What does it mean to Disavow Links?
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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.