The disavow tool in Google Search Console lets you upload a text file listing links or whole domains you want Google to ignore when assessing your site. It exists for sites with a manual action for unnatural links, or a real risk of one because of past link schemes. Google's own guidance is that most sites do not need to use it.
When Google says to use it
According to Google's help documentation, you should consider disavowing only if you have a considerable number of spammy, artificial, or low-quality links pointing to your site and those links have caused, or are likely to cause, a manual action. Typically that means links that were paid for or built through schemes, not random spam you never asked for.
If you have no manual action and nobody built links on your behalf, the tool is almost never the right fix.
The file format
The disavow file is a plain text file encoded in UTF-8 or 7-bit ASCII, with one entry per line. An entry can be a single URL or a whole domain prefixed with domain:. Lines starting with # are comments and are ignored. Google documents size limits for the file in its help page.
# Links bought by a previous vendor in 2023, removal requests ignored
domain:cheap-guest-posts.example
domain:link-network-one.example
# A single page we could not get removed
https://spammy-directory.example/listing/example-saasHow to do it carefully
Each upload replaces the previous file for that property, so always edit and re-upload the full list rather than uploading only new entries. Disavowing is not instant: Google has to recrawl the linking pages before the change takes effect, which can take weeks or longer.
- Confirm there is a manual action or a documented history of link schemes
- Try to get the links removed first and keep records of your requests
- Prefer domain: entries for clearly bad sites so new spam URLs are covered
- Review every entry by hand before uploading
- If you have a manual action, file a reconsideration request after cleanup
Risks
Disavowing a link means Google will stop counting it. If you disavow good links by mistake, such as a partner directory or a news site that flagged badly in a tool, you lose whatever value they had. Large, tool-generated disavow files are the most common way this happens.
Example
Cleaning up after a link vendor
An illustrative HR platform, Crewbase, receives a manual action for unnatural links. Its records show a former contractor bought placements on a network of general blogs with keyword-rich anchors.
The team emails each site asking for removal, logs the responses, and builds a disavow file covering only the domains in that network that did not comply. It then submits a reconsideration request describing what happened and what it changed, including ending the vendor relationship.
Common mistakes
Uploading a disavow file “just in case”
Without a manual action or a link scheme history, a disavow file is unlikely to help and may remove links that were helping.
Uploading only new entries
A new upload replaces the old file. Uploading a short list by itself un-disavows everything that was in the previous version.
Expecting rankings to jump
Disavowing removes links from consideration. If Google was already ignoring them, nothing changes.
Questions
No. Google's guidance is that most sites do not need the tool and that its systems ignore most spammy links on their own.
Google has to recrawl and reprocess the linking pages, so it can take weeks or months. Google does not give a fixed timeline.
Yes. Upload a new file without the entries you want to restore, or remove the file. As with adding entries, it takes time for Google to reprocess the links.
