What Is Disavow? When to Use Google's Disavow Tool and How to Write the File

Disavow is a way to tell Google not to take certain links pointing to your site into account. You do it through the Disavow links tool in Google Search Console, by uploading a .txt file that lists the URLs or domains you want ignored. Most sites never need it: Google's own documentation says that in most cases Google can assess which links to trust without extra guidance. The tool is meant for sites with a considerable number of spammy or artificial links that have caused a manual action, or likely will.

What disavow means and how it works

In plain English, to disavow something is to deny any connection with it. In SEO it means telling Google that you, the site owner, do not vouch for a set of inbound links and would like Google to leave them out when it evaluates your site.

The first thing to understand is that disavowing does not delete anything from the web. The link stays on the source page, people who click it still reach your site, and Google states that disavowed links will continue to be shown in the Search Console Links report. What changes is that Google takes your list into account when it recrawls the pages carrying those links.

Because the effect follows recrawling, Google says it can take a few weeks for the list to be incorporated into the index. There is no button that makes it take effect immediately, and no Search Console report confirms link by link that a given link has been discounted.

When to use the disavow tool

Google sets two conditions that both have to be true. First, there are a considerable number of spammy, artificial or low-quality links pointing to your site. Second, those links have caused a manual action against the site, or likely will. If only the first is true, for example you notice odd foreign links in a report but have never bought links and have no manual action, you do not meet the bar.

Situations that clearly qualify

• The Manual actions report in Search Console shows an "unnatural links to your site" action.
• The site bought links that pass ranking credit, ran heavy link exchanges or used automated link building in the past, and those links are still live. Even without a manual action yet, this is the "likely will cause" case in Google's wording.
• You inherited a site from a previous team and found paid link campaigns that were never marked with rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow".

How Google defines link spam

Google's spam policies define link spam as creating links to or from a site primarily to manipulate search rankings. The examples Google lists include buying or selling links for ranking purposes (money, goods or services in exchange for links, or sending a product on condition that the review includes a link), excessive link exchanges of the "link to me and I'll link to you" kind, advertorials where payment is received for articles containing links that pass ranking credit, low-quality directory or bookmark site links, keyword-rich links embedded in widgets distributed across many sites, widely distributed footer or template links, and forum comments with optimized links in the post or signature.

Google also says buying and selling links is a normal part of the web, and paid links are not a violation as long as they are qualified with rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow". Properly tagged ads or sponsored posts are therefore no reason to disavow.

When not to use disavow

Google calls this an advanced feature that should only be used with caution. If good links end up in your file, they are discounted too, and nothing warns you that you cut the wrong ones. Cases where you should not rush to disavow:

• Rankings dropped after a core update and you suspect links, but there is no manual action and no history of policy-violating link building. Content quality and match to search intent are the first things to examine.
• You see links from scraper sites that copied your pages. Nearly every site gets these, and Google says that in most cases it can work out which links to trust.
• A third-party SEO tool labels some domains "toxic". Those scores are each vendor's own estimate, not Google data. Use them as a starting point for manual review, never as a list to upload as-is.
• A small number of low-quality links appeared without any action on your part.

How to write a disavow file (domain: versus URL)

The disavow file is a plain text file. Google requires it to be encoded in UTF-8 or 7-bit ASCII, and the file name must end in .txt. List one URL or domain to disavow per line.

Accepted formats

• To cover a whole domain, start the line with domain: followed by the domain name, for example domain:spam-directory.example
• To cover a single page, enter the full URL of the page carrying the link, for example https://forum.example/thread/123
• Google ignores any line that begins with #. Use comments for dates, sources and reasons.

Google's limits: you cannot disavow an entire subpath such as example.com/en/, so you choose between individual URLs and the whole domain. Maximum URL length is 2,048 characters. The file can have at most 100,000 lines, counting blank and comment lines, and must not exceed 2MB.

Example file outline (illustrative)

The first line might be # disavow list, updated after the latest backlink review, followed by # directories bought by the previous team, then domain:cheap-links.example and domain:bookmark-farm.example, then # single forum thread on an otherwise good site, and finally https://forum.example/thread/123. All domains in this example are made up.

Choosing domain: or URL

When the whole source site exists to sell links, or it is a network carrying artificial links on many pages, domain: is the safer choice because it also covers pages you have not found yet. For a large site with mixed content, such as a forum or news site where one page is the problem, listing that URL avoids discarding good links from the rest of the domain.

