Disavow File and SSL Conversion Question
-
Moz Community,
So we have a website that we are moving to SSL. It has been 4 years since we submitted our disavow file to google via GWT. We decided to go through our backlinks and realized that many domains we are disavowing currently (under
Since we are moving to SSL I understand Google looks at this as a new site. Therefore, we decided to go through our backlinks and realized that many domains we are disavowing currently are no longer active (after 4 years this is expected).
Therefore, is it ok to create a new disavow file with the new profile on GW (ssl version of our site)? Also, is it ok the new GW disavow file doesn't include urls we previously disavowed with the non https version?
Some links from the old disavow we found were disavowed but they shouldn't have been. Moreover, we found new links we wanted to disavow as well.
Thanks
QL
-
Hi. I think mememax gave a very good answer.
The only thing I would submit for consideration is making too many changes at one time can be hard to track later. When we did the switch to https, I was super paranoid we would screw something up and lose rankings. So I chose to leave the disavow file exactly the same. It turned out the switch was not as bad as I thought and we didn't have any noticeable effect on rankings. So later when I was convinced that the https switch was not a factor, I could modify the disavow file. I also left the old domains from years ago in there for the reasons mememax points out.
Good Luck!
-
Hi QuickLearner,
You are actually raising a very interesting point. So, as for disavow you have to disavow links pointing to the current site and the ones pointing to any other property you own which is 301ing to it to be extra safe.
Remember that the disavow file should include all URLs/Domains that are pointing to your site that you are not able to remove by yourself or after trying to ping the webmaster. Based on this:
- you should disavow in your http site all the links that are pointing to the HTTP site only that you marked as spammy
- since you're going to make many changes on the disavow file, it may be a good moment to further reanalyze links you want to include vs you want to remove. Just ensure you're doing it right.
- the HTTPS site disavow file should contain all the links of the HTTP site + the ones pointing to it. Again only the links you want to remove obviously
- Even if sites that have expired can be safely removed as they're not linking to your site anymore, in the past I always kept them. Two reasons:
- sometimes google index is not very much up to date especially with tiny, low quality sites, which these ones may be. The site may have disappeared but if google doesn't drop it, it still counts as a link to your site
- you never know what's the real reason behind that site 4XX,5XX. So in case they may reappear I would just keep it there. It's like an IP blacklist. I don't know if that IP is still used but just in case I keep it there.
I hope this helps you!
e
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
-
Redirect to new SSL Domain
Hi Experts; How to redirect https://old-domain.com to https://new-domain.com without buying new SSL? I have one GoDaddy SSL and I want to use it for a new domain. Its currently use for old domain
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | cafegardesh0 -
Disavow both www. and non www. version of site?
I just submitted my disavow file to Google after several months of work. A few months ago a saw a partial match unnatural link penalty in the www. version of my site's Search Console account. The penalty has since expired. Should I also upload the file to the non www. side of the Search Console account? No penalty ever appeared there.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | pajamalady0 -
Slug construction question
Hi there, question about what constitutes an optimal slug. I work for a Theater news site. An article we recently wrote announced the opening of the musical "Holler if you hear me," which features the music of Tupac Shakur. We considered a few options, including holler-if-you-hear-me-opens-on-broadway and tupac-musical-opens-on broadway. Any suggestions? Also, if the full URL reads something like theatermania.com/broadway/news/06-2014/[slug], should we try to ensure that the term 'broadway' never appears in the slug to reduce redundancy? Keep in mind that the term 'broadway' is a pretty popular search term.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TheaterMania0 -
Thoughts on Proactive Link Disavow
One of my newish hobby sites has began to attract some crappy links - as per Google Webmaster Tools, Links To Your Site report. The typical .ru and .pl kind of crap that seems to seep into all somewhat successful sites' link profiles. I have not received any notifications or penalties, BUT I am considering proactively disavowing these, but wanted to bounce this idea off some other SEOs before proceeding. Cheers!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | David_ODonnell0 -
2013 Panda Update Question
Hi everyone, I'm new here 🙂 So far I've had wonderful success seo wise and none of the updates (Penguin nor Panda) affected any sites, until this one. For example, one site has 7 keywords I'm optimizing for. Out of those 7, all but 2 (and variations of the 2 - one word vs long-tail) completely tanked. These keywords were all on page 2/3. One of the two survivors never budged from page 2 (it's a brand keyword so I was sooo happy to finally get it to page 2) Now when I check rankings, the other terms show up in the 200-400 spots, but NOT for the URL I was optimizing for (category page) but instead for random products in the category. The only thing I've done differently with the 2 keywords that are still doing well, was focus - we did more link-building for those, but not an extreme amount. Never over-optimize. My question is, how did 2 survive and 5 are still floating up and down. Last night I saw one go up 122 spots, now today down 14. I'm really struggling with this. Thank you
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Freelancer130 -
Are disavowed links removed from the GWMT?
Hi, I am disavowing some links. Does anyone know if Google removes them from the WMT?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BeytzNet
This is interesting for followup purposes. Thanks0 -
Site Structure Question
Hi All, Got a question about site structure, I currently have a website where everything is hosted on the root of the domain. See example below: site.com/men site.com/men-shorts site.com/men-shorts-[product name] I want to change the structure to site.com/men/shorts/[product-name] I have asked a couple of SEOs and some agree with me that the structure needs to be changed and some say that as long as I dictate the structure with internal links and breadcrumbs the URL structure doesn't matter... What do you guys think? Many thanks, Carlos
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Carlos-R0 -
How to gain more conversions through my website
Hello, I have a wealth coaching website bobweikel(dot)com Will you look at it and tell me how I can improve traffic and conversions. I want to gain several clients a week just from the web. Possible areas of help: On-site SEO & keywords link building: I don't see how to link build here Content Creation Adwords Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BobGW0