{"id":8740,"date":"2021-01-13T16:15:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-13T16:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.seo-marketing.koeln\/does-the-use-of-disavow-make-a-website-suspicious\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T09:33:30","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T09:33:30","slug":"does-the-use-of-disavow-make-a-website-suspicious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seo-marketing.koeln\/en\/does-the-use-of-disavow-make-a-website-suspicious\/","title":{"rendered":"DOES THE USE OF DISAVOW MAKE A WEBSITE SUSPICIOUS?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

John Mueller<\/strong>, on behalf of Google<\/a>, answers the question of whether including a link disavow<\/a> signals a negative image about the site that uses it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is because something that was previously unclear is whether the use of the so-called disavow is a signal that a website<\/a> might be suspicious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Link Disavow Tool – <\/strong>What is a link disavow tool?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Simply explained, the link disavow tool<\/a> is a Google Search Console tool. Here you can tell Google to ignore certain links<\/a> that refer to your own website. It was heavily requested by the SEO community to help deal with websites<\/a> that were affected by Google’s Penguin update in the mid-2000s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Possible uses of the Disavow tool: Improve rankings<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Bit by bit, the Disavow tool was supposed to help improve the rankings<\/a> of innocent websites that had done nothing wrong but still had links<\/a> that looked like spam. It was suspected that the links that looked like spam were causing the affected pages to lose their rankings<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this regard, there was evidence from publishers suggesting that using Disavow<\/a> to move up in the rankings doesn’t actually help you move up in the rankings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uses of the disavow tool: Recovery from “negative link” attacks<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Another use of the disavow tool that had evolved was to protect against the so-called “negative links” attack. This form of attack is understood to be a large number of spam links from a competitor<\/a> that point to a page and thus damage it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This dirty trick has its origins in the gambling industry. The online gaming sector is highly competitive and an environment with high ranking pressure<\/a>. This ultimately led to the development of the “negative link” attack strategy as a measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original use of the Disavow tool: Paid links<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The reason why publishers had actually asked for a disavow tool was to clean up the backlink profiles<\/a> of websites that had made use of the spam link methods. Because at the very beginning, every site that had ever used the Disavow tool had also violated Google<\/a> ‘s webmaster guidelines regarding links.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does the inclusion of a disavow mark the page as dubious?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It was quite normal for many people to suspect over the years that the inclusion of a disavow made the website<\/a> look suspicious. It was as if by including the disavow<\/a> you were admitting in the same breath that your own side is actually suspicious too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So if there is a list somewhere on Google<\/a> that notes websites that voluntarily use dubious SEO practices<\/a>, surely those who have uploaded a disavow file would also be on the list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was generally assumed that the Disavow tool is the easiest way to quickly identify questionable websites<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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