Are You Wasting Time Fighting Bad Links?
Ever feel like you’re constantly battling weird links pointing to your website? It’s a common worry, but maybe you’re fighting the wrong battle…
Google Says Disavow Tool Isn’t for Routine Cleanup
Roger Montti recently highlighted some crucial comments from Google’s John Mueller, and it’s advice that could save you a lot of unnecessary work. Remember Google’s Disavow Tool? The one people use to tell Google “ignore these links”? Well, it turns out it’s not meant for your regular website tidying sessions.
Who *Should* Use the Disavow Tool?
Mueller essentially said the disavow tool is for very specific, serious situations. It’s mainly for websites that have actively paid for links or got caught up in shady link schemes, especially if they’ve received a penalty notice from Google (a manual action). If you’ve done things you know might get you into trouble with link building, *that’s* when you might need it.
Why Google Ignores Most Spammy Links Anyway
But for the average website owner? Google’s systems are now pretty good at spotting and just ignoring random spammy or low–quality links automatically. They usually don’t harm your site’s ranking anymore. So, that routine task of exporting link lists from SEO tools and uploading them to the disavow tool? Google suggests this isn’t necessary for normal site maintenance.
Could Unnecessary Disavowing Hurt Your Site?
Even more interesting? Using the disavow tool when you don’t need to could actually hurt you. What if you accidentally disavow a perfectly good link that was helping your site? That wouldn’t exactly boost your performance, right?
Takeaway: Ditch the Disavow Chore (Usually)
So, the takeaway here is simple: unless you have solid evidence of a penalty caused by link schemes you participated in, you can probably take “disavow file updates” off your regular to-do list. Focus your valuable time on creating awesome content and earning quality links the right way. It seems Google can handle the junk links on its own most of the time. Isn’t that a relief?
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Want to dig deeper into what Google said? You should check out Roger Montti’s full breakdown covering why Google’s disavow tool isn’t for routine maintenance.