Should you use Google’s disavow links tool?

I was never interested in using Google’s disavow links tool and never even looked at it. I’ve always been against removing backlinks to my websites, except for any links you or your SEO company paid for, and I never paid for any backlinks.

My thought is that the disavow links tool is only for webmasters who previously paid for links. For these webmasters, the disavow links tool would be useful.

The Difference Between Bad Backlinks and Paid Backlinks

The difference between a bad backlink and a paid backlink is fairly obvious.

A paid backlink is one you paid a website for in exchange for linking the backlink to your website. Paid backlinks are usually more expensive if they are links containing keywords.

Bad backlinks are backlinks from websites that provide no useful content for their visitors. Bad backlinks may exist to infect website visitors with a virus, for advertising, or many other reasons. If you see backlinks from Chinese websites pointing to your website, these are bad backlinks. But should you try to remove them?

I have websites with thousands of bad backlinks. I never spent any time trying to remove bad links pointing to my websites because it takes away time from creating content.

I have also noticed many spam websites scraping my content. I’ve never been concerned about content scraping either, although that’s content for another article. I have noticed that with all of the content scraping and spammy links pointing to my websites, it has not made a difference.

Should You Remove Bad Backlinks To Your Website?

Every website with any real content has thousands of backlinks from questionable and obviously bad websites. My website for my personal injury law firm has many bad backlinks from Chinese websites and obviously spam websites, but I never paid for backlinks!

This is why I don’t bother to try to remove bad backlinks.

Four Reasons Not To Remove Bad Backlinks

• Backlinks from bad websites actually seem to help (as long as you don’t pay for them)
• Removing bad backlinks to your website is time-consuming and costly
• You won’t be able to get backlinks removed from most bad websites
• As soon as you get a backlink removed, you’ll find two more the next day

Ok, so you think you can save time by just using Google’s disavow links tool. I still don’t bother and have never disavowed any of my bad backlinks.

For people who would like more specific reasons not to use Google’s disavow links tool, two good articles illustrate some important reasons.  Axandra says, “You should only use Google’s disavow links tool if Google sent you a notification that your website was penalized for unnatural links”.

Among other reasons, Axandra shows how the disavow links tool can have a negative effect on your website rankings because you might remove good links that point to your website, and you will have to ask Google for a reconsideration request causing Google to take a closer look at your website to find spam.  Read more about the reasons Axandra provides in their article Should you use Google’s disavow links tool?

An interesting result caused many webmasters to panic and rush to use Google’s disavow links tool.  Many webmasters found their rankings plummeting after the Penguin update and mistakenly thought it was because of spam links pointing to their website.  I always felt that the reverse was true, that Google previously counted the spam links as indicating the popularity of the website and after no longer giving any credibility to the spam links, the website’s ranking dropped.  Axandra’s article agrees, stating “If your rankings dropped after the Penguin update, that’s because the unnatural links don’t count anymore.”

Search Engine Journal also provides three good reasons not to use Google’s disavow links tool in their article, “Why You Shouldn’t Use Google’s New “Disavow Links” Tool“.  The three reasons further explained in the article include 1) small mistakes can have major consequences; 2) identifying spam links is a time-consuming process, and 3) disavowing links may have no impact on your website’s performance.

In conclusion, if you haven’t been wasting a lot of your money on purchasing links, don’t bother wasting any time using Google’s disavow links tool.