When it comes to building a strong website, backlinks are one of the most critical and valuable ranking factors for Google’s search engine.
As adding quality links to your site is important, so does removing spammy and bad links. Bad links are basically the links that negatively impact your site and its search ranking on the SERPs.
Disavowing backlinks is an advanced SEO feature and must only be used when you’re 100% sure. Otherwise, removing a single good backlink can significantly impact your website ranking.
So, checking Google’s quality guidelines exhaustively before removing any link is better. Hope you understand the seriousness of disavowing a backlink.
In this blog, we’ll discuss the step-by-step process to disavow backlinks using the Semrush tool. Let’s begin!
How to Disavow Backlinks in Semrush?
Here, we’ve mentioned a step-by-step process to disavow backlinks in Semrush.
Step 1: Compile Disavow Links Using Semrush Backlink Audit Feature
Located at the left corner of the screen, you need to open the “Backlink Audit” feature to initiate the process. You must create and add all the bad links to disavow using the “Move to Disavow list” button.
Opt for the links with high Toxicity Score (TS) and low Authority Score (AS) shown on the right-hand side of the screen.
Make sure to disavow your backlinks at the “Domain” level and not the “URL” level. This will allow you to completely remove your site’s association with the linking site. In contrast, if you just disavow on the URL level, it may create chances for missing out on other toxic links.
Step 2: Export Your Disavow List
Once you’re done disavowing all the required backlinks, you should click on the green “Export to TXT” button at the screen’s top right corner.
Clicking on this button will enable Semrush to create an accurately formatted Disavow .txt file.
This is a list where you can find backlinks opted to be disavowed at the domain level at the top of the .txt document. However, the URL level list will be displayed below.
Step 3: Upload Disavow File to Google
When you have your .txt file ready, you must visit the Google Disavow Tool. Select the property and opt for the required file.
Even Google has mentioned a warning here stating that this is an advanced SEO feature and must be used with care and attention. A small mistake here can seriously impact your ranking on the SERPs and prominence in the industry.
Cross-check 100 times that the uploaded file only contains harmful links. Now, you only need to upload the required files and submit them.
Google may take action over your request within 6 weeks.
In case Google is showing the error that Domain properties are not supported at this time when uploading a file to Google Disavow Tool, you must add an additional URL-prefix property and select it this time. However, it may take a little more time than usual.
Step 4: Confirm the Disavowed Links
Semrush Backlink Audit feature can not recognise that you have uploaded the .txt file to the Google Disavow Tool.
To confirm, you must click on “Done” in the message bar located at the top of the report.
In this way, all the selected links will get the “Disavowed” status, and Semriush will recalculate the toxic score for the entire website.
Conclusion
In summary, these are four simple yet effective steps to disavow your links. This is a serious step, so you should make sure to disavow only the links that negatively impact your website ranking.
Also, make sure to create a proper backlink list first and confirm all of them. If you’re disavowing 15 links, you must be 100% sure for them. If you change your mind later and want to remove five backlinks after submitting the report, you’ll be required to reformat the entire list.
We hope this blog helps you understand how to disavow backlinks in Semrush while maintaining all the protective measures.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Is it possible to undo a disavowed link?
Yes, you can undo a disavowed link. However, it would be tricky. This process won’t disable the disavowed links immediately. However, Google may take a few weeks to incorporate your list into the index. You must understand that this is not a game and must be done only if genuinely required. Even a minor single mistake can impact your Google rankings.
Q. What is disavow in SEO?
Disavowing in SEO is a process of discarding your site’s harmful backlinks (that are low-quality and spammy). When you believe that the ranking of your site is affected due to these low quality that you can’t control, you disavow them. Here, you basically ask Google not to consider these links while accessing or crawling your site.
Q. How do you disavow backlinks in the Google Search Console?
Here’s a step-by-step process to disavow backlinks in Google Search Console.
1. First, access the Google Search Console disavow links tool page.
2. Tap on “Select Property.”
3. Now upload the .txt file of the links that you want to remove disavows for.
4. Click on the “Cancel Disavowal”
Q. Should I disavow toxic backlinks?
If your site contains a higher amount of toxic backlinks, it is a good idea to disavow those backlinks. However, consider removing them only when you’re sure that these are negatively affecting your search rankings. Else, you may unintentionally disrupt your website’s ranking and prominence.
Q. Can backlinks hurt SEO?
Backlinks are one of the essential factors in SEO ranking. But, it must be from credible and high-quality sources, which are sites with high DA (Domain Authority). Any spammy or non-quality link will adversely impact your site ranking.