The Google Disavow Tool gained unanimous acclaim and praise when it was introduced in October 2012. The SEO industry was going through a very rocky phase at that time. While more and more companies were getting serious about incorporating white-hat SEO techniques in their digital marketing strategy, there was this ever-present notion that there should be some way of controlling or managing ALL links that point to your website. The Google Disavow Tool took care of that much to the delight of companies and SEOs alike.
The Google Disavow tool can be applied to a variety of scenarios which will be the topic of discussion today as we highlight some popular reasons people use the Google Disavow Tool. In fact, we are so confident about the scenarios, we will even go as far to say that any company that has a website can potentially fall into these categories at any given time and when it does, it’s time to use the Google Disavow Tool. You have been warned!
Webmasters Not Removing Bad Links
There are two types of bad links; those that you can remove on your own and then those that you can’t.
A blog comment that uses a keyword instead of your name as an anchor text, is a bad link you can either fix or remove on your own. Links posted on third party spam sites or on domains you don’t recall ever posting on, will require you to contact the webmaster for that website (generally by email) and request him to remove the bad links. This is not a guarantee that the links will be taken down though. Some webmasters are too slow to respond. Many might disregard your email altogether as long as their site is in satisfactory shape SEO wise.
In cases like this, the Google Disavow Tool is a blessing. You simply let Google know of the links that you can’t take down and then Google will disregard them in its ranking algorithm. Now those links can stay there forever, your online traffic will not suffer because of it.
You Don’t Like The Sites Where the Links Are Coming From
Some clients are very picky about links. They want to know where every single link is coming from and what kind of sites are referencing them and their content. Good on them! That’s the right attitude. Editorial links constitute great quality links. They are quite literally priceless because they are authoritative both in the eyes of the reader and the Search Engines. If you discover low PR, low quality websites pointing at you, or if you don’t agree with the message of those website that are referencing you, you can chose to either have those links removed or not be counted in the eyes of Google using the Disavow Tool.
Tackling Negative SEO
Negative SEO created a state of panic worldwide and gave SEO’s a lot of grief and headache. People became wary of the fact that their site could to be deliberately damaged by competitors or spammers who would build spam links to their website on purpose. This would set off an alarm inadvertently to the Google spiders to penalise the site and mark it as spam or low quality, thereby affecting rankings and web traffic. Websites than had more than 20,000 inbound links were extremely concerned they might become victims to prank. The Disavow Tool was a lifesaver to them. Simply highlight or mention all the links that they feel are not theirs and submit to Google to not count them in any way. Problem solved! Suffice it to say SEO’s started sleeping soundly afterwards!
The Google Disavow Tool is one of many tools out there that website can and should use to keep their website in check and monitor their SEO progress. For more information on this and for a free website audit, contact i3Media, a leading SEO agency in Peterborough and speak with our Search Specialists.