{"id":1595,"date":"2024-07-09T17:19:41","date_gmt":"2024-07-09T16:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/organicdigital.co\/blog\/?p=1595"},"modified":"2026-09-21T11:45:52","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T10:45:52","slug":"seo-stop-using-the-google-disavow-tool-for-toxic-links","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/seo-stop-using-the-google-disavow-tool-for-toxic-links\/","title":{"rendered":"SEO: Stop Using the Google Disavow Tool for \u201cToxic\u201d Links"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>TL;DR:<\/strong> <br>Don\u2019t use Google\u2019s Disavow Tool simply because Semrush or another SEO tool has labelled backlinks as \u201ctoxic\u201d. Google says most websites don\u2019t need to disavow links, and using the tool incorrectly can potentially harm search performance. In this case study, disavowing thousands of supposedly toxic domains didn\u2019t produce the expected recovery, demonstrating why you should investigate the actual cause of an organic traffic decline before assuming backlinks are responsible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_89 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/seo-stop-using-the-google-disavow-tool-for-toxic-links\/#Why_I_started_looking_into_toxic_backlinks_and_disavow_files\" >Why I started looking into toxic backlinks and disavow files<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/seo-stop-using-the-google-disavow-tool-for-toxic-links\/#What_is_the_Google_Disavow_Tool\" >What is the Google Disavow Tool?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/seo-stop-using-the-google-disavow-tool-for-toxic-links\/#When_should_you_use_the_Google_Disavow_Tool\" >When should you use the Google Disavow Tool?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/seo-stop-using-the-google-disavow-tool-for-toxic-links\/#Why_do_people_still_disavow_%E2%80%9Ctoxic%E2%80%9D_backlinks\" >Why do people still disavow \u201ctoxic\u201d backlinks?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/seo-stop-using-the-google-disavow-tool-for-toxic-links\/#Did_disavowing_the_toxic_backlinks_work\" >Did disavowing the toxic backlinks work?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/seo-stop-using-the-google-disavow-tool-for-toxic-links\/#Should_you_disavow_toxic_backlinks_reported_by_Semrush\" >Should you disavow toxic backlinks reported by Semrush?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Why_I_started_looking_into_toxic_backlinks_and_disavow_files\"><\/span>Why I started looking into toxic backlinks and disavow files<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Over the years as a <a href=\"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/services-and-consultancy\/\">freelance SEO consultant<\/a>, I&#8217;ve been added to the <a href=\"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/how-to-fix-search-console-errors-why-pages-arent-indexed\/\">Google Search Console<\/a> accounts of hundreds of clients, so I receive GSC notifications on a regular basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I received one recently that I&#8217;d not seen in a while but one which, when I do see it, makes a little bit of me die inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This one:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"770\" height=\"572\" src=\"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/disavow_email.png\" alt=\"Disavow Email\" class=\"wp-image-1596\" srcset=\"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/disavow_email.png 770w, https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/disavow_email-300x223.png 300w, https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/disavow_email-150x111.png 150w, https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/disavow_email-768x571.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 770px) 100vw, 770px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I immediately contacted the client and told them not to go any further until we&#8217;d reviewed what had been disavowed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Why? Because for most websites, <strong>Google says you don&#8217;t need to use the Disavow Tool simply because an SEO tool has labelled some of your backlinks \u201ctoxic.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Google says most sites don&#8217;t need the tool and warns that using it incorrectly can potentially harm a site&#8217;s performance in Search. It should be reserved for situations where you have a considerable number of spammy, artificial or low-quality links <strong>and<\/strong> those links have caused, or are likely to cause, a manual action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before getting into the case study, it&#8217;s worth explaining what the Google Disavow Tool actually does and why it exists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_is_the_Google_Disavow_Tool\"><\/span>What is the Google Disavow Tool?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Google&#8217;s Disavow Tool allows you to submit a text file containing pages or domains whose backlinks you want Google to disregard when assessing your site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is an advanced tool rather than a routine backlink-cleaning feature. Google explicitly says that most sites won&#8217;t need to use it and warns that incorrectly disavowing links can harm your site&#8217;s performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Google introduced the Disavow Tool in 2012, when manipulative link building was widespread and Google&#8217;s Penguin updates were targeting sites using link schemes to influence rankings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the time, cleaning up a backlink profile and disavowing links that couldn&#8217;t be removed became part of recovering from link-related penalties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Search has changed considerably since then. Google says that in most cases it can now assess which links to trust without additional guidance from the site owner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"605\" height=\"230\" src=\"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/john_mueller_tweet_1.png\" alt=\"A tweet from John Mueller\" class=\"wp-image-1597\" srcset=\"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/john_mueller_tweet_1.png 605w, https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/john_mueller_tweet_1-300x114.png 300w, https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/john_mueller_tweet_1-150x57.