to their sites. In the long run, they [the attackers] will rank better on Google search results.
Unfortunately, this happens often, and you might have been attacked without knowing.
So, what can you do?
- Regularly edit your backlink profile.
- Check for irregular spikes like this:
- Audit the links gathered within the spike period
- Disavow the unnatural/spam links in the mix
📌 What if negative SEO attacks haven’t led to manual actions?
I don’t recommend waiting to find the effects of negative SEO attacks on your site. Once you confirm the links, remove or disavow them.
Even Google recommends using the disavow tool if you think you’re about to get a manual action.
Algorithm Update Backlash
The greatest purge on search in experience [since 2009] was the Penguin update in 2012. Most sites were hit badly.
Since the Penguin, there have been several algorithm updates. And with each release, people always complain of the backlash.
If your site was hit, chances are one of the reasons is your unnatural links. The weird part is that you might not even have any manual actions like this guy:
So, what can you do?
Even with zero manual action, I recommend disavowing any suspected backlinks from your link profile.
And while at it, don’t limit your disavow list to unnatural links. Add spammy links — even seemingly safe backlinks from sites with high domain authority.
FYI: DA/DR scores are metrics created by third-party SEO tools. They shouldn’t be the deciding factor to classify a link as safe or unnatural.
Pro tip:
Check the context of the update to understand why your site was affected.
You Can’t Get Your Links Removed
As mentioned earlier, disavowing links should be your last resort when dealing with unnatural links. Try to remove them first. How?
There are different cases to consider.
- You bought the link from a link builder
- You got the links without any outreach
📌 With a link builder
In this case, you have a relationship with the link builder. The removal process will be straightforward.
All you have to do is send a link removal email like this:
Like in the template, offer to pay to get the links removed. While this is not the standard, it might increase the chances of getting a response.
Plus, a professional link builder won’t collect your money since you initially paid for the backlink.
📌 Links without outreach
Whether due to negative SEO attacks or scraper sites, you likely have no relationship with the webmasters here. You will likely not have their contact info.
In that case, the first thing to do is to find the contact details. You can start with the author of the article or the content manager.
Pro tip:
Use tools like Buzzsumo, Hunter.io, and GetProspect to get the email addresses. Semrush will also come in handy.
Then, send a similar email [like you’d to the link builder you know]. However, you might pay a significant sum — considering there was no existing relationship.
If, after these steps, webmasters/link builders have not responded and the links have not been removed, proceed to use the disavow tool.
Below is how to use the tool without harming your rankings.
How to Disavow Your Links Safely in 5 Steps
Here’s a quick preview of the steps:
- Draft the list with Google Search Console
- Remove the non-candidates
- Send removal requests
- Finalize the disavow file
- Upload the file to the Google Disavow tool
Draft the List With Google Search Console
The first step is to check all the backlinks pointing to your website. You must see everything — from the referring page and domain to anchor texts and traffic.
Then, you can see where the problem is and draw up the list of causal [or suspected] backlinks.
So, how do you go about it?
- Use Google Search Console (GSC)
- Go to Google Search Console > Links > external links > click more under the overview to see the complete list.
- Use Ahrefs
While GSC is Google’s own tool, it can be hectic. You have to export the backlinks to sort or evaluate them. That’ll be time-consuming. Use Ahrefs [or any third-party SEO tool] instead.
- Go to Ahrefs > Site Explorer > Backlink profile > backlinks
Note:
You can export both reports to one spreadsheet. This process is just as stressful as using GSC. Stick to Ahrefs.
Remove the Non-candidates
If you’re using GSC data, remove lost pages and links. You can use the “HTTP status 200 code” and “link status” for this sorting.
Or…
As recommended, you can stick to Ahrefs. This way, you only need to remove nofollow links. Why?
Google has already discarded nofollow links [spammy links]. This is not because they are low-quality. What then?
Nofollow links mean your referring domains don’t want their equity passing down to your site. But don’t fret; you will still enjoy referral traffic.
That said, here’s to remove nofollow links on Ahrefs:
- Revisit the backlinks report
- Click “dofollow” to remove nofollow links from your list
- Select “show results.”
Next up, remove low-quality sites. How?
- Use the domain authority metric. Set the lowest score to 30.
- Click DR > set from to “30.”
📌 Can you add more filters?
Definitely, you can even remove less-traffic sites that are probably overlooked by Google. How?
Set domain traffic to at least 500 like this:
Send Removal Requests
This part has already been covered. But I’ll add a few touchpoints.
- Always address the recipient by their name
- Use a catchy but straightforward subject line
- Be courteous
📌 Is there a shortcut?
Yes. Semrush helps you do backlink audit and outreach from its platform.
But you can reverse engineer the outreach tool for spammy link removal.
Finalize the Disavow File
By now, you should have decided which backlinks to disavow. Now, you only have to finalize the txt file.
While at it, follow these tips from Search Console Help:
Upload the File to the Google Disavow Tool
After your list is set and saved as a text file, upload it to complete the process. How?
- Go to the Disavow links tool page and follow the prompt
Voila, you now have disavowed links!
📌 What if you made a mistake?
What if you added the wrong link in the disavow file? Can you undo the process?
Yes!
Go back to GSC and delete the link from the file.
Google Only Cares About Unnatural Links
Whether you disavow your links [or not], Google only cares if they are unnatural. In that case, you’ll likely receive a manual action.
And if that happens, you can disavow the links and get your site back in shape. However, try removing the unnatural links first.
