Disavow

Telling Google to ignore specific backlinks.

Definition

Google's Disavow Tool lets site owners upload a plain-text file listing URLs or domains that search engines should disregard when assessing backlink quality. It exists primarily for sites recovering from manual actions or large-scale negative SEO attacks.

Key points

• Most sites should never need to disavow anything — Google ignores most spam automatically.
• File format is one URL or 'domain:example.com' per line.
• Disavowing legitimate links can hurt rankings — audit carefully first.