How to Properly Use Google’s Link Disavowal Tool (Part 2)

March 13, 2014
By epic
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How to Properly Use Google’s Link Disavowal Tool (Part 2)

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Picking up from How to Properly Use Google’s Link Disavowal Tool (Part 1)¸ here we will continue discussing the necessary steps to take before and while using Google’s powerful Link Disavowal tool. If you have any questions about how to use this tool, the professionals at Epic Web Results are ready to give you the answers you may need. Because this tool can be as crippling as it is helpful to websites, be sure you are fully aware of how to use before wielding it.

The professionals at Epic Web Results can help you clean up your website, properly use Google’s Link Disavowal tool and get your website in good standing.
The professionals at Epic Web Results can help you clean up your website, properly use Google’s Link Disavowal tool and get your website in good standing.

Step 3: Contact the sources of the “bad links” and ask for them to remove the links

Google has made it very clear that its Link Disavowal tool should only be used as a last resort and that, consequently, people should make every other possible effort to get the bad links to their site removed. To this end (and prior to using the Link Disavowal tool), people should email the sources of the bad links and politely request that they remove the links to their site.

With this step, it’s also important to document when an email was sent to the source of a bad link so that you can keep track of who you’ve contacted and when you reached out to a specific site. Generally, it takes a few weeks to receive a response to these requests (if a response is sent at all).

Step 4: NOW the Disavowal tool comes into play

While some of the emails you send to request removal of bad links will be effective, others will not (and you will likely have to conduct another audit of all of the bad links to your site to figure out which ones still exist). If you have reached out to the sites that are the sources of these bad links and nothing has been done to remove these links on their end, then it’s likely time to implement Google’s Disavowal tool.

The tool can be found in Google Webmaster Tools > Disavowal Tool > your website domain. At this point, you will be prompted to upload a list of the links that you would like to disavow. Upload the list you have created of the remaining bad links.

The next steps to take once you have implemented the Disavowal tool will depend on whether your website is struggling to recover from a Google penalty or not, so this may again be a good time to reach out to industry professionals to find out your best options for moving forward.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is that Google’s Link Disavowal tool should only be used as a last resort to get rid of bad links. When this tool is used, it’s best to have an industry professional wielding it to ensure that it is used as intended so that it will ultimately help improve a website’s SEO, rather than attract additional penalties or further damage a site’s rankings.

Effective Legal Marketing Solutions at Epic Web Results

If your website has been the target of a Google penalty or if you are simply ready to improve your site’s SEO, contact the professionals at Epic Web Results. Our skilled industry professionals are up to date with the latest advances in SEO best practices, and we are highly adept at designing and maintaining optimized websites that will soar to the top of search engines.

Some of our specific services include website design (including for mobile devices), link building, developing strategies based on website analytics, rolling out social media marketing strategies, etc.

Our extensive experience developing the best possible online results for our Clients means that we consistently provide a variety of cost-effective online legal marketing solutions that can ultimately help grow our Clients’ businesses. Our goal is to provide your business or firm with aggressive, effective legal marketing solutions that will help attract potential new clients while continuing to engage existing clients. To learn more about what we do at Epic Web Results, please do not hesitate to email us or call us at (800) 501-9724.

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