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
-
Moving Shopify from a Sub Domain to the Full Domain
Apologies if this has been asked before. Currently we have a Shopify shop on a subdomain shop.lucybee.com a blog on subdomain blog.lucybee.com and the full domain of course. We'd now like to move everything onto Shopify on the full domain. Therefore the blog rolls into Shopify. We'll manually move pages into Shopify. Any advice or links to resources on how to manage would be gratefully received. Thank you , Jim
Technical SEO | | LucyBee0 -
Wordpress Redirect Loop on domain name
Hi hopefully someone can help - pulling my hair out - can't seem to find where this redirect is coming from. Curently there is a redirect from http://bimi to https://bimi then to our real domain https://www.bimi But I can't find it - I have checked through hta access file, through YOAST redirects - any suggestions from anyone who has has this before in wordpress? | http://bimi.co | 23 | 0 | 3 | |
Technical SEO | | KellyDSD86
| | | Associated Pages | |
| | | https://bimi.co/ | 23 | 1 | | |
| | | Office Furniture Online | The UK's major Office Furniture Retailer | BiMi.cohttps://www.bimi.co/ | HTA access says the following - I have googled to see whether its causing it but none the wiser! BEGIN LSCACHE LITESPEED WP CACHE PLUGIN - Do not edit the contents of this block! <ifmodule litespeed="">RewriteEngine on
CacheLookup on
RewriteRule .* - [E=Cache-Control:no-autoflush]
RewriteRule ^min/\w+.(css|js) - [E=cache-control:no-vary] marker CACHE RESOURCE start RewriteRule wp-content/./[^/](responsive|css|js|dynamic|loader|fonts).php - [E=cache-control:max-age=3600] marker CACHE RESOURCE end marker FAVICON start RewriteRule favicon.ico$ - [E=cache-control:max-age=86400] marker FAVICON end ###</ifmodule> LITESPEED WP CACHE PLUGIN - Do not edit the contents of this block! END LSCACHE BEGIN NON_LSCACHE LITESPEED WP CACHE PLUGIN - Do not edit the contents of this block! marker MINIFY start <ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}%{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*)/min/(\w+).(css|js)$
RewriteCond %1/wp-content/cache/$2/$1.$2 -f
RewriteRule min/(\w+).(css|js) wp-content/cache/$2/$1.$2 [L]</ifmodule> marker MINIFY end LITESPEED WP CACHE PLUGIN - Do not edit the contents of this block! END NON_LSCACHE BEGIN WordPress <ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]</ifmodule> END WordPress0 -
Purchased domain with links - redirect page by page or entire domain?
Hi, I purchased an old domain with a lot of links that I'm redirecting to my site. I want all of their links to redirect to the same page on my site so I can approach this two different ways: Entire site
Technical SEO | | ninel_P
1.) RedirectMatch 301 ^(.*)$ http://www.xyz.com or Page by page
2). Redirect 301 /retiredpage.html http://www.xyz.com/newpage.html Is there a better option I should go with in regards to SEO effectiveness? Thanks in advance!0 -
Disavow questions
Pretty sure I know the answers to these but someone asked me to make absolutely sure so here goes, any opinions welcome: If i disavow a whole domain does it include all sub-domains on the domain also?- my answer is clearly yes. If i have network of links really bad linking to my website that are already nofollow but awful websites to be linked on, is it worth putting them in the disavow list anyway to basically tell Google literally no association? I know the whole point of disavow is to essentially nofollow the link. Opinions much appreciated, thank you guys.
Technical SEO | | tdigital0 -
302 multiple domains...
Hello, I have a few domain names with orthographic variations that I'd like to redirect to my main site. The problem is my registrar (OVH) does only 302 redirects, so what are my options ? Can I keep a dozen 302's ? Do I have to change all their DNS (it's a load on my server...) ? Thanks for any ideas Johann.
Technical SEO | | JohannCR0 -
Can I do a redirect to a new domain name only a couple of weeks after having redirected to another domain?
I have a client with two website with very similar content. Both had a lot of inbound links and performed fairly well in SERPS. We recently combined both sites and have redirected one of the domains to the other. The traffic dipped slightly initially, but is recovering nicely. Now the client registered a new domain name he would like to use for the site. Should I wait a few weeks for everything to settle down after the first redirect/consolidation of sites before doing a new redirect to a new domain name, or should I not worry about having any issues with doing it right away?
Technical SEO | | Drewco0 -
Redirecting an Old Domain
One of my clients has a newish e-commerce website that was just redesigned. Part of this new marketing push is shutting down an old yahoo store. The problem is that this old store's domain has a 10 year old link in DMoz and is there fore in about 200 other directories. Is pointing that old domain at the new website going to be enough to keep all of that link juice flowing?
Technical SEO | | Simple_Machines0 -
Issue with .uk.com domain
hi i have rockshore.uk.com which is not indexing properly. the internal pages do not show up for the text they have on them, or the title tags. the site is on aekmps shops platform. I understand that a .uk.com is not a proper TLD but i think i have a subdomain of .uk.com Can anyone help? thanks
Technical SEO | | Turkey0