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You are here: Home / Links / Google’s Disavow Tool Gets a Refresh

Google’s Disavow Tool Gets a Refresh

January 22, 2021 //  by Jen Currier//  Leave a Comment

Google’s Disavow Tool Gets a Refresh

If you’re familiar with Google’s disavow tool, you’re most likely a proactive SEO practitioner. For those who aren’t familiar with this powerful tool, read on with this caution. As with any type of advanced tool, it can be helpful or catastrophic if used incorrectly. Essentially the Disavow tool enables a Webmaster to tell search engines to “ignore” specific domains, often irrelevant or spammy to a website’s business or industry. Originally unveiled in 2012, Google recently refreshed the Disavow interface. Basically it looks prettier, works the same and offers a few more features like adding more errors to uploaded files.

The biggest change is its location. Previously the tool was located within Webmaster Tools. While still hidden, the tool is accessible within the Search Console interface.

A Cautionary Tale

I use Google’s Disavow Tool (strategically and sparingly) when managing a client’s link profile. Our agency has received multiple calls from businesses — and even “SEO agencies” — concerned that their SEO visibility has dropped inexplicably and precipitously.  Before we begin digging into their Analytics and Search Console data, we usually ask two questions:

  • Did you recently launch your website from a dev environment?
  • Have you used the Disavow Tool lately?

The answer to question number one is often an easy fix. Check your robots.txt file. 

For question two, the answer is often a sheepish “yes.” Congratulations! You’ve just flushed all your SEO equity. Depending on how long it’s been since the last disavow file was uploaded, we may be able to recover your hard-earned SEO. That’s why the tool is best wielded by an experienced user.

When you participate in schemes like buying links it circumvents the natural selection process of rewarding great content. These are signals that Google and other search engines are actively looking to squelch. Click To Tweet

Critical Tool When Affected by a Manual Action

When you read the Disavow Tool’s warning notice, it’s clear that the tool was originally designed for websites hit with a manual action (or about to be penalized). Manual actions occur when WebMasters participate in link schemes, paid links and other Grey Hat SEO techniques. 

Google search console new interface

I’ve helped clients dig out of unnatural link profile manual actions caused by previous agency’s link schemes. It’s a time-consuming process. You don’t want to go there. Really.

A Walk Down Memory Lane

If you’re curious about the Disavow Tools history, you can watch the original unveiling video by Matt Cutts.

Inbound Links Are Votes of Confidence

Inbound links are one of the data point search engines use when selecting website content to appear in organic search results. In a perfect world, all links are relevant and of high quality. Essentially inbound links are a vote of confidence. It means other content creators think your content is worthy of referencing. Theoretically, the more links you have, the more votes of confidence your website has received. 

However, when you participate in link schemes like buying links, participating in link farms, or accepting random guest posts, it circumvents the natural selection process of rewarding great and useful content. These are signals that Google and other search engines are actively looking to squelch.

Is Your Link Profile Is Helping or Hurting Your SEO?

Our FREE 30-minute consult can help identify:

  • Your Website’s SEO Authority
  • Links that boost your organic visibility
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“The Spectrum Group successfully coached us on SEO. Our team appreciates their best-in-class thinking presented with a strong sense of humor and joy” ~

Robin McRoskey Azevedo, CEO McRoskey Mattress

What Does Your Website’s Link Profile Say About Your Business

Regardless of the industry, each business should have a tailored link building strategy. Do you know what your link profile says about you? Many are surprised to find what is hidden behind the scenes. To be frank, I have been looking at link profiles for almost a decade and just when I think I have seen it all, I continue to be amazed at what we discover when pulling back the covers and diving into the data! A link analysis helps us to see who is linking, what is being discussed about the brand, and shady practices that most were unaware of being used by previous SEO agencies. Contact us today so we can help you by starting with a comprehensive link analysis.

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Category: Links

About Jen Currier

Jen has a passion for helping businesses succeed with their online marketing goals. She has deep SEO knowledge, using her years of hands-on experience to help improve organic visibility, website traffic and lead conversions. She has a solid history of creating link management strategies -- including scrubbing link profiles of irrelevant and harmful links -- that produce tangible results and business relationships. Keeping up to date with the latest Google Algo updates, she’s a stickler for following Google’s Quality Search Guidelines. She specializes in Local SEO, Google Penalty Recovery and Google My Business Suspensions.

Betty Kaufman
Betty Kaufman
2020-12-27
I have nothing but great things to say about the team at The Spectrum Group Online. For years, they've been managing my website, making sure it's up to date and that there are no issues. In the last 4 months, they've been running Facebook ads for me, and I'm thrilled with the results. Great ads. Tons of leads. A steady effort to improve the leads. Very responsive. If you want to be seen on social media, you should definitely talk to The Spectrum Group Online.
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Vanessa Contreras
2020-04-13
I appreciate Spectrum’s data-based approach to digital marketing. They created a dashboard specific to the data points most important to our multi-location retail business. Even more importantly, they educated us and delivered insights that fed our digital marketing and e-commerce strategies.
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Alison Salisbury
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Mark Feldstein
2018-05-09
Our business grew, greatly due to the efforts of the Spectrum team. They are a focused company with great experience and plenty of talent to support their process. Jen Currier, in particular, is an excellent PM, who helped us every step of the way. They helped us re-design our website from the ground up and used tools such as Keyword Research and Heatmaps to help drive leads to our company. We had the best year in the history of our company, in part due to Spectrum's efforts. I do not hesitate to highly recommend them.
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SantaCruz NonForceChiropractors
2017-07-14
Massimo and The Spectrum Group Online have been very effective at sending quality traffic to our website and generating phone calls for appointments. Massimo has always been professional, responsive, and ready to make useful suggestions as well as explain the many ins and outs of search advertising. I highly recommend him to any business wishing to use a skilled and professional search marketing expert to increase their leads and grow their revenues.
Google rating score: 5 of 5,
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