Backlinks play a vital role in SEO. While high-quality backlinks from authoritative sites can boost your search rankings, low-quality and spammy backlinks often hurt. If bad links point to your website, disavowing them through Google Search Console is crucial.
Disavowing tells Google not to associate poor backlinks with your site when evaluating things like trust and authority. It’s an essential move if questionable links exist that you didn’t build or approve yourself.
Let’s explore how to identify problematic backlinks and properly disavow them.
Why You Should Care About Bad Backlinks
Before we dive into the actual disavowing process, it’s worth covering why cleaning up bad links matters in the first place. Here are a few key reasons:
They Can Trigger Manual Penalties
If Google detects an extensive pattern of unnatural or manipulative links, that’s grounds for a manual spam action. This leads to sunk rankings and less search visibility. Ridding bad links proactively keeps you off Google’s penalty radar.
They Drag Down Potential Rankings
Sites impacted by an algorithmic or manual penalty tend to plummet in the SERPs. Severing ties with questionable backlinks removes their negative influence so you can regain positions.
They Damage Credibility & Click-Through Rates
Low-quality sites hosting bad backlinks offer poor user experiences. This reflects poorly on your own domain if Google associates them with you. It also tanks click-through rates when searchers land on shady pages.
In summary, auditing and disavowing bad links provides the best chance for your domain to rank well in the SERPs. It strips away unhealthy signals diluting the strengths of your marketing efforts.
Read: Social Media and SEO: Everything You Need to Know
Identifying Problematic Backlinks Pointing to Your Site
To disavow bad links, you first need to spot ones that seem questionable or spammy. Here are red flags to look for when auditing your backlink profile:
Irrelevant Referring Sites
The concept of topical relevance and authority matters a lot to Google. Backlinks ideally come from sites relevant to your niche and offering value to users. Random links from unrelated blogs or directories are suspicious.
Over-Optimized Anchor Text
Some amount of branded and exact-match anchor text links to your target keywords is fine. But an excessive concentration looks spammy, as if someone tried manipulating the optimization.
They Use Redirects
Redirect links essentially pass PageRank signals across multiple sites. Spammers leverage them to amplify flow. If you find redirected links to your site, they likely need disavowing.
You Didn’t Request or Approve Them
Any links you or colleagues didn’t specifically ask for or agree to place should raise skepticism. They could have been built to manipulate rankings rather than offer genuine endorsement.
Step-By-Step Guide to Disavowing Through Google Search Console
Once you’ve audited and compiled backlinks needing removal, here is the process to disavow them:
Step 1: Gather Precise URLs
Collect the direct URLs pointing to your site that need disavowing. This makes ingesting them into the disavow tool smooth.
Step 2: Sign Into Google Search Console
Head to Google Search Console and login to your site’s account. Confirm you’re accessing the property those questionable links point at.
Step 3: Navigate to the Disavow Tool
Select “More” in the side menu, then click “Disavow links” to open the tool.
Step 4: Upload the Text File
Click “Upload Disavow File” in the interface. Choose the text file you compiled with all URLs needing disavowing.
Step 5: Submit the Disavow Request
Once the file finishes uploading, click “Disavow Links” to process the request. Google needs some time to ignore the severed links moving forward.
And that’s the full workflow! Run this routinely to ensure your domain sends only positive signals to Google.
Learn: Ideal Anchor Text Ratios for Natural Link Building
Why Proper Disavowing Matters
Cleaning up bad links through strategic disavowing gives your site the best chance to connect with searchers. Here are a few core reasons it’s an important move:
- Avoids potential manual spam penalties from excessive questionable links
- Removes their negative SEO influence so you can regain lost rankings
- Prevents sending visitors from Google to poor landing experiences
Auditing your backlinks and disavowing low-quality or manipulative ones is crucial. It severs ties with bad links usually doing more harm than good for your visibility.
The disavow process only takes a few minutes through Google Search Console once you’ve identified backlinks needing severance. Do it routinely to ensure your site puts its best foot forward with clean signals.
