How to Disavow Backlinks and Protect Your Site

Backlinks are usually helpful, but there are times when they can hurt your website. Here’s why you might need to disavow them:

• Wrong Links: If your site has links from spammy or low-quality websites, it can lower your ranking. Knowing how to disavow backlinks can stop this from happening.
• Google Penalties: If Google sees links from harmful websites, it can punish your site. Disavowing these backlinks helps you avoid or recover from such penalties.
• Negative SEO: Sometimes, competitors may try to harm your site by creating bad backlinks. In this case, learning how to disavow backlinks to protect your site is essential.
• Too Many Low-Quality Links: Google may warn you if your website needs better-quality links. Disavowing these links will help keep your site safe.

Disavowing backlinks means asking Google not to count certain links to your website. You do this when the links are wrong and can harm your website. Knowing how to disavow backlinks is vital because some links are suitable for your site, but others are bad.

There are two kinds of backlinks:

✅ Good Backlinks (High-Quality): These come from trusted websites and help your site rank higher

✅ Bad Backlinks (Low quality or Toxic) come from spammy or unrelated websites. Bad backlinks can hurt your SEO and make your website rank lower.

When you have too many bad backlinks, Google might think you’re trying to cheat the system. This can cause your ranking to drop, or Google may even punish your website.

That’s why you must know how to disavow backlinks and remove the bad ones. Removing links for your SEO health is essential, so checking your backlinks regularly is critical. Add backlinks to your disavow list to protect your site if you find bad ones. Following our recommendation, you can learn how to rank higher on Google. 

By disavowing your backlinks, you’re keeping your site safe from harmful links. The disavow tool helps you keep only good backlinks and remove links for your SEO health. Learning to disavow backlinks will help keep your website strong and safe from problems.

Before learning how to disavow backlinks, you must determine which links are wrong. Bad links can come from spammy websites, sites that don’t relate to your content or sites that Google has punished. These wrong links can hurt your website’s ranking.

Here’s how to decide which backlinks to disavow:

✅Spammy Links: If a link comes from a website full of ads or junk, it’s spammy.

✅ Irrelevant Sites: If the site linking to you has nothing to do with your website, it’s a bad link.

✅ Punished Sites: If a website has been penalized by Google, you should disavow links from it.

It’s essential to know how to disavow backlinks and when to do it. 

Here’s when you should 👇🏻

• Too Many Spammy Links: If your site has many links from spammy sites, disavowing your backlinks can help.
• Irrelevant Links: Links from unrelated sites can hurt your SEO. Learn how to disavow backlinks to fix this. These are sometimes called bad backlinks, as they harm your website. 
• Links from Penalized Sites: If links come from sites punished by Google, remove links for your SEO health.
• Negative SEO Attacks: If wrong links are being used to harm your site, knowing how to disavow backlinks is critical.
• Recovering from a Penalty: If Google has penalized your site, disavowing your backlinks can help you recover.

Before disavowing your backlinks, follow these steps👇🏻

1. Document Your Process: Write down how you check your backlinks. This helps keep everything organized.

2. Make a List: Create a list of bad URLs and domains to add backlinks to your disavow list. This tells Google which links to ignore.

3. Best Practices 😎

• Be Specific: Only include harmful links.
• Stay Organized: Group similar links together.
• Update Regularly: Add new bad links as you find them.

Use Google Search Console to find backlinks. It’s one of the best methods to find backlinks using Google. 

This tool helps you remove links for your SEO health and easily add backlinks to your disavow list. This way, you can rank higher on Google and understand how to improve ratings.

You need to learn how to find backlinks using Google and how it can help you find relevant backlinks and improve your work. 

Here’s how to use Google’s tool to disavow backlink

💡 Log Into Google Search Console:

• Go to Google Search Console.
• Sign in with your Google account.

💡 Find the Disavow Tool

• Get into Search Console’s Disavow tool
• Select a property you need 

💡 Upload Your Disavow File

• Upload your list you want to disavow
• Pick the text file with the links you want to disavow.

💡 Tips for Your File

• Format Correctly: Use a .txt file and follow the example.
• Include Only Bad Links: Don’t add good links.
• Double-check: Make sure everything is correct before uploading.

By learning how to disavow backlinks, you can use this tool to remove harmful links and keep your site’s SEO healthy.

😳Did you make a mistake while disavowing your backlinks? No worries! Here’s how to fix it 👇🏻

1. Notice the Mistake

• Realize you’ve added the wrong links. It’s okay, just like when you spill coffee—things can be cleaned up!

2. Log Into Google Search Console

• Go to the Google Disavow Tool

3. Open the file in a text editor

• Remove the line corresponding to that website

4. Upload a New File

•  Pick a new text file and save it 
• Make sure a new .txt file includes the correct links you want to disavow.

5. Tips to Avoid Mistakes

• Use a .txt file and list the links correctly.
• Ensure your file has only the wrong links—don’t mix in good ones!

Knowing how to disavow backlinks can help keep your rankings reasonable if you find bad links pointing to your site.

Understanding how to disavow backlinks helps you keep your site in good shape. Keep practicing, and your SEO will improve!

If you need extra help, GoPeak offers FREE consultations. You can BOOK A CALL with us to get expert advice and improve your link-building strategy. It’s a great chance to get professional tips and boost your site’s SEO!