How To Decide What Backlinks To Disavow

Backlinks are a cornerstone of effective search engine optimisation (SEO). They play a significant role in determining the authority and relevance of your website in the eyes of search engines like Google.

However, not all backlinks are beneficial; in fact, some can be downright harmful to your SEO efforts.

These detrimental backlinks can lead to penalties, dropping your site’s ranking and reducing its visibility. Therefore, understanding how to identify and disavow harmful backlinks is crucial for maintaining a healthy online presence.

This comprehensive guide will walk you through the entire process, from understanding the basics of backlinks to using advanced tools to identify and disavow harmful links.

The Role of Backlinks in SEO

Before diving into the specifics of disavowing backlinks, it’s essential to grasp why backlinks matter so much. In the simplest terms, backlinks act as endorsements from one website to another. When a site links to yours, it is essentially vouching for your content’s quality and relevance. Search engines consider these links as votes of confidence, and the more high-quality backlinks you have, the more authoritative your site appears.

However, not all backlinks are created equal. Google and other search engines use sophisticated algorithms to assess the quality of backlinks. Factors such as the linking site’s domain authority, relevance, and trustworthiness play a significant role in determining the value of a backlink. High-quality backlinks can boost your search engine rankings, while low-quality or spammy backlinks can harm them.

Why Disavow Backlinks?

Disavowing backlinks is a process where you tell Google to ignore specific links pointing to your website. This can be necessary for several reasons:

• Google Penalties: If your website is hit with a manual action or penalty due to unnatural links, disavowing harmful backlinks can help you recover.
• Algorithm Updates: Google’s algorithms are constantly evolving. Updates like Penguin have made it essential to ensure that your backlink profile is free from spammy or manipulative links.
• SEO Health: A clean backlink profile ensures that your SEO efforts are not undermined by poor-quality links. It can also protect you from negative SEO attacks, where competitors try to harm your rankings by building spammy backlinks to your site.

Identifying Harmful Backlinks: What to Look For

The first step in the disavowal process is identifying harmful backlinks. But what makes a backlink harmful? Here are the key indicators:

• Spammy Websites: These are sites that exist solely to generate backlinks, often filled with irrelevant content, excessive ads, or low-quality, spun articles. Links from such sites can severely damage your site’s credibility.
• Irrelevant Content: Backlinks from websites that have no relevance to your niche or industry can appear unnatural. Google values context and relevance, so links from unrelated sites can be detrimental.
• Link Farms and PBNs (Private Blog Networks): Link farms and PBNs are networks of websites created with the sole purpose of linking to each other to manipulate search rankings. These are often targeted by Google’s algorithms, and links from such networks can result in penalties.
• Over-Optimised Anchor Text: If a significant number of backlinks use exact-match keywords as anchor text, it can be a red flag. This is often a sign of manipulative linking practices, which Google frowns upon.
• Foreign Language Sites: Backlinks from websites in languages different from your site’s primary language can be suspicious, particularly if you have no connection to that region or language.
• Low Domain Authority (DA): Domain Authority is a metric that indicates the overall strength of a website. Backlinks from sites with low DA can be harmful, especially if they come from questionable sources.
• Toxic Links: These include links from sites involved in malicious activities, such as phishing, distributing malware, or other unethical practices. Links from such sites can severely damage your site’s reputation.
• Paid Links: Google’s guidelines strictly prohibit the purchase of links that pass PageRank. If you’ve acquired links through paid means, it’s advisable to disavow them to avoid penalties.

5 Tools to Analyse Your Backlink Profile

To effectively identify harmful backlinks, you’ll need to leverage specialised tools that can analyse your backlink profile in detail. Here are some of the most reliable tools available:

• Google Search Console: This is a free tool provided by Google that gives you a comprehensive overview of your site’s backlink profile. It’s a good starting point for identifying potentially harmful backlinks.
• Ahrefs: Ahrefs is one of the most popular SEO tools, offering a robust backlink analysis feature. It allows you to view your entire backlink profile, assess the quality of each link, and identify toxic backlinks.

• Moz Link Explorer: Moz provides a detailed look at your backlinks, including metrics like Domain Authority (DA) and Spam Score. These metrics can help you identify which backlinks might be harming your SEO.
• SEMrush: SEMrush’s Backlink Audit tool is designed to identify toxic backlinks. It provides a toxicity score for each backlink, helping you decide which ones to disavow.
• Majestic: Majestic offers detailed insights into the trustworthiness of your backlinks through its Trust Flow and Citation Flow metrics. These can be instrumental in identifying harmful links.

Each of these tools provides different metrics and features, so it’s often beneficial to use more than one to get a comprehensive view of your backlink profile.

