Disavow to all domains?
-
Hi there, I have several versions of my domain setup in Webmaster tools. Should I upload my disavow file against all of these domains?
For example.....
If I find a link pointing to: http://www.mydomain.com from: http://www.somespammysite.com do I need to add a disavow file in Webmaster tools for all my domain versions or only the version the offending links points towards?So...
Only
http://www.mydomain.com
Or
http://www.mydomain.com
http://mydomain.com
https://www.mydomain.com
https://mydomain.com -
It's best practice to verify all versions of your site in Webmaster Tools (now called Google Search Console) and submit your disavow file to each of them.
Most likely, though, if you only use one version (i.e. if all of your urls are https://www.... and all other versions redirect to this one) then submitting to that version should be enough. But, there's no harm in being on the safe side and submitting the file to all versions.
-
Hi there
Yes, definitely true - I just do so for documenting.
Sorry for not clarifying!
-
I think the process you have went through here sounds fine, commenting in a disavow file is needless as Google won't actually manually read it, it's a completely automated process. Commenting is for webmasters and seo's to make notes only for future reference.
-
I got a report of all inbound links and went through it manually looking at each site to see which ones looked spammy to me.
There are lot's that are easy to spot: No contact info, Obvious directory sites, sites that are mainly adverts, sites with obvious bot generated content etcProbably not the best approach
I'm going through it again now.
-
Hi there
To be honest, in my experience, actually listing backlinks in your disavow file helps substantially, not just domains.
Google wants to see effort and research done in your disavow file. I would actually run through a backlink audit and see which links are worthy of removal attempts and which are worthy of updating to your main site domain.
That way, you can comment in your disavow file saying "We reached out trying to remove these links" or "We were able to remove these links". That way, you have a thorough and well thought out disavow file, not just a blanketed disavow file to domains.
Just something to keep in mind - hope this helps! Good luck!
-
No reason not to do that, but when I say be careful with which sites you disavow, how are you assessing the likelihood it is a problem site?
-Andy
-
Thanks for the fast reply.
I have been through hundreds of thousands of links and am now cleaning up my disavow file into this format
domain:spammydomain.com
domain:spammydomain1.com
domain:spammydomain2.comI am doing domain: rather than listings all the links as there's sometimes hundreds from the same domain. Would you agree that this is correct?
-
only the version the offending links points towards
This one, which is probably your primary domain? Google is pretty smart and will know that you have multiple domains 301ing to another domain, but there is no need to disavow against a site where there are no links.
Just be careful how you are disavowing though. Don't be too brutal and concentrate heavily on those with spammy anchor texts.
-Andy
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
-
Which better to rank with 40 DA domain redirect the domain 301
hello, which better to rank with 40 DA domain redirect the domain 301 to my website or host domain and create posts with my website link + if i do the 301 redirect the Crawl Errors of old 40 da domain will display on my new website or not+how much links can i get from one website pbn
Technical SEO | | cristophare79
+
which better get links for home page or postsbest regards ,0 -
Redirect multiple domains to 1 domain or not?
Hi there, I have client who has multiple domains that already have some PA and DA. Problem is that most websites have the same content and rank better on different keywords.
Technical SEO | | Leaf-a-mark
I want to redirect all the websites to 1 domain because it’s easier to manage and it removes any duplicate content. Question is if I redirect domain x to domain y do the rankings of domain x increase on domain y? Or is it better to keep domain x separately to generate more referral traffic to domain y? Thanks in advance! Cheers0 -
Disavow links and domain of SPAM links
Hi, I have a big problem. For the past month, my company website has been scrape by hackers. This is how they do it: 1. Hack un-monitored and/or sites that are still using old version of wordpress or other out of the box CMS. 2. Created Spam pages with links to my pages plus plant trojan horse and script to automatically grab resources from my server. Some sites where directly uploaded with pages from my sites. 3. Pages created with title, keywords and description which consists of my company brand name. 4. Using http-referrer to redirect google search results to competitor sites. What I have done currently: 1. Block identified site's IP in my WAF. This prevented those hacked sites to grab resources from my site via scripts. 2. Reach out to webmasters and hosting companies to remove those affected sites. Currently it's not quite effective as many of the sites has no webmaster. Only a few hosting company respond promptly. Some don't even reply after a week. Problem now is: When I realized about this issue, there were already hundreds if not thousands of sites which has been used by the hacker. Literally tens of thousands of sites has been crawled by google and the hacked or scripted pages with my company brand title, keywords, description has already being index by google. Routinely everyday I am removing and disavowing. But it's just so much of them now indexed by Google. Question: 1. What is the best way now moving forward for me to resolve this? 2. Disavow links and domain. Does disavowing a domain = all the links from the same domain are disavow? 3. Can anyone recommend me SEO company which dealt with such issue before and successfully rectified similar issues? Note: SEAGM is company branded keyword 5CGkSYM.png
Technical SEO | | ahming7770 -
Moving a website from one domain to another
Hi Guys, I figured I'd investigate this fully before potentially ruining a client's traffic. The rundown:Two websites; one is an ecommerce store and the other is just a brochure website which has references to the ecommerce store. The ecommerce store is hosted on a server we control whereas the brochure one isn't, the URL for the brochure store is nice and simple which is the reason for the switch, as the ecommerce URL is very long and hard to remember. Now from an SEO point of view will it be a case of 301 redirecting every URL from the old domain name to the new one one or is there an easier option? Any tips or links to more information would be much appreciated. Thanks, Dan
Technical SEO | | Sparkstone0 -
Will Links to one Sub-Domain on a Site hurt a different Sub-Domain on the same site by affecting the Quality of the Root Domain?
Hi, I work for a SaaS company which uses two different subdomains on our site. A public for our main site (which we want to rank in SERPs for), and a secure subdomain, which is the portal for our customers to access our services (which we don't want to rank for) . Recently I realized that by using our product, our customers are creating large amounts of low quality links to our secure subdomain and I'm concerned that this might affect our public subdomain by bringing down the overall Authority of our root domain. Is this a legitimate concern? Has anyone ever worked through a similar situation? any help is appreciated!
Technical SEO | | ifbyphone0 -
Registering expired domains
Hi there, I've found a good domain that is available for a new project. It has been expired for about 4 months or so. It has a couple of links, with the domain name as an anchor, nothing horrible. Will buying a domain like this be safe from an seo perspective? I'm guessing it would be treated the same as buying a new domain that has never been registered before, Would I be right? Peter
Technical SEO | | PeterM220 -
More than one web domain
Hi What is best when considering using more than one domain on a website, what the best policy ? it's a question I get asked a lot, usually because prior to any seo efforts the main domain name purchased is not keyword rich or an abbreviated company name etc. what impact do new domains have on SEO compared to older existing domains- is it worth changing a generic company named domain for a keyword rich domain? if having multiple domains pointing to the site is beneficial how best is it to configure? How do i inform Google? How do both domains get index when there is only one physical site? How should i monitor it, Analytic s, SEO moz? Will the domain compete against each other and effect SEO rank? Are they best used for marketing purposes on external sites, adverts driving traffic to the main site. I'm aware there are lots of questions above, any answers/ opinions , links to further info would be greatly appreciated. cheers
Technical SEO | | Bristolweb0 -
Grabbing Expired Domains
How hard is it to grab expired domains? I have my eye on a domain that is expiring in 3 days, but I don't think it's quite that simple. Doesn't it go through months of waiting to become available? Is there an easy way to grab domains that are set to expire? Are the services that offer this type of service good? And who do you guys recommend?
Technical SEO | | applesofgold0