Should I use the Google disavow tool?
-
Hi
I'm a bit new to SEO and am looking for some guidance.
Although there is no indication in Webmaster tools that my site is being penalised for bad links, I have noticed that I have over 200 spam links for "Pay Day Loans" pointing to my site. (This was due to a hack on my site several years ago).
So my question is two fold. Firstly, is it normal to have spammy links pointing to your site and secondly, should I bother to do anything about it? I did some research into the Disavow tool in Webmaster tools wonder I should use it to block all these links.
Thanks
-
If all the links are from 200 different domains i would skip the step of contacting the webmasters and go straight to the disavow, its often very time consuming and i would suggest that time could be better spent elsewhere.
I swear by this guide for a disavow http://moz.com/blog/guide-to-googles-disavow-tool
Good luck
-
If your website is not related to Pay Day Loans, you should do something:
First, visit the origin of those links. Are they automated comments on blogs, with strange messages not related to the post or your website? By the anchor of your links, I would bet you have that profile of incoming links. If it is the case, you should definitely do something with those links. Otherwise, if you discover they are interesting content, in context links and something really worthy, you can let it be.
If you detect this way they are spam, you should first contact the webmaster of that site. Maybe he is not conscious about having those links, and they are probably caused by some kind of bug, or a form open to visitors. If he is a webmaster concerned about SEO, will remove the links soon.
If you don't obtain a reply from the webmaster, and only in that case, should you use the disavow tool: when you are not able to have those links removed by normal ways, and your last option is to inform Google you don't want them to have those links taken into consideration by their algorithm when ranking your site.
Good luck with doing that manual stuff on the 200 links
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
-
What server issues might cause temporary and repeated Soft 404/500 Errors that appear to be functioning correctly when checked later from Google Webmaster Tools?
We are experiencing unknown server issues (we think) which are causing Soft 404/500 errors at unpredictable times on 2 websites. When we check on the pages, they’re fine but still show errors in Moz/Search Console. What are some measures we can take to protect from this or figure out what is causing this? Example URL for Soft 404 Error: https://www.advancedtraveltherapy.com/jobs/any/occupational-therapist/any/ Example URL for 500 Error: https://www.advancedtraveltherapy.com/job-detail/ms/physical-therapist/87529740/ Example URL for Soft 404 Error: https://www.advancedtravelnursing.com/search/searchresults.php?jobState=CA&tempType=g&specialties= Example URL for 500 Error: https://www.advancedtravelnursing.com/job/ma/registered-nurse/emergency-room/87108662/
Technical SEO | | StaffingRobot0 -
Google Site Search
I'm considering to implement google site search bar into my site.
Technical SEO | | JonsonSwartz
I think I probably choose the version without the ads (I'll pay for it). does anyone use Google Site Search and can tell if it's a good thing? does it affects in any way on seo? thank you0 -
Google not pulling my favicon
Several sites use Google favicon to load favicons instead of loading it from the Website itself. Our favicon is not being pulled from our site correctly, instead it shows the default "world" image. https://plus.google.com/_/favicon?domain=www.example.com Is the address to pull a favicon. When I post on G+ or see other sites that use that service to pull favicons ours isn't displaying, despite it shows up in Chrome, Firefox, IE, etc and we have the correct meta in all pages of our site. Any idea why is this happening? Or how to "ping" Google to update that?
Technical SEO | | FedeEinhorn0 -
Webmaster tools
Hello, My sites are showing odd "links to your site" data in WMT. Its not showing any links to the homepages and reduced links for other pages. Anyone else seeing this? Penguin refresh maybe?
Technical SEO | | jwdl0 -
Google webmaster tools says access denied for 77 urls
Hi i am looking in google webmaster tools and i have seen a major problem which i hope people can help me sort out. The problem is, i am being told that 77 urls are being denied access. The message when i look for more information says the below Googlebot couldn't crawl your URL because your server either requires login to access the page, or is blocking Googlebot from accessing your site. the responce code is 403 here is a couple of examples http://www.in2town.co.uk/Entertainment-Magazine http://www.in2town.co.uk/Weight-Loss-Hypnotherapy-helped-woman-lose-3-stone i think the problem could be that i have sent them to another url in my httaccess file using the 403 re-direct but why would it bring up that google bot could not crawl them any help would be great
Technical SEO | | ClaireH-1848860 -
Backlink density & disavow tool
I am cleaning up my backlink profile for www.devoted2vintage.co.uk but before I start removing links I wanted some advice on the following: I currently have over 2000 backlinks from about 200 domains. Is this a healthy ratio or should I prune this? Is there a recommended max number of backlings per domain? Should I delete links to all or some of the spun PR articles (some of the article web pages have over 40 articles with links back to us)
Technical SEO | | devoted2vintage0 -
Google Webmaster tools error?
So I am trying to set the URL preference in google webmaster tools for my site. However when I try to save it it tells me to verify that I own the site. I have already done this so where can I go to verify I own the site exactly? Maybe I am wrong and I have not done this already but even on the homepage of webmaster tools I don't see an option to "verify".
Technical SEO | | ENSO0 -
How often Google Places updates?
Hi, My first question in SEOMoz :). I have just finished doing citations and optimisations for a local business. I now want to know how often Google Places update their database to look for citations etc to improve rankings? Many Thanks
Technical SEO | | TheReachers0