Why does GWT still show some links from a disavowed domain?
-
We have disavowed a lot of spam links that were pointing to our website.
We've disavowed on a domain level and a lot of links have now disappeared on GWT.
However, there is a domain that we disavowed where MOST of the links have disappeared in GWT but there are STILL some remaining even a month and a half after disavowing.
The disavow file has been sent in numerous times since then with new domains.
Is there an explanation as to why some links still remain on this domain even though most of them have been disavowed and removed from GWT?
-
Thanks Peter
-
Unfortunately, there's very little transparency on this topic. Google may not remove them at all in GWT, in some cases, and even if they do, it can take a very long time. There's no great way to tell whether Google has actually disavowed a link, other than the end result of a penalty being lifted, etc.
-
"When you disavow links or domains it doesn't cause them to be removed from your webmaster tools list of links. "
That's strange because most of the links we've disavowed have disappeared from our GWT. How can this be?
-
"We've disavowed on a domain level and a lot of links have now disappeared on GWT."
When you disavow links or domains it doesn't cause them to be removed from your webmaster tools list of links. Google will apply an invisible nofollow tag to the links but there is no outward evidence of this being done.
-
What is OPE? Are you referring to Open Site Explorer? If so, you should note that the disavow tool in GWT doesn't remove links from the sites, it's just supposed to remove them from your Google link profile. So, any outside link aggregator (like Open Site Explorer or Majestic SEO) will still show those links because they report what links actually exist (the one's they've found) not what links Google is counting. They don't have access to the disavow request or Google's link profile.
As to the original question, Google can take a while to process disavow requests. So, it may just be a time thing. I'm also wondering if Google filters new links it finds through the disavow list? This isn't based in experience or even anything I've read, I'm just wondering. If you disavow a domain and Google removes those links, but then later they crawl that site and find more links (new to them), do they automatically not include those links because you've already disavowed the site or does the crawler add it to your link profile and then they filter those links through the disavowed list after the fact, if at all? If they add the links and then filter it later, that could explain what you're seeing.
Perhaps there's someone out there who's tested or observed this who could provide more clarity.
-
GWT does take time to update its data. Use OPE and see if those links still appear on your back links profile
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Inbound Links not showing. Links are not no follow
Over the past several months I have definitely received inbound links to my website ( none of which are no follow). I have HubSpot as well s Moz and none of the links are showing. My competitors with the same link sources are showing though. I am completely dumbfounded. Why are my inbound links not showing and how much time does it take for them to show if they show at all? Thank you!
Link Building | | NPatt0 -
Does Moz show links which have been disavowed?
Hi All, Just wondering when Moz shows the number of inbound links to a site - does it count links which have been disavowed? Thanks guys! Laura
Link Building | | Citybase0 -
Internal Linking - Post links vs Side Bar Links behaving differently
Hi, I have a question regarding the internal linking behavior. My website is www.hindimeaning.com which is approx 3 years old. I have approx 450 posts. Now i have a widget on right sidebar "Popular posts". A widget below my posts "Related Posts". And a simple html CSS menu above the posts (I removed menu around 6 month before so currently it will not show.) I crawled my site with moz crawler (same are the result from google crawler as well) and it shows menus links as internal links. While sidebar widget "Popular posts" and "Related Posts" are not showing as internal links. If we talk theoretically what i learn till now is "every link on a page behaves as internal link". Then why the widget links are not showing as internal links. Thanks, Mahesh Kumar
Link Building | | chaudhary04890 -
Internal Links - How to Increase them, Categories not being considered as Internal Links
Hi All: As per my understanding, Internal Equity Passing Links is a metric defining PA. Now my website has around 65 internal links while few of my competitors have more than 180 links. I am unable to understand how to increase the internal links passing equity on my website, because I can see, more number of links on my website than my competitors but opensiteexplorer does not show that. I am really confused. Please help out if anyone knows something about this issue. Thanks in advance.
Link Building | | sidjain4you0 -
Linking to sites that link to porn or casinos, my site getting penalized?
I have some link exchanges with some sites to get web traffic but when i ran the bad neighborhood link checker, i found that one site links to some casinos and another site has one link to a porn site. Is this getting me penalized? should i remove the links to these sites? Thanks, Ron
Link Building | | Ron100 -
Is there a software to help me check whether the sites that i give link to, also place my link on their site (reciprocal link)?
When i exchange links with others, i usually put their link on my site hoping that they'll do the same. Since it's impossible to check all sites whose link i have placed on my page to see if they have put a link back to me, i was wondering whether there is a kind of software to help me do that!
Link Building | | isidora0 -
What are the new ways of Link Building which will get quality links?
Hi We are doing following kinds of Link Building: 1. Article marketing 2. Directory Submission 3. Guest Blogging 4. Press Release submission 5. Infographics (Viral Marketing) I know blog commenting and links from discussion forums are considered as greyhat / blackhat by google. So I want suggestions on some other ethical(Whitehat SEO) ways of Link Building to get quality Links. Also suggest me some Free article submission sites which give " dofollow-links" Thank You
Link Building | | Virrtuo0 -
Inbound links vs. internal links
Which scenario does more to help SEO - A) An inbound link from a low traffic/low page rank site to my site B) An internal link where one page of my site links to another page on my site
Link Building | | DVanSchepen0