Has anyone had experience with the Disavow Links tool? If so did you notice positive results from it?
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I recently noticed a large number of backlinks from low authority directories coming in for one of my clients. These links were either purchased from a competitor or from a directory service site that knows we might be willing to pay to have bad links removed. I've contacted the website admin and they require a payment of $.30 per link to have them removed from their directory. Has anyone had a similar experience? I'm also considering using the disavow tool but I've heard the outcome of using this tool is usually bad. I'd appreciate any feedback, thanks!
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I am trying to put together a set of rules to help decide which links directory is harmful & warrants a removal.
- directory has xxx & gambling listing
- Directory is no longer in google database (site:domain.com shows no results). I take this as google penalty.
- Directory's home page & page where my link exists has low Mozrank, PR
- My link is site wide on the directory
Suggestion & recommendations welcome.
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The thing with the disavow tool is that Google doesn't necessarily count all the links you submit as bad. If they think you have submitted a link by mistake then they will ignore it. That is why people are encouraged to get them taken down rather than just use the disavow tool. There is no point submitting a reconsideration request if you haven't had an unnatural links warning, if anything you are just drawing attention to yourself!
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I don't really completely understand what you mean by "bad", as long as you can prove you tried to remove them your self (I.e emailed the site owner) then it correct procedure would be disavow which would then remove anything that link may pass onto your site.
Obviously it could be seen as bad if you remove good links and remember your link profile will be made up of low links its how a natural link profile will look if you only had high PR sites pointed to you it would look suspicious and would no doubt get you a penalty.
Are the back links really causing you to loose more than if you were to remove them ?
Hope this help.
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Hope that helps Aaron.
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Many webmasters, such as yourself are cautious and hesitant to use the disavow tool.
I would document that you contacted the webmaster and they required a payment of $.30 per links to have them removed, and send that info over to google after you use the disavow and put in a reconsideration request.
"Use the disavow tool like a machete" - Matt Cutts
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/what-to-expect-in-seo-in-the-coming-months/#comment-86419
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