Which links to disavow?

[rich.owings]

I've got a new client that just fired their former SEO company, which was building spammy links like crazy! Using GSC and Majestic, I've identified 341 linking domains. I'm only a quarter of the way through the list, but it is clear that the overwhelming majority are from directories, article directories and comment spam. So far less than 20% are definitely links I want to keep.

At what point do I keep directory links? I see one with a DA of 61 and a Moz spam score of 0. I realize this is a judgement call that will vary, but I'd love to hear some folks give DA and spam numbers. FWIW, the client's DA is 37.

[rich.owings]

Thanks to each of you for taking the time to respond with such a great mix of information and opinions. It is very helpful. Now to plow through all the data!

[Alick300]

Hi Rich,

Patrick already recommended few articles and give you suggestion that which link to disavow. I would like to add one more article in which you will find step by step method to find which link to disavow @The Ultimate Guide To Cleaning Up Your Link Profile Step By Step

Hope this helps.

Thanks

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there

Finding links in which to disavow isn't the hardest thing in the world to do, but it should be done with care. You need an surgeon's knife, not a hatchet.

The best way to assess backlinks are to ask the following questions:

• Does this link help my website?

• Does it send quality traffic?

• Is this link relevant to my website?

• Would I trust this site (that's linking to me) if I landed on it?

• Is the website or content in which I am being linked from topically relevant to my website?

• If you check metrics - does anything about the metrics (domain authority, page authority,Majestic, SEMRush traffic/ranking data, etc) make me feel uneasy?

• Are the links from directory templates? (example)

• Inspect URLs with blatant spam words

• Free

• Porn

• XXX

• Submit

• Directory

• Paid

• Links

• URL

• Sex

• etc.

• Check for multiple domains and URLs on the same IPs

• This can usually show link farms or spam

• Don't be quick to discount nofollow links - nofollow's do provide value, so as long as they pass your sniff test, don't remove them simply because of this tag

These links don't provide any value, and the higher the spam score the more reason you have to remove it. Although, you should get second opinions from tools like Majestic, Ahrefs, and Search Console as well. Going through this assessment will help give you a better idea of links to remove or disavow.

Hope this helps - good luck!

[RickyShockley]

Hi Rich,

To the best of my knowledge, most of the directory type links are unlikely to get you penalized. If anything, those types of links are likely to be devalued as Google learns more about their inclusion process etc.

I'd keep most of the directory links unless there is something that is clearly off-the-rails bad!

Look forward to hearing insights from others.

Ricky