What does it mean to Disavow Links?
What does “To Disavow Links” and “Disavow Domains” mean?
When you disavow links you tell search engines to ignore them for ranking calculation.
Some people say that disavowing a link is the same as putting a NoFollow tag on it, but based on our experience this is an over-simplification.
To disavow links with Google, one needs to create a disavow file in a specific format and upload it to the Google Search Console (GSC), formerly known as Google Webmaster Tools (GWT).
A disavow file can be created and maintained inside LRT and the Link Detox components to improve efficiency and avoid mistakes in this very error-prone process.
To disavow links with Bing, one needs to add every link or domain to a disavow user interface in Bing Webmaster Tools (BWT).
Disavowing happens on three possible domain scopes
- Root Domain Level - i.e. everything under *.spamdomain.com
- Host Level / Sub Domain Level - i.e. every link from blog.spamdomain.com
- Page Level- i.e. all links from a specific page https://blog.spamdomain.com/linkfarm.html
Because mistakes can happen, good and helpful links are often found to be disavowed.
The reasons are a multitude, but the effects are always negative - a drop in rankings. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to re-visit the list of disavowed links in a disavow file audit to re-avow or un-disavow the formerly bad links.