16 replies to this topic

[bwelford]

If you were hit by Penguin for inappropriate links in Google searches, you can now use a link in Google Webmaster Tools to allow you to 'out' your questionable links. Apparently all it takes is a text file of the inappropriate links.

It's to be found at:
https://www.google.c....vow-links-main

The screenshot shows you what you will see there. As yet, there is no information on whether this is guaranteed to help your keyword rankings or how quickly that might happen.

[Wit]

Can I just go for now?

Edited by Wit, 16 October 2012 - 04:46 PM.

[jonbey]

Can you reverse the decision? Some dolt might go and dis all their links accidentally. I beat it happens at least once before the weekend.

[chuckfinley]

Hey Bwelford,

You beat me here by 2 1/2 hours. Maybe info gets released in the UK first? Good show!

This is good news for sites that received the unnatural link notice. I suspect the reason google hasn't acted on those notices is they actually wanted to be fair , could it possibly be true???????, and give people a chance at the disavow tool before they exact final revenge judgment.

Just a thought, if you've received the unnatural links notice or you know that you've been hit by penguin and links are the reason, i.e., you filed a request for reconsideration and they said you have unnatural links, you may want to think twice before using the tool.

In essence, google is creating a way to out sites that are generating unnatural links. By using that tool, you're pointing a finger at someone else. Just as I don't want to be singled out by google because they can't control their algorithm, people that operate viable directories, etc. don't want to have us pointing fingers at them. How google can decide that I can't advertise on a directory of any PageRank is beyond me and I doubt that it's legal.

So be fair, innocent people may be affected.

[DonnaFontenot]

Being fair is a difficult thing to do when you've been penalized and can't pay your bills. If disavowing a link gets you your income back, "fair schmair".

[chuckfinley]

Being fair is a difficult thing to do when you've been penalized and can't pay your bills. If disavowing a link gets you your income back, "fair schmair".

I think you're right, if you know for sure those links are the source of the problem. I would say that if you ask the webmaster to take them down and they won't do it, or better yet, they send you a repetitive e-mail on autoresponder offering to take links down for $25 per link, then go ahead and use the tool.

If you're just guessing......make sure you give the other website a chance to make it right. You might include in your request "I don't want to remove the links with the google disavow tool because google may use that against you" or verbiage to that effect.

I suppose it depends on how the link got there. If they scraped your site as thousands and thousands have done to me, I suppose they get what they deserve. I would still ask them to take it down first.

Keep in mind you could unleash a negative SEO campaign against your site depending on how you go about this too. It's a dangerous world out there in the Wild, Wild West we call google.

Just sayin'

Stay safe out there!

[DonnaFontenot]

Very good points! And using the "veiled threat" when reaching out might get them to actually take down the link.

[cre8pc]

Thanks for posting this Barry. I was at the Pubcon "Lunch with Matt Cutts" where he announced this and talked about it and a whole lot of other things. Unfortunately, I couldn't hear a danged thing! I was taking pictures of the big screens with my telephoto lens, that's how far away a lot of us were. I figured I'd have to catch up on all the hoopla later.

Having a blast at PubCon!

[chuckfinley]

I was taking pictures of the big screens with my telephoto lens, that's how far away a lot of us were.

LOL!

[chuckfinley]

Also, the best way to avoid using the disavow tool is to never have those kinds of links in the first place. I was surprised to see google's updated content guidelines -- there's a level of openness and honesty there I didn't expect.

New google "Content Guidelines" Covering -- Link Schemes --> http://support.googl...en&answer=66356

This has changed. It would help to know this. Some of the "bad links" identified in the guidelines --

• Low-quality directory or bookmark site links
• Links embedded in widgets that are distributed across various sites, for example:
  Visitors to this page: 1,472
  car insurance
• Widely distributed links in the footers of various sites
• Forum comments with optimized links in the post or signature, for example:
  Thanks, that’s great info!
  - Paul
  paul’s pizza san diego pizza best pizza san diego

Edited by chuckfinley, 16 October 2012 - 08:30 PM.

[jonbey]

A silly spin on this: Google created black hat SEO tool!

If people ranked their sites using dodgy methods in the past, but now Google has caught them out. But, it creates a way to allow them to reverse their naughty work so only the good counts......

Please don't take me seriously!

Matt Cutts made it very clear in the video that this tool is only needed for a few people - if you have dropped rankings recently but not received a notice (assuming you are set up on Google webmaster tools) then no point in submitting anything. Probably do more harm than good.

[chuckfinley]

Matt Cutts made it very clear in the video that this tool is only needed for a few people - if you have dropped rankings recently but not received a notice (assuming you are set up on Google webmaster tools) then no point in submitting anything. Probably do more harm than good.

Good point.

[Black_Knight]

Remember that this is Google's tool. Its there for Google's benefit, not the webmaster's (except where that coincides with benefit to Google).

I'd be 99.9% sure that the entire purpose of the tool is to give Google more data on what kind of links are still a problem, so that the algorithms can be tweaked even more finely to automatically negate and discount certain types of links. Mainly it will show them what kinds of links you as a webmaster disavow. As such, the tool will be slow, and very unlikely to be helpful to just one website (i.e. yours).

If you have a problem with your site, related to links, then this tool is there to perhaps, one day, make Google better at dealing with that type of links for everyone. I support that, as long as you realise it is not a tool that is going to dig you out of that hole today, or next week. You are still going to need to fix your own problems.

[FP_Guy]

A customer that had someone do some black hat SEO with some VERY bad links pointing to their site including porn and forced upon links from other sites. I had made a list and contacted each one manually to have the link removed. A few of them reponded to take them off and some of them were not even aware the link was there because their site got hacked and installed a virus of some kind.

I will use this tool hoping that it will help his rankings come back, but from what was posted here it is questionable. I will give it a try anyway.

[FP_Guy]

Here is a great article written on the subject at SEOmoz

[glyn]

BK summed up this tool nicely.

Might be good in your aresenal, but I doubt whether you'll be doing anything more than wasting your time. And that eventually it will be included as part of the reporting process for spam requests whereby you are automatically asked to disavow links in order to get back on track.

Then let's not forget about the possibility that an SEO can technically disavow an entire links strategy, just by being in WMT and that is certainly something that would make me nervous as a site owner.

When is user access controls coming to WMT.

Edited by glyn, 19 October 2012 - 12:54 AM.

[chuckfinley]

Then let's not forget about the possibility that an SEO can technically disavow an entire links strategy, just by being in WMT and that is certainly something that would make me nervous as a site owner.

I think it's better to hide and watch on these things. I rely on you guys with years of experience to keep me safe.

Here's a good article that covers exactly what you point out & more, you're right on target --> http://www.seobook.c...le-disavow-tool

Edited by chuckfinley, 19 October 2012 - 05:34 PM.