Evaluating the Quality of Backlinks

Once you’ve collected data on your backlinks, the next step is to evaluate their quality. This is a crucial part of the process, as it helps you determine which backlinks are beneficial and which are harmful. Here’s how to assess the quality of your backlinks:

• Domain Authority (DA): Domain Authority is a score that predicts how well a website will rank on search engines. It’s calculated by considering various factors, including the number of linking root domains and the quality of those links. Backlinks from high-DA sites are generally more valuable. Conversely, backlinks from low-DA sites, particularly those with a DA below 20, can be harmful.
• Relevance of Content: The relevance of the linking site’s content to your own is critical. For example, if you run a website about digital marketing, a backlink from a well-regarded site in the same niche will be more valuable than a backlink from a site about cooking. Google values relevance, so make sure the linking site’s content aligns with your niche.
• Traffic and User Engagement: Websites that receive high traffic and have good user engagement metrics (like low bounce rates and high average session durations) are generally seen as more authoritative. Backlinks from such sites are more likely to be beneficial.
• Anchor Text: The text used in a backlink (known as anchor text) should be natural and varied. Overuse of exact-match keywords in anchor texts can appear manipulative and might lead to penalties. For instance, if most of your backlinks use the anchor text “best digital marketing services”, it could raise a red flag.
• Link Placement: The location of a backlink on a webpage also matters. Links embedded within the main content of a page (e.g., within an article) are generally more valuable than links in footers, sidebars, or comments sections. This is because in-content links are more likely to be clicked and are seen as more natural.
• Historical Context: Consider the history of the linking site. If the site was once reputable but has since declined in quality or shifted focus to spammy practices, backlinks from it might no longer be beneficial.

Deciding Which Backlinks to Disavow

After evaluating your backlinks, it’s time to make the decision on which ones to disavow. Here’s a detailed process for making that decision:

• Categorise Your Backlinks: Start by categorising your backlinks into three groups: high-quality, low-quality, and harmful. High-quality links should be kept, low-quality links should be monitored, and harmful links should be disavowed.
• High-Risk, Low-Reward Links: Disavow backlinks that present a high risk (e.g., from spammy, irrelevant, or low-DA sites) but offer little to no SEO benefit. These links are more likely to harm your SEO than help it.
• Spam and Manipulation: Immediately disavow backlinks that are clearly spammy or manipulative. This includes links from link farms, PBNs, or sites with irrelevant, spun content.
• Over-Optimised Anchor Text: If a pattern of over-optimised anchor text is evident, especially from low-quality sites, disavow those backlinks. This is particularly important if the anchor texts are exact-match keywords.
• Toxic Links Identified by Tools: If your SEO tools flag certain backlinks as toxic or give them a high toxicity score, it’s wise to disavow them. Tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs often highlight links that could be damaging based on various metrics.
• Consider Your SEO History: If you’ve engaged in any grey-hat or black-hat SEO tactics in the past, such as buying links or participating in link exchanges, disavow any links that were obtained through these methods.

Creating and Submitting a Disavow File

Once you’ve identified the backlinks to disavow, the next step is to create a disavow file. This is a straightforward process, but it’s important to do it correctly to avoid disavowing beneficial links accidentally.

• Compile Your List: Use a plain text editor like Notepad to compile your list of backlinks to disavow. Each line in the file should contain either a full URL or a domain. If you want to disavow all links from a specific domain, use the format domain:example.com.
• Use Comments for Clarity: You can add comments to your disavow file by starting a line with a #. This can be useful for keeping track of why certain links or domains were disavowed. For example:makefileCopy code# Disavowing spammy links from low-quality site domain:spammywebsite.com
• Save as a .txt File: Save your file with a .txt extension. Make sure the file is properly formatted and free of any extraneous characters or formatting that could cause errors.
• Upload the Disavow File: Go to Google’s Disavow Tool, accessible through Google Search Console. Select the property (your website) that you want to disavow links for, then upload the .txt file.
• Monitor the Submission: After uploading, it’s important to monitor your site’s performance in the weeks and months following. It can take time for Google to process the disavowal and reflect the changes in your site’s ranking.

Ongoing Backlink Management

Disavowing harmful backlinks is not a one-time task; it’s an ongoing process. SEO is dynamic, and your backlink profile will evolve over time. Here’s how to ensure your backlink profile remains healthy:

• Regular Backlink Audits: Conduct regular audits of your backlink profile using the tools mentioned earlier. This will help you identify new harmful backlinks and take action before they can cause damage.
• Keep Up with Algorithm Updates: Google’s algorithms are constantly changing. Stay informed about major updates, especially those related to links, like the Penguin algorithm. This will help you adapt your backlink strategy as needed.
• Focus on Building High-Quality Links: While it’s important to disavow harmful links, it’s equally important to build high-quality backlinks. Focus on acquiring links from authoritative, relevant sites through strategies like guest blogging, content marketing, and influencer outreach.
• Review Your Disavow File: Periodically review your disavow file to ensure that it still aligns with your SEO strategy. In some cases, you might find that certain disavowed links no longer need to be disavowed, especially if they’ve been updated or the linking site has improved in quality.
• Stay Vigilant Against Negative SEO: Be aware of the potential for negative SEO, where competitors might attempt to harm your site’s ranking by building spammy links to it. Regular monitoring and swift action can mitigate this risk.

Final Notes

Disavowing backlinks is a critical aspect of maintaining a robust SEO strategy. By carefully analysing your backlink profile and using the right tools, you can identify and disavow harmful links that could be damaging your site’s rankings. Remember, this process is not just about eliminating bad links but also about ensuring your site’s overall link profile is strong, natural, and beneficial.

SEO is a long-term investment, and maintaining a healthy backlink profile is essential for sustained success. By following this guide, you can confidently navigate the complexities of backlink disavowal, protecting your site from potential penalties and enhancing its visibility in search engine results.

Whether you’re recovering from a penalty or simply want to safeguard your SEO efforts, a proactive approach to managing your backlinks will help you stay ahead in the competitive digital landscape.