Easiest way to disavow single links on an on-going basis?
-
We frequently get random super-sketchy looking blogs linking to us with no author or contact information. I believe we are being targeted by a competitor setting up garbage links to us. I am hoping to use the Google disavow links tool to deal with this but is it:
-
Safe to use or does it flag us as link spammers by using it
-
Possible to use on an on-going basis for single links (as them come in, as opposed to a bunch of backlogged links)
Thanks!
-
-
Thanks. I submitted some links but then deleted the file. Hopefully I didn't do any harm . . .
Our average link quality is artificially low because of these garbage sites linking to us. That's why I thought it might be a problem.
-
As another user (Crusader) said, the disavow tool was kind of built as a last step, and usually for penalties. I wouldn't use it just because someone has a lot of bad links pointing to your site.
Really, Google is quite good at figuring out the difference between a negative SEO attempt and an attempt to manipulate rankings. It shouldn't be your job to police your links like this, and I sincerely doubt you need to. I've fielded a lot of questions and concerns about negative SEO, and I can say it's usually not worth the time spent worrying about it.
It's also worth noting that disavow seems to work as a single-use filter rather than a growing database, though we're still running tests on that. What I mean is that disavowing 10 links may overwrite the previous links you've submitted.
-
That warning message is certainly spooky. The thing is I don't see why you wouldn't want to use it if a bunch of sketchy sites are linking to you. Certainly those sites can't be helping with their abysmal quality scores and they are likely hurting. Anyways, I gave it a shot. Worst case scenario, I think I can just delete the file and Google will recognize the links again. At least, I hope so . . .
-
I believe this is what is being referred to as negative SEO and what many fear will be the result of the latest updates. Do you know if these links are in articles that contain any of your content? Could these be scrapers?
Are you experiencing negative effects as a result of these links?
I can't say for sure as to whether it's safe to use or not. Are you asking if you can use it over and over again, or to have some sort of automated process for adding links to the tool? I'm fairly certain you can use it more than once. And, if you were planning on automating, how would you know which links are good and which are bad?
Here is some text directly from Google regarding the disavow tool:
"This is an advanced feature and should only be used with caution. If used incorrectly, this feature can potentially harm your site’s performance in Google’s search results. We recommend that you disavow backlinks only if you believe you have a considerable number of spammy, artificial, or low-quality links pointing to your site, and if you are confident that the links are causing issues for you. In most cases, Google can assess which links to trust without additional guidance, so most normal or typical sites will not need to use this tool."
So, if you are not experiencing negative effects, I would just keep an eye on it in case something happens. If you still want to use the tool, Google also recommends that you do your best to get the links removed from the sites. The author info might not be available, but you could possibly reach out to the site owner.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Poor internal linking?
Hi guys, Analyzing a large e-commerce site 10,000 pages on Magento and not getting much organic traffic to level 3 sub-category pages, the URLs are like: Primary Keyword Target: BODY MOISTURISERS https://www.adorebeauty.com.au/skin-care/bath-body/moisturisers.html Primary Keyword Target: LIP MASKS https://www.adorebeauty.com.au/skin-care/masks/lip-masks.html Plus another 40 other URLs at level 3 with low organic performance. Authority of the domain is strong, so it's not an authority issue I believe its internal linking. Besides linking form the blog and breadcrumbs is there anything we can do to improve internal linking to these level 3 pages? Cheers.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | nattyhall0 -
Is a link inside a video player considered an inbound link from the domain the player is embedded in?
Good afternoon...We just added a link to our homepage inside the menu of our video player. In the link below, if you click on the menu icon in the bottom right corner of the video player, you'll see a "Powered by WellcomeMat" link at the bottom of the menu. http://www.wellcomemat.com/video/kt216e25172416n/-Rancho-Santa-Fe/Ca/92067/16596-Via-Lago-Azul/1234567890/ My question for the community is would that link be considered an inbound link from any site that has the video player embedded? So hypothetically, the video player is embedded into www.abcd.com. If a user would click on that link and go to our homepage, would search engines recognize that as an inbound link from abcd.com, even though it sits within our video player? And most of the time, the player sits within an iframe. So that's why I'm not 100% sure. Thanks for reading and for your help! It's much appreciated!!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | brian7201 -
Linking to own homepage with keywords as link text
I recently discovered, that previous SEO work on a client's website apparently included setting links from subpages to the homepage using keywords as link text that the whole website should rank for. i.e. (fictional example) a subpage about chocolate would link to the homepage via "Visit the best sweet shop in Dallas and get a free sample." I am dubious about the influence this might have - anybody with any tests? I also think that it is quite weird when considering user friendliness - at least I would not expect such a link to take me to the homepage of the very site I was just on, probably browsing in a relevant page. So, what about such links: actually helpful, mostly don't matter or even potentially harmful? Looking forward to your opinions! Nico
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | netzkern_AG0 -
Is this link SEO-Friendly?
Hi Mozzers, Was wondering if someone could tell me if this link is SEO-friendly? class = "sl">name="sc" type="checkbox" value="1449"><a <span="">href</a> <a <span="">="</a>http://www.example.com/" onclick = "Javascript: return dosc(2);">src="imsd/coff.gif" id="cbsc2"/>Keyword It has some Javascript that makes the link work like a filter. Cheers, Carlos
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Carlos-R0 -
Still Going Down In Search
After signing up to SEOmoz as a pro user and sorting out all the things that the search flagged up with our website (htyp://www.whosjack.org) we jumped very slightly in search only to continue going down again. We are a news based site, we have no dup content, we have good writers and good orangic links etc I am currently very close to having to call it a day. Can anyone suggest anything at all from looking at the site or suggest a good SEO firm that I could talk to who might be able to work out the issue as I am totally at a loss as to what do do now. Any help or suggestions greatly appreciated.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | luwhosjack0 -
Link Acquisition - link building
When using Site Explorer to find out my competiters links so I can do some link aquisition SEO do I look for the "inbound" links or or "linking domains"? Also, what filters should I choose? I want to make a spreadsheet as Rand suggested in his video and start to prioritize my link building.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | musicforkids0 -
Indirect SEO boost from links
I have 2 ecommerce sites, each with a blog. I am increasing my linkbuilding efforts, but I don't want to build too many links directly to my 2 sites over a short period of time. I have decided that I will add a certain number of links to sites/pages that are already linking to my main sites (for example, a blog post on my blog, guest post on another blog, article submission, etc.). How much of a benefit can I expect in terms of rankings? Has anyone tested this out or experimented with something like this? What are the pros and cons? I appreciate thoughtful comments.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | inhouseseo0 -
Do outbound links matter?
The value of inbound links is clear but do the number of outbound links matter when it comes to SEO and search engine rankings?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | casper4340