Google Disavow Tool - good or bad?

I mean...it couldn't hurt you more than you already *are* hurt...right? Give it a shot!

Google still states that it uses the disavow link only for statistics purposes.. but you could as well give it a try. What I can tell you is that after I`ve used the program, something amazing happened! Everything remained the same ! Amazing, right ?

according to someone who should know in google the disavow tool won't help you as much as removing the links but will help in some sort of mysterious nebulous manner.

Hi Julie,



I have read lots of case studies and first hand accounts of Google penalty recovery attempt, and in almost all cases, the disavow file was only helpful after significant effort made be the webmaster to remove as many links as possible by contacting site owners.

So, If I were you, I would try to get as many links (of course only bad ones) as you can. But be sure to document everything in a Google Spreadsheet (how many times you contacted the webmaster, date of contact, link removed or not etc).

Then, whatever bad links are left, disavow them.

Give it a few days for the disavow to register, then send your reconsideration request along with your documentation (the spreadsheet you made earlier) and the actual disavow file. Be honest and be as detailed as you can in describing how you went about removing links and do mention that you are committed to stick with the guidelines from now on.

Don't give up, I have heard and seen of lots of recoveries that I think if you show them you truly made some effort, they will lift the penalty. Best of luck to you.

Here is one of those recovery stories I read that does help in showing you what and how you need to do it: What I Learnt From Revoking A Google Manual Penalty | Search Engine Journal

Note: Be sure to link to your Google Spreadsheet in your reconsideration request. The reason for using Google spreadsheet is that Matt Cut has said a few times that Google spam team usually don't like to open links they don't know (basically an attempt to get you to use another one of Google's tools).

@satrap - he is right. Your best bet is to contact as many of the webmasters as possible, and remove the links to the best of your ability at all costs. Your best bet in doing this is offering them $5-$10 to simply remove the link! I have seen results with the disavow tool, but this was in conjunction with removing a lot of them myself... So I can't say that ONLY using the disavow as your only removal strategy will work or not. Best of luck!

Josh

Have as many links removed as you can yourself before using the disavow tool. Especially as you don't want to disavow links which might be helping your site.

There are services online which will automatically send an email to all webmasters of your backlinks requesting removal.

You would get a report of this getting done, you can then contact Google through your Webmaster tools with proof of your efforts to remove the links.

I have found that this is a good result in removing links and re-instating rankings.