SEO glossary
Disavow
A disavow file is a list of domains or URLs you upload to Search Console to ask Google to ignore the links they point at your site.
It exists for one situation: links you did not earn and cannot get removed, in enough volume to look like a scheme. Bought links from a previous agency, a negative SEO campaign, a scraper network republishing your content with links back.
Most sites do not need one. Google has said for years that it ignores the overwhelming majority of low-quality links on its own, and disavowing links that were already being ignored changes nothing. Worse, disavowing links that were helping is a real way to lose rankings, and it is not quickly reversible.
If you do build one, work at the domain level (domain:example.com) rather than listing individual URLs, and keep the file as the complete list — each upload replaces the last one rather than adding to it. Read the referring domains first and be able to say why each one is on the list.
Common question
- Should I disavow links just in case?
- No. It is a remedy for a diagnosed problem, and disavowing links that were passing value is a way to make things worse.
Check this on your own site
- Referring Domains
The domain-level roll-up, strongest sites first
- Backlinks
Every individual link, with anchor and quality signals
Definitions are the easy part
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