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A WebmasterWorld thread links to a blog post on sno.pe about some questions he asked a Googler in regards to the Google disavow tool.
Google Search Quality engineer, Uli Lutz gave three bits of advice in regards to the disavow link tool:
(1) Focus on the links reported in the Google Webmaster Tools
(2) Do not worry about damaging other people, he said "that does not happen."
(3) Be aware of the site-wide disavow possibility, it will make your life easier. So don't be afraid to use the site-wide feature.
The most shocking is number two to me, that using the disavow link tool has no impact on the sites you are reporting. Wonder if we are misunderstanding that or if it is legit?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Comments:
ethalon
02/04/2013 02:01 pm
Maybe Uli was saying that one webmaster including a site in the disavow won't 'hurt' the reported but if a pattern of 'please disavow site x' emerges then the reported site will be affected... ...kind of like one bullet and five blanks in a firing squad? I would have thought that asking for a disavow was a nice way of sending red flags to Google but maybe I am misunderstanding how they use the disavow data.
Milind Mody
02/04/2013 02:19 pm
I guess (2) would have a lot of caveats. If I were google I would use disavow like DMCA notices. I can quickly select top 10 or top 100 sites which are disavowed across multiple webmaster tools and do manual review of them. And I would be surprised if these sites would pass manual reviews. If Google is saying that they are not going to do this, I am surprised.
josh bachynski
02/04/2013 04:35 pm
John Mueller has indicated otherwise - EDIT: to be more precise, John implied that the disavow data would 1) be used to mass nofollow outlinks from suspect and oft disavowed backlinking sources and 2) *maybe* much more rarely, add a spam flag weight to oft disavowed backlink sources.
Terry Van Horne
02/04/2013 04:48 pm
I don't think it can hurt a site but I think it could hurt a webmaster who doesn't really try to remove links thinking just disavowing all will do it. I think Google will get information along the way that will enable them to tell when you do that. Dummies that charge, bigger dummies who refuse to remove them or to remove your content, if you say they didn't repsond... well... 1+1=3. Also google is not penalizing a site it ignores links from...it's putting a value on those links. That is likely the worst thing that would happen to a site being added to disavow. Personally I think a lot of sites being disavowed have already been given "ignore" status so disavowing them is likely redundant. ;-)
Rank Watch
02/04/2013 05:59 pm
Google has time and time again instructed us the webmasters to remove most of the spammy links manually by contacting the site owner of the site from where the link has been acquired. Only when the links cannot be removed due to lack of co-operation from the site owner or if the webmaster doesn't have access to do so then only the disavow tool should be used. If the above methods are not attempted Google wont even bother to answer your disavow links call.
CandyPro
02/04/2013 10:11 pm
John Mueller repeatedly told us that it won't be a reason to devalue a site simply because it its mentioned (very often) in disavow reports. But I can imagine they could have a second look at that kind of links and the place they originate from...
Sanket Patel
02/05/2013 07:41 am
Google launched "disavow links tool "was announced by Matt Cutts. Disavow tools works as a remove the low quality bad links from your site. If you belive that certain law quality links harmed your site ranking then you can ask Google to not to taking those links into account while it will accessing.For sure it won't damage others as well.
Aghor
02/05/2013 11:06 am
why Google webmasters make remove the home page link from their links section ??
David
02/05/2013 11:29 am
I think the main message here is to use the disavow tool with your own discretion and not worry about who is getting hurt in the process, so long as your link profile get's cleaned up.But the thing to remember here is not to be naive as this is Google we are talking about here and they have stipulated that it can takes months if not years before they will take your consideration into account.
k111
02/05/2013 12:25 pm
i submitted disavow and then also submitted re-consideration for my site but google till not accepted the re-consideration.....so what to do?
Joe Youngblood
02/05/2013 08:45 pm
I think Google is saying it won't be algorithmic action, at Pubcon I said the same thing after the announcment. However, they did claim to only use the "blocking" data from users to corroborate the Panda algorithm.
Alex Garrido
02/09/2013 04:02 am
I think that Google is trying to prey upon SEO guys feeling guilty for their backlinking campaigns and is collecting sources of data for potential backlink exploits or things they have not yet figure out how to take into account in their algorithm.
SEO Professional
03/20/2013 12:06 am
I think disavow should be come a meta-tag only. That way we have control of who links to us and who doesn't.