Google’s new disavow links tool is seen as the cure for all SEO problems by many webmasters. Should you use this tool? Are there any risks and does it make sense to invest your time in Google’s disavow tool? Could this be a trick of Google?
What is Google’s disavow tool?
Google’s recent algorithm updates penalized links that had too many automatically created low quality backlinks. Websites that used bulk-submitters that created forum profile backlinks, blog comment links, etc. saw a dramatic drop in their rankings.
The problem is that all websites sooner or later get backlinks from dubious websites (content scrapers, etc.). Some webmasters also panicked that their competitors could harm their website by creating low quality backlinks to their site.
Google’s disavow links tool enables you to tell Google that some links to your website should not count.
Should you use Google’s tool?
Google recommends that you should only use this tool if you know what you’re doing: “We don’t recommend using this tool unless you are sure that you need to disavow some links to your site and you know exactly what you’re doing.”
According to Google, the disavow tool is only a suggestion to Google and it does not mean that the links will be ignored. Google also says that it will take several weeks until they process your request. Basically, Google says that they will continue to judge the links as they seem fit.
Could this be a trick?
Instead of penalizing websites with low quality backlinks, Google could simply ignore these links. Is it possible that the websites that were penalized simply didn’t have enough good backlinks? It might be that the rankings just dropped because the low quality links do not count anymore.
If you use Google’s disavow links tool, you show Google several things:
- You know that your website has low quality backlinks.
- You are actively using SEO methods to promote your website.
- You know that some of these methods might be spammy.
Some people think that using the disavow tool might be seen as admission of guilt. If you want to tell Google that you are (or have been) a spammer, then the disavow links tool might be a good way to do so.
There are better ways to invest your time
Ask yourself if it is really necessary to remove a link to your site. You might end up removing links that are helping your site.
The time that you invest in removing alleged bad backlinks is better invested in building new high quality backlinks. You can also use that time to improve the content of your website.
Show Google that your website is good. That’s better than trying to show them that your website is not bad.
Spamming is not the same as search engine optimization
Google’s recent updates mainly targeted people who thought that search engine optimization was the same as spamming. Search engine optimization is not about tricking search engines.
It is about optimzing your web pages so that searchers, search engines and businesses get the best possible results. Good search engine optimization leads to a win-win-win situation.
If you didn’t spam Google in the past, there’s no need to use Google’s disavow links tool, even if some backlinks to your site seem to have a low quality. Better focus on things that you can influence.
Use IBP to get high quality backlinks and optimize the content of your web pages so that your website gets the best possible rankings on Google and other search engines.
Article by Axandra SEO software
