How to Disavow Backlinks: Get Rid of Toxic Links with Semrush and Search Console
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- Опубліковано 11 лип 2023
- This video will show you the 6 steps you need to find and disavow toxic backlinks from your website. We'll be using Semrush and the Disavow Links tool from Google Search Console.
We need to be careful using this tool but it's possible to use it safely and improve our SEO ranking potential.
For more SEO resources, see below.
Here are links to all 3 parts of this SEO Tutorial series. 📊📊📊
🔗 SEO Tutorial Part 1: SEO Basics - What Google Wants in SEO, The Impact of Domain Authority, and SEO Foundations: • SEO Tutorial for Begin...
🔗🔗 SEO Tutorial Part 2: How to Create Topic Clusters That Will Rank and Drive Traffic and How to Do On Page Optimization: • Topic Clusters, Keywor...
🔗🔗🔗 SEO Tutorial Part 3: How to Do SEO Reporting - 5 Actionable Reporting Actions With Google Search Console: • SEO Reporting With Goo...
*Some relevant SEO links for further reading*
8 Trends You Should Know if You Care About SEO: www.rootandbranchgroup.com/se...
What's the Difference Between Local SEO and National SEO: www.rootandbranchgroup.com/se...
How to Do On Page SEO Optimization in 9 Steps: www.rootandbranchgroup.com/se...
Understanding and Measuring Branded vs. Non Branded Keywords in SEO: www.rootandbranchgroup.com/br...
Image Alt Tags and SEO: www.rootandbranchgroup.com/im...
SEO Considerations for Website Redesign: www.rootandbranchgroup.com/se...
How to Edit Your robots.txt File in Wordpress: www.rootandbranchgroup.com/ed...
How to Disavow Spammy Backlinks in Google Search Console: www.rootandbranchgroup.com/ho...
Great Free SEO Tools: www.rootandbranchgroup.com/th...
GA4 vs. UA: www.rootandbranchgroup.com/go...
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![Toxic Backlinks: How to Find Them & Disavow Them [2024]](/img/n.gif)
Great work, I just followed the video and done! Saved me so much time - Thank You!!!
Glad to hear it was helpful for you. God luck and Godspeed to you in your future SEO endeavors !
So helpful, thanks!
Glad you found it useful. Thanks for watching and for taking a minute to share your feedback. Best wishes on your SEO adventures from here 📈📈📈!
Very useful
Glad to hear it. Thanks for watching and for taking the time to share these kind words. Best wishes!
Hi there bro did you notice any changes after the changes?
Hey, there's a typo in your title, you wrote 'Red' instead of 'Rid'. great video!
Oh man! Thanks for the catch, my friend.
I've just updated it now. And I'm glad you found the video helpful. Best wishes!
@@rooted-digital great, you're welcome!
Great video, backlinks can be a mystery and it is hard to know which are good or bad without these tools and video guides. It looks like with the right tools you can audit the backlink profile very quickly.
How much does a backlink audit cost to get done?
Thanks for the kind words and thoughtful question, Mathew.
Short answer: You should be able to do a free audit yourself. You can get a free Semrush account (14 days free, I believe). Or, you can use a tool like ahrefs, which doesn't require an account to get a snapshot of your backlink profile. Below.
ahrefs.com/backlink-checker
If you pay someone, I wouldn't pay all that much since it's very fast to run.
Longer answer: you are right that backlinks can be weird. But based on your question I want to tell you that your site is probably ok in terms of toxic / spammy links. It doesn't sound like you're someone who has engaged in trying to acquire some of these shady links. Believe it or not, that's something that some folks do because they link more links will help their SEO. In those cases, it's usually wise to disavow those spam links because Google can do a good job of figuring out when they have been manipulated. Otherwise, any bad links really shouldn't be an issue because Google says it can automatically filter them out in most cases.
Hope that helps. Best wishes out there!
Thanks for the video, you think is worth paying a month of SemRush only for that? I can't see a clear way to do that in AHrefs
Hello there. If it were me, I probably would not pay for Semrush just to get that. I would, however, get a free Semrush plan which (I think) will allow you to see spammy links for one domain.
Personally, I think ahrefs and Semrush are the two best platforms out there, but I wouldn’t pay for both.