Where to upload the file in Google Search Console

The Disavow links tool is not in Search Console's main navigation. You reach it through the disavow tool page directly (search for "Google disavow links tool" and choose the Search Console page). Then:

1. Select the property. It must be a URL-prefix property, because Google states the disavow tool does not support Domain properties.
2. Check that your account is an owner of that property. Other permission levels cannot upload a list.
3. Upload the .txt file. If the file has errors, the tool reports them and your old list is not replaced.
4. Keep a local master copy, since every change means uploading the whole file again.

Rules people often get wrong

Each property can have one disavow list. Uploading a new list replaces the existing one entirely; it does not append. Upload a file containing only five new domains and the hundreds of lines in the old list are gone. The correct workflow is one master file, edited and re-uploaded in full each time.

The list applies to the property you uploaded it to plus any child properties. Google notes that if you have both http and https properties, you should upload a list for each. To withdraw everything, use Cancel Disavowals on the tool page, which removes the list for that property.

How disavowing differs from removing links

Removing a link means contacting the owner of the source site and asking them to take the link off the page, or to add rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored". When that works, the link is gone or stops passing credit for every search engine. Disavow is a request addressed only to Google, and the link stays where it is.

Google recommends removing as many spammy or low-quality links from the web as possible first, then using disavow for what you cannot get removed. Under a manual action, showing a genuine removal effort makes a reconsideration request stronger than a disavow file alone.

The table below maps common situations to the appropriate response, based on the conditions in Google's documentation.

Which backlinks count as harmful

The links worth attention are those that match the link spam examples in Google's policies and that came from your own actions or from someone working for you, such as a former agency or freelancer. Useful first-pass signals:

• Exact-match commercial anchor text repeated across many links, where natural links tend to use the brand name or URL.
• Links sitting in the footer or sidebar of many unrelated sites.
• Guest posts or press releases distributed across many sites with keyword-optimized anchors.
• Directory or bookmark sites with no real users, only lists of links.
• Invoices or other evidence of payment for links that carry neither sponsored nor nofollow.

A review you can run yourself: open the Links report in Search Console, export the top linking sites, sort by link count and open each suspicious domain. Ask whether the link exists because someone wanted to recommend your content, or because something was paid or traded. Record your reasoning as comments in the disavow file so whoever maintains it next understands each entry.

Sample workflow after a manual action for links

1. Open the Manual actions report, read the details and look at any example links Google provides.
2. Export links from the Links report and from any other backlink tool you have, to get the fullest list.
3. Separate links matching link spam patterns from natural ones.
4. Contact site owners to request removal or rel="sponsored", and log each attempt.
5. Build the disavow file from what could not be removed, using domain: for sites that are a problem as a whole.
6. Upload to the correct URL-prefix property, then submit a reconsideration request explaining what you did.

This sequence does not guarantee the request passes the first time, and timing varies, since it depends on Google's review and on how often each site is recrawled.

What this means for Thai marketers

Cheap bulk backlink packages are still sold to online sellers in Thailand, and site owners who change SEO providers often may not know such links are still live. What matters is the site's history of link buying. The number of strange links in a report says much less.

Another common setup on Thai sites is a Search Console account with only a Domain property, which cannot use disavow. If you ever need the tool, add a URL-prefix property matching the live version of the site (https, with or without www) and verify ownership first. Sites with Thai-language URLs should take care with encoding and always save the file as UTF-8.

Disavow FAQ

What is disavow in simple terms?

Disavow is telling Google not to count certain links pointing to your site, by uploading a .txt file through the Disavow links tool in Search Console. The links stay on the source sites, and Google applies your request when it recrawls those pages.

Should every site disavow links regularly?

No, because Google says that in most cases it can assess which links to trust on its own. The tool is for sites with many spammy links that have caused, or likely will cause, a manual action.

How long does a disavow take to work?

It can take a few weeks, because Google uses the list as it recrawls the pages carrying the links, and disavowed links keep appearing in the Links report.

Can I disavow from a Domain property?

No, the disavow tool does not support Domain properties. Use a URL-prefix property, and if you have both http and https properties, upload a list to each.

What happens to my old list when I upload a new file?

The old list is replaced entirely, because each property holds only one disavow list. Keep one master file and upload it in full every time you change it.

Summary

Disavow is a specialist tool for link problems caused by policy-violating link building, and most sites will never open it. Before uploading anything, confirm there is a manual action or a real history of manipulative links, try removal first and get the file format right. If you want a specialist to review your link profile, Relevant Audience's SEO audit analyses referring domains, anchor text and toxic links and flags disavow-worthy risks. For cleaning up old links while building compliant new ones, see the link building service and the backlink service, or the full SEO services in Thailand page.