Easiest way to disavow single links on an on-going basis?

[BlueLinkERP]

We frequently get random super-sketchy looking blogs linking to us with no author or contact information. I believe we are being targeted by a competitor setting up garbage links to us. I am hoping to use the Google disavow links tool to deal with this but is it:

• Safe to use or does it flag us as link spammers by using it

• Possible to use on an on-going basis for single links (as them come in, as opposed to a bunch of backlogged links)

Thanks!

[BlueLinkERP]

Thanks. I submitted some links but then deleted the file. Hopefully I didn't do any harm . . .

Our average link quality is artificially low because of these garbage sites linking to us. That's why I thought it might be a problem.

[Carson-Ward]

As another user (Crusader) said, the disavow tool was kind of built as a last step, and usually for penalties. I wouldn't use it just because someone has a lot of bad links pointing to your site.

Really, Google is quite good at figuring out the difference between a negative SEO attempt and an attempt to manipulate rankings. It shouldn't be your job to police your links like this, and I sincerely doubt you need to. I've fielded a lot of questions and concerns about negative SEO, and I can say it's usually not worth the time spent worrying about it.

It's also worth noting that disavow seems to work as a single-use filter rather than a growing database, though we're still running tests on that. What I mean is that disavowing 10 links may overwrite the previous links you've submitted.

[BlueLinkERP]

That warning message is certainly spooky. The thing is I don't see why you wouldn't want to use it if a bunch of sketchy sites are linking to you. Certainly those sites can't be helping with their abysmal quality scores and they are likely hurting. Anyways, I gave it a shot. Worst case scenario, I think I can just delete the file and Google will recognize the links again. At least, I hope so . . .

[JCurrier]

I believe this is what is being referred to as negative SEO and what many fear will be the result of the latest updates. Do you know if these links are in articles that contain any of your content? Could these be scrapers?

Are you experiencing negative effects as a result of these links?

I can't say for sure as to whether it's safe to use or not. Are you asking if you can use it over and over again, or to have some sort of automated process for adding links to the tool? I'm fairly certain you can use it more than once. And, if you were planning on automating, how would you know which links are good and which are bad?

Here is some text directly from Google regarding the disavow tool:

"This is an advanced feature and should only be used with caution. If used incorrectly, this feature can potentially harm your site’s performance in Google’s search results. We recommend that you disavow backlinks only if you believe you have a considerable number of spammy, artificial, or low-quality links pointing to your site, and if you are confident that the links are causing issues for you. In most cases, Google can assess which links to trust without additional guidance, so most normal or typical sites will not need to use this tool."

So, if you are not experiencing negative effects, I would just keep an eye on it in case something happens. If you still want to use the tool, Google also recommends that you do your best to get the links removed from the sites. The author info might not be available, but you could possibly reach out to the site owner.