Understanding the Google Disavow Links Tool
Launched in October 2012, Google’s Disavow Links tool allows website owners to say they don’t want certain links to and from external sites to be considered by Google when counting links to rank their websites.
This tool is partly being used by companies who have done a lot of link buying to disavow some of their links. They are doing this because excessive links are now against Google’s SEO policy and these companies may get penalised if they can’t get these links removed.
Website owners may also have participated in bad link networks and so will be keen to get these links disavowed. So these companies are trying to use Google’s own Disavow tool to tell Google not to consider these links on a page!
Many people are now confused as to which links could be actually harming their site. Lots of people have been removing links to and from social media sites such as StumbleUpon because they are worried these could be spammy.
Why people think links from long-standing social media sites are damaging is a mystery. One reason is that Google’s Penguin social media update last year caused panic amongst people who realised that excessive amounts of links might damage their search engine ranking, creating negative SEO.
This has caused some people to think that all links could be bad, but it is only excessive amounts of low quality links that will affect websites. As long as pages contain relevant, minimal links to quality external sites then this shouldn’t have an effect on the website in question.
Google is picking up on the fact that companies are using the Disavow tool to save paying directories to remove links or get out of bad link networks. Google is now not honouring some of these disavow requests.
The thing to remember with the Disavow tool is that it is not the easy way out to remove unwanted links. Companies that are misusing it will only get penalised more by Google. The Disavow tool should be used sparingly by website owners who genuinely want to improve their site’s SEO.
At Cornish WebServices we are SEO experts who make sure we don’t use negative SEO practices to boost the search engine optimisation of our client’s websites.
However we always keep our clients up to date on Google’s changes that could affect their websites. For expert SEO management and advice call us today on 0330 555 4680 or contact us using our quick contact form.
Published on 05/03/2013
