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793 views“All that glitters is not gold-” This proverb completely matches the context of what we will discuss today: backlinks. Not just any backlinks: toxic links, and ofcourse, how to disavow backlinks and save your website from Google’s wrath.
Ya, ya, we know that getting a backlink is a cause for celebration, but not all of them are good, right? And how can you confirm that a particular backlink is negatively affecting your SEO instead of increasing your traffic rate?
If you have not yet done a link audit for your website, you need to buckle up, as there are high chances of toxic links feeding off your website traffic.
Besides, Google hates spammy websites as it shows that you use black hat SEO techniques to get ahead in SERP rankings and gain traffic. That’s why Google launched the Penguin algorithm back in 2012 to pick out all untrustworthy links from web pages.
Though the name might sound cute, believe us, Google Penguin is a merciless algorithm. Let’s say you were getting 2000 monthly visits on your website, but there was a single spammy backlink that Penguin detected and levied a penalty.
What’s next? Your website traffic falls to zero.
Yes, that’s right! Your website is now completely lost in the pool of SERP rankings, counting days to get at least a single visitor.
However, Google also understands that most of the time, you have no idea of such links, due to which it created the “ Google Disavow backlinks” feature.
With the Google disavow links feature, you can easily perform Google penalty recovery for your site and save it from further harmful links.
Moreover, the Google Disavow backlinks tool will be your best friend. But beware, as it is a dangerous feature and not a child’s play.
That’s why we are here to guide you throughout the disavow backlinks Google process so you don’t get a penalty.
How To Find Toxic Links for Google Disavow Backlinks Process?
The first major step of the link disavow process is identifying the toxic links.
The first major step of the link disavow process is identifying the toxic links.
You cannot simply go ahead and conduct Google disavow for all links pointing to your website, as it would damage your entire off-page SEO efforts and give a low blow to your rankings.
That’s why you must be careful while finding toxic links, as one small mistake can bring everything down.
There are several ways through which you can find these spammy links, but the most effective ones are stated below. Besides, our online SEO tool will make the entire process easier.
1. Domain Quality
One of the best methods we suggest to webmasters is identifying spammy domains from where your website gets backlinks.
RankWatch’s free backlink checker can help you separate toxic domains from good ones within seconds.
Once you have added a new project, you just need to visit the backlink audit page, and all backlink-related data of your website will be in front of you.
You need to click on the “Referring domains” in the overview tab.
A new dashboard showcasing a graph of the total number of referring domains acquired throughout the year will appear on your screen.
Below, you will see a table stating the referring domains, IP addresses, organic keywords, etc. Add the “domain quality” option from the advanced filter table to verify if the referring domains are indeed trustworthy or not.
The table will automatically display the domain quality of the referring domains in ascending order, making it easier for you to filter out the spammy ones.
Download this report, or export it directly to an Excel sheet for the disavow backlinks Google process.
2. Link Quality
Let’s say the domain quality is really good and has tons of visitors every month, but, and that’s a big BUT, the domain genre does not match your website content. Now, would you consider such domains referring to your website?
Or let’s say the domain quality is really good, but the link is quite suspicious as it does not seem relevant to your content. Would getting backlinks from such websites be useful for your website?
We don’t think so. Instead, such links will negatively affect your site’s traffic by increasing the bounce rate.
To ensure that such sites do not link to your website, separate them using the Link Quality feature.
Select the “Referring Backlinks” feature on the overview tab.
Now, on the left-hand side of the dashboard you will see a “Backlink Quality” box stating the link quality and the percentage of backlinks falling under each segment.
Select the “low quality” option from the box, and a dashboard disclosing all the low quality links, their anchor text, link type, and other important metrics will appear.
Download the report as it will help you during the Google Disavow links process.
3. By Country
Let’s be honest here; anyone in the world can find your website content useful and link back to you. Yes, it’s good, but what if the backlinking is rising at an alarming rate and that too, it’s not from your targeted country?
Sounds suspicious? Well then, you should check your link profile right away.
RankWatch’s backlink audit can easily disclose the countries from which websites are linking to your content so that you can verify the same.
All you need to do is select the “Country” option from the advanced filter section in “Referring Backlinks,” and the tool will automatically disclose the referring links’ countries.
If you find suspicious activities, like increasing referrals to your site from countries you have not targeted, visit the links and verify their relevance to your content.
There might be a chance that some high-quality domains are linking to your content as they find it useful. However, there’s also a chance that some domains are suspicious or do not have any relevant content to refer you to.
Group such links and export the list so that you can properly conduct the disavow link process.
Another effective way to identify bad links from your link profile is by looking at their anchor texts. Most of the time, link spammers use random words as anchor texts and link to your website.
Simply put, the anchor texts and the linked content do not match. You can easily view these anchor texts in the “Anchor text” section from the overview tab of Backlink Audit.