That’s just me though!
Ps. I found this ahrefs help article which also might help: help.ahrefs.com/en/articles/752797-is-there-an-accurate-way-to-detect-spammy-backlinks
Best wishes!
Amazing vid! Sadly I can't upload a file, because I only have a domain! How can I fix this?
Hi there, I believe you'd need to add a "URL-prefix" property in addition to your domain level property for your site in Search Console. The good news is that it's quite simple to add a URL prefix property (it's the domain level verification that is more challenging).
Some resources below:
Here's what Google says about your verification options for a URL prefix property:
support.google.com/webmasters/answer/34592?hl=en
2 Videos on this channel about verifying a URL prefix property on Wix and on WordPress.
Wix: ua-cam.com/video/lVbDf-if8fI/v-deo.html
WordPress with Yoast: ua-cam.com/video/rEdGfdFHm04/v-deo.html
Good luck!
Are these the backlinks that links to your domain or from your domain?
Thanks for sharing this process. I have a question, once you submit your list. Let's say you check back in 6 months or a year and need to do this again, how do you not get the same ones again? Also, what happens after you submit this list? Do they get removed or does Google just block them? I guess I am asking what happens next.
Hello there. Thanks for watching and for the thoughtful question. If I have an update to make in 6 months or something, I would keep the original list and then add any additional URLs and then submit the whole complete list again. There's no downside to having previously submitted URLs on a file that you upload again.
Two other notes:
1.) Unless your site is the victim of some kind of malicious attack of spam links and you think you're at risk of a manual action (penalty) from Google, it's highly unlikely you would need to do this again in such a short window. That's my personal take, at least. Google does a good job of discounting the spam links on its own, so unless there are very unusual circumstances, I bet you'd be in good shape. : )
2.) I moved south of the Mason Dixon line (North Carolina) the summer before this past one and I'm a big fan of the food, weather, people, everything. Just saw you've got something on Frogmore Stew / Low Country Boil. One of my absolute favorites. Cheers!
So honestly I should steer clear of doing this unless I get flagged by Google?
I am working on learning more about technical SEO for my website and just noticed that most of my backlinks are spammy. Like over 800. Most go to sites that are not even around anymore.
I am a blogger and I really want to give full-time a shot this year.
-It is hard to find someone to mentor you or teach you what is true.
Yes, sir, I live in South Carolina, just south of Charlotte. I was born and raised here and I love it. I love to travel to other places but this will always be home for me unless I move to Western or Eastern NC. @@rooted-digital
Hi, i submitted my disavow file in GSC manually (manually means i copy disavow link in semrush and paste in notepad and save in .Txt file then upload my disavow file in GSC at march 2024 but my toxic backlink count doesn't increase
It seems like you've done the work. If it's not showing in Semrush, that's only "cosmetic".
Check out this article and scroll down to "Confirm that You Have Disavowed the Links"
www.semrush.com/kb/764-disavowing-your-backlinks
what about step 6, i didn't got it well, how did you switch from page to page on step 6! any help please.
Hi there. You're talking about the process of actually uploading the txt file, right?
I saved the txt file that has everything I wanted to disavow. Then, I uploaded that file to Search Console (in my case, I clicked "Replace" in Search Console since I had previously uploaded a file). When you click Upload or Replace you'll be able to find the txt file on your computer that you had saved.
And then, that's it. Let me know if there's something specific that's tripping you up. If you provide the timestamp of when it is and what it is, I can try to explain more. Best wishes.
I get alot of daily unwanted spam backlinks to my pictures in my website. How much time does it take after disavowing to see the difference?
Thank you.
Hello there. I didn't know the answer to your question, but I did a little research and found this article linked below. According to Google's John Mueller, it can take as long as a couple months for things to work through the algorithm:
www.searchenginejournal.com/google-how-long-it-takes-for-disavow-file-to-affect-rankings/426211/
No one answered if need to update, I suppose Google will update the list with the new replaced list and merge duplicates.. How long it will take to see the change in a new SEMRUSH backlink audit after submission to google ?
Are you referring to updating a previously uploaded disavow list? I believe that Google replaces any prior submission with the new list.
