How do you disavow a link in Google Search Console?

Do you have unnecessary links that are slowing down your site? If so, you might want to look into disavowing those links. Luckily, Google already has a tool to do this called the Disavow Links Tool. But what exactly does it mean to disavow a link, and when should you do it?

How do you disavow a link in Google Search Console?

Google's Disavow Links tool allows you to determine which backlinks you want search crawlers to ignore when crawling your site. T

his can be useful when thinking about optimizing your site for ranking purposes.

The process of actually disavowing links is quite simple.

1. Create a .txt file of the links you would like to disavow

First create a .txt file of the links you would like to disavow. An example txt file could look something like:

It does not matter what text editor you use, as long as you can save it as a .txt file.

Submit the txt file to Google

Next, submit the .txt file to Google! Just head to the disavow tool and you are all set to submit the .txt file for Google to disavow the links.

NOTE: This process does not work with domain properties, only url properties. For more info check out Google's help docs.

How do you determine which backlinks to disavow?

Although the process for disavowing is pretty easy, deciding which domains to disavow can be a little more complicated. The main reason you should disavow a link is if it’s  low quality or spammy. You want to avoid low quality pages linking to your site because this will negatively impact the user experience of your site and your content’s credibility, which can both consequently lower your rank.

So, what does a low quality backlink look like? Here are a few categories to keep an eye out for:

• Obvious spam sites
• Links that appear in spam comments
• Sites that are set up just for links
• Backlinks from sites that are not in your target countries or locations
  

Why is it important to disavow bad links?

Bad backlinks can harm your SEO, which can consequently cause your ranking to lower on Google.

When you filter out the bad links, you’re left with only the good backlinks which will actually help boost your rank. More specifically, having good backlinks can increase your visibility in search engines, raise your Page Authority (PA) and your Domain Authority (DA) scores, which can all help your page.

Before you decide to disavow...

Keep in mind that disavowing a backlink should be your last resort.

When you disavow a link, you are telling Google that the link is a threat to your site. You really need to consider if disavowing the link could help or hinder you because disavowing the wrong link can hurt your SEO. Follow the steps outlined in this article and make sure you’re 100% certain the link you’re disavowing falls into one of the above categories.