Loading...- using link exchange systems,
- incorrect link profile building,
- black hat SEO activities, e.g. depositioning,
- cyber attack.
Disavowing Links to Your Site. Which Links Should Be Removed?
Above all, it is worth removing all the unnatural links. While online you can find plenty of resources explaining the value of each type of link, the best solution is to analyze your backlinks by yourself and choose the ones you want to disavow. To do this, you should export a list of links from several SEO tools (such as Ahrefs and Majestic) and then check their parameters. However, your list should be primarily based on the links detected by Google Search Console. To download it, go to the Links report in Google Search Console and then to Top linking sites.
There you will find a list of domains that point to your site, sorted by links.
Theoretically, the best option is to completely remove the link from Google. In practice, however, this often turns out to be not only extremely difficult but even impossible.
Disavow is a very powerful tool, so you should use it with all caution.
Some of the most common link profile challenges include nofollow to dofollow backlink ratio or too many backlinks with a specific anchor text.
Do you need help with finding quality backlinks? Choose our link building services!
How to Disavow Links?
After collecting a list of backlinks you want to disavow, you will need to prepare a text file that will be uploaded to the Disavow tool. When compiling such a document, there are several rules you need to follow. The file format is important - it should be *.txt with UTF-8 encoding. In the file, include one link per line, with optional comments starting with a # mark. It is also possible to disavow an entire domain - in this case, place "domain:" before the domain name. Below, we present an example of the contents of such a file: # Most links have been removed from the example.com website, but these have been omitted: http://example.spam.com/comments.html http://example.spam.com/catalog.html # I contacted the owner of blackhatseo.com on 07/01/2021 # with a request to remove the links, but I have not received a response. domain:blackhatseo.com
Uploading the List of Links to Disavow
Uploading the file is a simple and intuitive process. The first step is to go to the Disavow tool. You will see a list of your properties, select the one for which you want to upload a txt file.
The tool will warn you to be extra careful as this is a highly advanced activity - then you can go to the next step by clicking the "Upload disavow list" button. Specify the file with the list of links to disavow from your local computer. If the file contains errors, the lines where they are found will be indicated at this point.
Accurate and handy instructions, just what I needed – thanks!