Share This
I’ve just been asked my opinion on the new Google Link Disavow tool so thought I would share my thoughts.
It was many years before Google Webmaster Tools became sufficiently good to merit engaging with. Prior to that it was a case of “don’t let Google know you are interested in SEO”.
With this new tool I think it is a case of “Don’t let Google know you have an ability to understand the difference between a good and bad link”. My aim therefore is to get through the next three years without using it!
By that time it will have evolved to a point of providing so many useful features that it will also be useful to non-SEOs. Either that or Google will kill it off because all the link manipulating SEOs will have dobbed themselves in already!
Here’s the official announcement of the tool for those who dare to use it
I had looked at using it as we have been hit by Panda and Penguin, but I hesitated partly as I had been unable to specify those bad links I wanted to disavow. Glad my procrastination may have paid off.
Hi Neale
I am seeing a lot of people think they have been hit by Penguin (the link one) when in reality they have probably been hit by Panda or another sort of non-link related updated so I suspect, in many many cases, the link disavow tool would make no difference anyway.
It really is a tool to be used with serious knowledge and care.
Good to here someone actually advising not to use it. Apart for the reasons stated in this article. How do you know which ones Google don’t like? YOu may disavow the wrong ones.
IMHO I think the days of links being a meaningful signal are numbered. I welcome this and maybe it will force certain SEO’s to actually create really marketing strategies, here hoping.
Hi Kevin
Agree about “which ones to disavow”. I’m not sure about links days being numbered. In isolation definitely but I think it will be a long time before the value of a good quality link will diminish.