Google: When Disavowing IP Addresses, It Won't Disavow The Domains On That IP

Yesterday at SMX East, during a presentation on a link audit panel, Sha Menz said something that was tweeted by Jenstar that Gary Illyes from Google said was wrong.

Here is the tweet:

Don't disavow by IP address because it will disavow all domains on that IP (verified by @methode) #smx @ShahMenz

— Jennifer Slegg (@jenstar) October 1, 2015

This is not correct, Google will not expand the disavow to all the domains on that IP address. In fact, it will not do that. It would just disavow links that link using the IP in the href.

Gary Illyes from Google said:

@jenstar what I was trying to tell @ShahMenz was that you will disavow that exact ip, it won't expand to the hostnames on that ip

— Gary Illyes (@methode) October 1, 2015

I am not sure if it was a translation issue from the presentation to Twitter or what. Either way, it does make more sense for Google to not expand the disavow block to all domains on an IP address.

As Jenstar said:

@pedrodias @methode @ShahMenz I was thinking of all those GoDaddy websites hosted on the same IP :)

— Jennifer Slegg (@jenstar) October 1, 2015

Forum discussion at Twitter.