Disavow links

In everyday English, to disavow something means to deny any connection with it. In SEO, you disavow links by asking Google not to take certain links to your website into account, using a text file of URLs or domains that you upload to the disavow links tool in Google Search Console.

Google recommends this only when a considerable number of spammy links have caused a manual action or are likely to cause one.

How we recognise harmful links

Assessing links is part of our everyday work: every publisher is checked before it is admitted to the Linkbroker marketplace, and we do not admit networks that were built only to sell links. The same warning signs help when you look at your own backlink profile:

• Authority without visitors: A domain with a high Domain Rating but hardly any organic traffic and few rankings gets its strength from links, not from content anyone is searching for.
• No rankings: If a website does not rank for a single keyword, it may be in the index, but it plays no role in search.
• Falling traffic: A clearly declining trend combined with high authority is a warning sign.
• No topic of its own: A website that writes about loans today, garden furniture tomorrow and gambling the day after, without any of it fitting its content, often lives mainly from selling links.
• Mass patterns: many identically built pages, automatically generated directory, profile or comment entries and the same keyword anchors over and over again. Google describes patterns like these in its policies on link spam.

Metrics such as Ahrefs' Domain Rating or Moz's Spam Score are aids, not verdicts: they are estimates by third parties, not Google's own assessment. That is why it is worth checking suspicious links one by one instead of following an automatic score.

Google's position: when a disavow file makes sense

Google's Search Console Help is clear that most sites will not need the tool: in most cases, Google can assess on its own which links to trust. Google recommends disavowing links only if both of the following apply (Search Console Help: Disavow links to your site):

• A considerable number of spammy, artificial or low-quality links point to your site.
• These links have caused a manual action, or are likely to cause one.

A typical case is a domain you have taken over whose previous owner collected links from networks or mass directories, or older link campaigns of your own that follow such patterns.

You can see whether there is a manual action against your site in the Manual actions report in Search Console. Google also calls the tool an advanced feature that should only be used with caution: used incorrectly, for example when good links end up in the file, it can harm your site's performance in Google Search.

Google filters out the rest of the spam itself. With the December 2022 link spam update, Google put its AI-based system SpamBrain to work neutralising the impact of unnatural links (Google Search Central Blog). Such links then simply stop counting. A handful of random spam links that you never caused through your own link building is therefore no reason for a disavow file.

Toxic backlinks: what tools mean by the term

Many SEO tools flag links with a toxicity or spam score. Google itself speaks of spammy, artificial or low-quality links in its help pages and does not mention any such score. A red value in a tool is a reason to take a closer look, but not proof that Google holds the link against you. Automated ratings often misfire: a link from a small but genuine specialist site can look bad in a tool and still be exactly the right one. What matters is whether a link follows a pattern that Google describes as manipulation, not how high a score is.

How to create a disavow file

1. Collect the links: Export the linking pages from the Links report in Search Console and add data from a backlink tool if needed. Ideally, do this as part of an SEO audit so you see the link profile as a whole.
2. Check them one by one: Go through suspicious domains using the warning signs above and decide for each domain whether it really fits a pattern.
3. Ask for removal first: Google advises getting spammy links removed by the owner of the linking site wherever possible. Whatever cannot be removed goes into the file.
4. Create the file: a plain text file that follows the rules below.
5. Upload it: Open the disavow links tool, select your property and upload the file. If it contains errors, Google shows them immediately and your previous list stays in place.

The rules for the file, according to Google:

• one URL or one domain per line, with whole domains and subdomains prefixed by domain:
• comments start with a hash (#) and are ignored
• a text file with the extension .txt, encoded in UTF-8 or 7-bit ASCII
• no more than 100,000 lines and 2 MB, and no URL longer than 2,048 characters
• you cannot disavow a subpath such as example.com/en/, only individual URLs or whole domains

For pure spam sites, a domain entry usually makes more sense than individual URLs, because several pages there often link to you. An example:

# Link network, owner unreachable, checked 11 Nov 2026

domain:example.net

# Single profile entry with a keyword anchor

https://forum.example.org/profile/12345

Good to know after the upload

• URL-prefix properties only: The tool does not support Domain properties. You need a URL-prefix property, for example https://www.example.com/. If you have set up http and https as separate properties, upload a list for each.
• One list per property: Every new file completely replaces the old one, so always extend your existing list rather than uploading only the new entries. It also means a mistake can be undone with a corrected file.
• Patience: According to Google, it can take a few weeks for the list to be processed, because the linking pages first have to be recrawled.
• Links stay visible: Disavowed links continue to appear in the Links report in Search Console.
• If there is a manual action: Once you have cleaned up the links and uploaded the file, submit a reconsideration request in Search Console.
• Google only: The file only affects Google Search.

Conclusion

Disavowing is a tool for genuine legacy problems, not a maintenance routine. As long as no manual action is looming, a strong profile will take you further than a long exclusion list: new links from real websites with their own audience and a matching topic, as part of a well-planned link building strategy.

Frequently asked questions

Should you disavow links that your SEO tool marks as toxic?

Not on that basis alone, because a toxicity score comes from the tool and not from Google. Only disavow links you have checked yourself that clearly follow a manipulative pattern, especially when a manual action is a real risk.

Should you disavow links from low-DR websites?

No, a low Domain Rating on its own is not a sign of a harmful link. Small but genuine sites with a matching topic are a normal part of every healthy link profile.

Does the disavow tool help against negative SEO?

Usually you do not need it, because Google generally recognises spam links from other sites and simply ignores them. Only if an attack is large enough that a manual action becomes likely do the affected domains belong in your file.

Will disavowing links improve your rankings?

Not by itself: the file can only take links out of the assessment and never adds strength. It is meant to lift or prevent a manual action, while better rankings come from good new backlinks.

Related terms: Link building · Backlink profile · Referring domain · Domain Rating · Off-page SEO