To disavow or not to disavow … that is the question. Actually, that’s not the question at all. Instead, today we’ll be looking at what types of metrics you should consider once you already know you will need to use the disavow tool to get rid of those “spammy” links that either have already gotten you into trouble or certainly look like they might. Also, if possible, try to have a webmaster take down or alter the bad links before you disavow them.
Domain Authority and Page Rank
I’m going to start off by declaring my love for domain authority vs. page rank — no offense to Larry Page (CEO and Co-Founder of Google). I know there are still some out there who believe in the power of page rank and that’s fine, but for this write up, I’ll be referencing domain authority. This metric comes to us from the good folks at Moz and is a great metric to look at when deciding whether or not to disallow a link(s). I recommend getting the Moz bar extension for your browser so the next time you visit the suspect site, the authority is right there in front of you. It ranks domains on a scale of 1-100 — so, if you have a domain linking to you with anything under 20, I’d say adios amigo. This isn’t to say that this is always the case — remember every case has special circumstances. It may just happen that the domain authority is really low because it’s a new website, so try to take everything into consideration before sending the domain to the guillotine.
Directory Links and Links in Comment Sections
This one is pretty straight forward guys and gals — only the very best and theme-relevant directories should continue to be allowed to link to your domain without having been disavowed. If you have a ton of directories that link to your domain that look “spammy,” add them to your disavow list. In fact, while we’re at it, let’s disavow all of those forum and comment section links that are actually being followed back to your domain as well. Wait … what? You didn’t actually put them there or ask anyone on your behalf to link back to you in forum and comment sections? Yeah, me either (cough). However, there’s only one judge in this world and it’s Google. So in the name of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), go ahead and disavow those links that worked back in 2008.
Rich Keyword Anchor Texts
If there are links pointing back to your site with anchor (aka link) texts that have hard keywords, then by all means ask the webmaster to change them. If all else fails, consider disavowing them yourself. Reason being, it looks more than a little suspicious if you have inbound links to your site that have the exact keyword in those link texts that you happen to be trying to rank for. For example, if you are a lumber company and your money keyword is “wood,” you’ll want to be wary of links pointing to your site with the exact link text “wood”. This method in link building used to work well for sites trying to gain visibility a few years ago — but no more. It’s obviously a catch-22 situation because if you are creating content that people link back to organically, you obviously can’t control how they link back to your site. Nonetheless, if you see a few links coming in that fit the profile described above, ask perpetrators if it’s possible to either link back to your brand name or to diversify the anchor text.
Other Factors
There are many more things to consider when disavowing links. I know some that disavow foreign language links and others that disavow links from sites that are hosted on servers abroad. Each situation is different so identify your disavow strategy before moving forward. For example, if your site is being penalized and you know you have a lot of bad back links, it might be far more beneficial to weed out those links with a hatchet rather than with scissors. If that’s the case, then a good rule of thumb is if the link in question is on the fence, then get rid of it. Alternatively, if you are only doing a disavow for maintenance sake then weigh your options. You might need to do some extra research on the domain linking back to your site via Open Site Explorer or another back link profile service. Good luck and happy disavowing!
How have you disavowed unwanted links in the past? Do you have any other resources SEO professionals would find helpful? We’d love to hear from you! Leave us a comment below, or connect with us on Facebook, Twitter or Google+.