It shows you the total number of anchor texts used for linking to your site, along with the number of new and lost links that used the specific anchor text for linking, the overall anchor text percentage, and other important metrics.
Moreover, you can visit the referring websites as per the anchor text used, and verify whether they are relevant to your content or fall under the “spammy websites” category.
If they seem spammy to you, then proceed with the Google disavow links process immediately.
How To Disavow Backlinks?
You got your list of bad, toxic, blood-sucking links ready?? Now, let’s start with the hard part, shall we? The major question of this blog, “How to disavow backlinks?” and here we are with the answer.
Follow these steps carefully so that Google doesn’t remove good links from your website during the link disavow process.
Step 1: Separate Links and Domains
Now that you have a list of spammy links, you need to separate them into domains and URLs.
Why? That’s because there are chances you only have a few spammy links coming from a good domain.
Now you don’t want to remove the good links from your website, do you?
Besides, you might also have spammy domains whose only job is to feed off your content through toxic referrals.
Create an Excel sheet with different columns for URLs and domains. We know it might take some time, but it’s worth the hard work.
Step 2: Create a .txt File
Separated the links? Now, let’s move on to the next step.
Create a Word file and start writing the spammy domains and URLs in this format:
For disavow links:
http://spam.spammylink.com/stuff/comments.html
http://spam.toxiclink.com/stuff/paid-links.html
For disavowing domains:
domain:spammysite.com
However, there are certain rules that you need to follow so that Google disavow links and the process goes smoothly:
- Write only one URL or domain in one line. You cannot simply disavow an entire subpath.
- A single file can only contain 100,000 lines, including all blank lines and comments. If your file length is more than that, you need to reduce it or create another file for the remaining and eliminate them afterward.
- Ensure that the file size is no more than 2MB
- Make sure that the file is encoded in 7-bit ASCII or UTF-8.
Step 3: Upload the Google Disavow Link File
Once you are ready with the link disavow file, download it in .txt format. Now follow these steps to smoothly upload the Google disavow link file.
- Open the disavow links page in Google Search Console
- Select the property (website) for which you want to remove the links
- Click on the “Upload disavow list” option
- Upload the .txt file, and you are good to go
Now, relax for a bit, as Google will take some weeks to process your request and completely disavow backlinks from your website.
How To Stop Link Disavow?
To err is to human- and who better than Google knows this? So, if you have made the mistake of eliminating useful links from your website, you still have a chance to save your off-page SEO efforts.
- Visit the disavow links Google Search Console page
- Select your property from the menu
- Click on the “Cancel disavowals” option
Remember that Google will take a few weeks to consider your request and then work on it. Besides, if you have mistakenly added a good link amongst the Google disavow link file, then you need to start the entire link disavow process after canceling the request.
So, it will be tiring. That’s why make sure you give the best shot in the first try.
When Should You Conduct Link Disavow?
One of the major questions that webmasters face is when is the correct time to disavow backlinks. Should you disavow links after getting a penalty? But won’t that be too late?
Well, here are some signs based on which you can decide whether backlinks disavow would be a good option for your site.
Negative SEO Drop
There have been cases where websites bombard their competitors with spammy links and anchor texts to tank their rankings.
If you see a sudden negative change in your rankings, traffic, dwell and bounce rates, immediately conduct a backlink audit for your website.
Besides, our backlink checker can give you a quick overview of any toxic links along with their link quality, domain quality, anchor texts, etc. Download this report and start the Google disavow links process immediately.
Spam from the Past
We have all heard about “Throwback Thursdays,” where we revel in happy memories from the past. However, in “Spam from the past,” we shiver from the toxic links built in the past era.
There might be toxic links on your website about which you don’t have any information. This might happen due to past attacks, sudden changes in formats, and as such.
Whatever the case, these spammy links from the past have the caliber to destroy your off-page efforts and hit you where it hurts the most: your website’s rankings.
So, before Google gets a hold on such links, conduct an audit and start the link disavow process to eliminate them from your site immediately.
Spammy Link Building
Let’s say the webmaster before you or your client used a spammy link builder tool or hired someone to get spammy backlinks so that their website’s ranking could improve.
However, as per the current scenario, you cannot use such black hat techniques to get better rankings.
That’s why, if you get a whiff of spammy link building that has been done in the past, confirm the same with your client, and then start with the link disavow process.
Summing Up…
So, the book has been uncovered, and all the secrets are out in the open. Now that you know all about toxic links, their side effects, and how to disavow backlinks, what are you waiting for?
Go ahead and disavow those bad guys from your website right away. And don’t worry, RankWatch is always here to save you from drowning in the quicksand of toxic links, Google penalty, and all things that are harmful to your site.
Hope this blog was helpful to you.
See you soon!
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