Google confirms that the disavow backlink tool can be harmful

When Google released the disavow links tool about one year ago, Google's Matt Cutts said that you should be careful with the tool:

"It’s something where it is possible, in the process of telling Google to ignore links to your site, to make mistakes. So I would approach it with caution. I wouldn’t just jump in."

Last week, Eric Kuan, member of Google's web spam team, confirmed that the link disavow tool can hurt the rankings of your website:

"The disavow backlinks tool should be used with caution since it can potentially harm your site's performance.

However, if you see a considerable number of spammy, artificial, or low-quality links point to your site, and you're confident that the links are causing issues for your site, you can use the disavow tool to disavow those links. 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."

In other words: using the disavow backlinks tool is an indicator that there's something fishy about your website and it can happen that you disavow good backlinks that help your website.

Think twice before using the disavow backlinks tool

As Google's Eric Kuan said above: "Google can assess which links to trust without additional guidance," so there is no need to inform Google about low quality backlinks.

By using Google’s disavow links tool, you show Google several things:

• You know that your website has low quality backlinks.
• You are actively using SEO methods to promote your website.
• You know that some of these methods might be spammy.

Some people think that using the disavow tool might be seen as admission of guilt. If you want to tell Google that you are (or have been) a spammer, then the disavow links tool might be a good way to do so.

Of course, it is a good idea to use the disavow backlinks tool if you actually did spam Google in the past.

There are better ways to invest your time

If you did not use spammy methods in the past, there are better ways to invest your time than cleaning up old links. Instead of working with old links, concentrate on getting new backlinks.

Investing your time in new high quality backlinks will have a much bigger impact on the rankings of your website on Google.

Among many other things, SEOprofiler offers powerful tools that help you to get high quality backlinks to your website. SEOprofiler only uses spam-free search engine optimization methods that play by the rules.

If you haven't done it yet, create your SEOprofiler account now.


Article by Axandra
SEO software