December 12, 2012

Google’s New Link Disavow Tool: Explained

December 12, 2012

Google’s New Link Disavow Tool: Explained

Google’s New Link Disavow Tool: Explained

Recently Google has released their brand new link disavow tool which has got the SEO world talking. Fundamentally the tool has been touted as a way for webmasters (people who own a website) to be able to tell Google to ‘disavow’ or ‘ignore’ any links pointing to their own website.A big ranking factor for websites is of course links, however if a website has too many ‘bad’ links going to its domain and appears to be trying to manipulate the rankings, then Google can give that website a penalty or blacklist it from Google’s search results altogether.So Why Is This New Tool Important?The reason it is getting a lot of attention is because it now allows webmasters to be able to tell Google if they do not want a link or links to be included in Google’s Algorithm when it comes to ranking the website. This is a huge deal because some website might have been engaging in poor link building and not known what the consequences could be. This tool, in theory would allow you to be able to have these poor links discounted from the equation, meaning your website would not get a penalty.Does It Work?Well this is a very new tool and at the moment it is to early to tell how effectively it will work for websites. The general consensus is to avoid poor link building practices (obviously) and focus on building quality links. If you are in a situation where your website has a large amount of poor quality links, then this tool could be an option.Can I Use It Myself?Of course you can use it, however it must be worth mentioning that you should only disavow poor links, otherwise you could end up disavowing good quality links and really mess up your keyword positions. If unsure then it is always advisable to speak to a friendly SEO and online marketing company (such as us) as we will be able to use our knowledge to outline which are good links vs. the bad links.