At least, that's how I've operated. I would keep any prior links you've disavowed on the new file you're uploading. And if you've gotten rid of the old links, I wouldn't sweat it too much since Google has likely already recognized them and disavowed them.
In terms of changes to the backlink audit, I think it happens pretty immediately. In Semrush you can indicate which links you've disavowed and that is what recalculates your toxicity score for your backlinks.
@@rooted-digital great thanks for confirming. Semrush would update scores rapidly of course only when google decides to actually disavow the domains.. which may take some time.. I gather.😎
@@homelandsecuritytoday , so I believe what happens is that Semrush automatically updates the scores once you "tell" Semrush (using Semrush) that you've disallowed the domains using Google's disavow tool. In that way, Semrush recalculates those scores based on the assumption that Google is working instantly to make those disavowals happen.
@@rooted-digital mmm... could be. I need to look into it further.. thks
So I disavowed all of my toxic links in SEMrush, but they still show up in the 'toxic' list. It's over 900 of them. So that when I click on the toxic backlinks to view them you can see they all have the red circle with a slash to show that they're on the disavowed list. I'm confused though because wouldn't disavowing them and submitting the list to GSC remove them from the disavowed list in SEMrush? It's still showing I have 900 toxic backlinks... hope that makes sense.
Hi David, if you've submitted your disavow list in Search Console then the actual "work" has been done. The toxicity score in Semrush won't recalculate until you manually tell Semrush you've submitted them. Since you've done the work, the score is just a number, but I am with you in still wanting that toxic score to look better.
I just logged in to Semrush and here's what they say to do to update your score after you've uploaded your disavow file to Google.
"Confirm it in Backlink Audit to recalculate your Toxicity Score"
ok interesting. Thanks for the answer. I actually submitted the same question to the SEMrush subreddit and I received to interesting similar answers. I'll share them since you were kind enough to reply:
"Unless you've received a manual action (check GSC) and have been penalized for backlinks, delete the disavow file in GSC.
Most of those bad backlinks are ignored by Google. Adding the disavow file will do far more harm to your website than good.
The disavow file should only be used if you've been actually penalized. Google was really bad and explaining that in the mid-2010s, and have been better at explaining its real use case."
and the 2nd:
"At this point, disavowing backlinks are a complete wasted of time. And, I typically see "good" links that are listed as being "toxic".
Best thing you can do is not waste any more time looking through "toxic" backlinks. And literally go to the disavow tool and DELETE your disavow file, and remove all the links that you disavowed.
The only reason for disavowing links nowadays is if you have a manual action from Google for bad links."
@@DavidRussellmotorcyles thank you for sharing that. I agree with a lot of what you shared. One reason to disavow your toxic backlinks is if there is a manual action against your site.
The other reason that Google cites (support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2648487?hl=en) is you suspect you have links that violate Google's quality guidelines that put you at risk for getting a manual action in the near future.
If you just have a regular amount of natural links on your site (unrelated to link schemes or things you could be penalized for), you're almost certainly fine without disavowing any links.
I would also add that in my own personal experience, using this tool to get rid of some shady looking links did not have any negative impact. They are probably links that Google as ignoring anyway, but it made me feel warm and fuzzy to make extra certain.
In any case, thank you for coming back here to share what you've learned. Very best wishes!
Video volume is very low not ADA friendly
I'm sorry about that. I just listened to it again and it could certainly be louder and clearer. I'll work on this in the future. Best regards.
Google only allows 2048 characters. My list from SEMRush is a lot longer than 2048 characters. About 6000. What do I do then? Leave a comment for Google and hope they’ll use the entire list?
You can have up to 100,000 rows in your disavowal file, so your 6,000 should be covered. The issue, I believe, is that any single URL can't have more than 2048 characters. Hopefully, that's only a very limited number for you. I don't know any option other than deleting those extra long URLs from your list and then uploading the rest.
Ps. I didn't know this character limit until you asked. Thanks for the question. Here's the Google resource that has the info on 100,000 max records and the character limit:
support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2648487?hl=en
Good luck.
Sound is not good
Oh man, you think the sound is not good on this one. You should see how bad the sound quality is on some of my other videos.
Hope you found something helpful anyway. Thanks for coming by.
@@rooted-digital but i completed and reacted in this video