Backlinks are crucial for enhancing a website’s authority and search engine rankings. However, poor-quality or spam backlinks can negatively impact your SEO, potentially lowering your site’s ranking in Google. This is why you need to know how to disavow links.
This blog post provides a step-by-step guide on how to identify harmful backlinks using SEMrush and safely disavow them via Google Search Console. This process is valuable whether you’ve received a manual penalty or simply want to maintain a healthy link profile. By following this guide, you can safeguard your website and preserve your SEO progress.
First, let’s clarify when and why disavowing backlinks is necessary.
What is A Toxic Backlink?
A toxic backlink is a link from another website that can negatively impact your site’s SEO performance. Rather than helping boost your authority or rankings, these links may signal to search engines like Google that your website is associated with spammy, untrustworthy, or manipulative behavior. Toxic backlinks are considered red flags, especially when they originate from low-quality or irrelevant sites.
For example, if your website is about dental services and you’re suddenly getting backlinks from unrelated websites like gambling platforms, adult content sites, or sketchy foreign directories, Google may view these links as unnatural. Similarly, links from websites that have been penalized, contain malware, or exist solely for link farming purposes can also be seen as toxic.
Sometimes, toxic backlinks are the result of aggressive or outdated SEO tactics, such as participating in paid link schemes or excessive anchor text optimization. Other times, they appear without your involvement—competitors, automated bots, or irrelevant directories might link to your site in ways that are harmful. Regardless of how they show up, it’s essential to monitor your backlink profile regularly. Identifying and disavowing these links can help you maintain a clean and credible reputation in Google’s eyes, which in turn supports your overall search visibility.
Why Should You Disavow Links?
Toxic backlinks, as mentioned earlier, come from untrustworthy or irrelevant sources and can seriously damage your site’s SEO.
Disavowing these harmful links is a way of distancing your website from those negative associations. You’re essentially telling Google, “We didn’t ask for these links, and we don’t want to be connected to them.” This is especially important if the toxic links were created through black-hat SEO tactics in the past, or if you’ve been the target of a negative SEO attack. By identifying and disavowing these links, you give your site a better chance to perform based on the quality of your actual content and legitimate SEO efforts, rather than being dragged down by harmful associations outside of your control.
When to Disavow Links?
Disavowing links isn’t something you do once and forget about. Your website’s backlink profile is constantly evolving, as new sites link to your content—sometimes helpfully, and other times harmfully. That’s why it’s important to treat link disavowal as a regular part of your SEO maintenance. You should consider disavowing links when you notice a pattern of toxic backlinks during a routine audit, especially if they’re coming from spammy, irrelevant, or penalized websites.
While it’s crucial to act quickly if you’ve received a manual action from Google, you don’t need to wait for a penalty to take preventive steps. In fact, conducting backlink audits every few months can help you stay ahead of potential problems. If your site is in a competitive niche, or if you’ve dealt with questionable SEO strategies in the past, it’s even more important to monitor and clean up your link profile regularly. Think of it like weeding a garden—left unattended, harmful links can spread and undermine your entire SEO foundation.
We suggest you take a good look at this guide provided by Google to learn more about the criteria and learn more about how all this falls into place with SEO.
What Happens When You Disavow a Backlink?
When you disavow a backlink, you’re essentially telling Google to ignore that link when evaluating your website’s authority and search engine rankings. This doesn’t mean the link is removed from the web—it still exists—but Google is instructed to treat it as if it doesn’t count toward your SEO, either positively or negatively. This can be incredibly helpful if the link is toxic or comes from a source that violates Google’s guidelines.
Once you upload your disavow file through Google Search Console, Google will process it over time—usually within a few weeks. During this period, the disavowed links are gradually discounted from your backlink profile. If those links were dragging your rankings down, you may eventually notice improvements in search visibility or a recovery from a previous drop.
Remember that Google isn’t required to follow your disavow request—in fact, their official documentation makes it clear that submitting a disavow file is treated as a recommendation by the site owner, and does not guarantee to replenish its effects entirely.
How to Disavow Links in Google Search Console
If your website already has a Google Analytics tracking tag installed, chances are you also have access to Google Search Console. This free tool gives you insights into how Google views your site—including the backlinks pointing to it.
To get started with a link audit, head over to the “Links” section in Search Console. From there, click the “Export External Links” button in the top right corner. Choose “More Sample Links” and export the data in the file format that works best for you (CSV or Google Sheets are good options).
To actually identify which links are toxic and worth disavowing, a tool like SEMrush’s Backlink Audit comes in handy. It flags links based on factors like authority score, anchor text, and site reputation. Once you’ve reviewed and confirmed which links should be disavowed, you’ll need to create a simple .txt file formatted to Google’s specifications.
It’s not complicated, but you have to follow some basic rules:
- Put each domain or URL on a new line
- Use domain: at the beginning if you’re disavowing an entire domain (which is often recommended)
- Avoid quotation marks or special characters—keep it clean and plain
- The file name doesn’t matter, as long as it ends in .txt
Here’s what your disavow file might look like:
- domain:shady-directory.net
- domain:pbn-network.org
- domain:spamlinks.biz/page.html
By disavowing the whole domain, you avoid the need to list dozens of individual URLs from the same bad source—which saves time and is usually more effective.
Once your .txt file is ready, visit the Google Disavow Tool. After selecting your property, click through the warning prompts (Google wants to make sure you know what you’re doing), and then upload your file. That’s it—Google will start processing your request. Just keep in mind it can take several weeks before you see any noticeable results.