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 605px) 100vw, 605px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are indications that Google may eventually phase out the Disavow Tool entirely as their algorithms continue to improve in identifying and ignoring spammy backlinks on their own, again, as stated by John:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"558\" height=\"446\" src=\"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/john_mueller_tweet_2.png\" alt=\"Another tweet from John Mueller\" class=\"wp-image-1598\" srcset=\"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/john_mueller_tweet_2.png 558w, https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/john_mueller_tweet_2-300x240.png 300w, https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/john_mueller_tweet_2-150x120.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 558px) 100vw, 558px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"When_should_you_use_the_Google_Disavow_Tool\"><\/span>When should you use the Google Disavow Tool?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite the warnings around using it, there are situations where Google&#8217;s Disavow Tool may still be appropriate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Google&#8217;s guidance says you should only consider disavowing backlinks when <strong>both<\/strong> of the following apply:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>You have a considerable number of spammy, artificial or low-quality links pointing to your site; and<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>those links have caused a manual action, or are likely to cause one.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you&#8217;ve previously been involved in paid links, link schemes or other manipulative link building, that&#8217;s very different from discovering that a third-party SEO tool has classified some of your naturally acquired backlinks as \u201ctoxic\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And that&#8217;s where I think much of the confusion around disavowing links comes from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Why_do_people_still_disavow_%E2%80%9Ctoxic%E2%80%9D_backlinks\"><\/span>Why do people still disavow \u201ctoxic\u201d backlinks?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One reason is that third-party SEO platforms provide backlink auditing tools that classify links using their own toxicity or risk metrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In this case, I&#8217;m going to use Semrush as an example. Its Backlink Audit tool reviews links and can classify them as toxic or potentially toxic, which can understandably make site owners think those links need to be removed or disavowed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here&#8217;s an example from my own domain:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"588\" height=\"197\" src=\"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/organic_digital_links.png\" alt=\"Organic Digital's Links\" class=\"wp-image-1599\" srcset=\"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/organic_digital_links.png 588w, https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/organic_digital_links-300x101.png 300w, https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/organic_digital_links-150x50.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 588px) 100vw, 588px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In this example, Semrush classified <strong>23.2% of my backlinks as toxic or potentially toxic<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If I&#8217;d recently seen a <a href=\"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/skills\/website-performance-consultant\/\">drop in organic traffic<\/a>, it would be very easy to look at that percentage and conclude that these \u201ctoxic\u201d backlinks might be responsible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I could then make the potentially damaging assumption that I should disavow them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But a third-party toxicity score isn&#8217;t the same thing as Google telling you that those links are harming your site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In fact, Semrush considers my site&#8217;s overall backlink profile to have <strong>low toxicity<\/strong>. Here&#8217;s my site alongside several others in the same account, some of which the tool classifies as having <strong>high toxicity<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"603\" height=\"418\" src=\"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/sem_rush_link_audit.png\" alt=\"SEMRush's link audit tool\" class=\"wp-image-1600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/sem_rush_link_audit.png 603w, https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/sem_rush_link_audit-300x208.png 300w, https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/sem_rush_link_audit-150x104.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 603px) 100vw, 603px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Seeing a site labelled <strong>high toxicity<\/strong> can understandably be alarming, particularly if you&#8217;ve also seen rankings or organic traffic decline. That&#8217;s where a third-party metric can start influencing a decision to disavow links, even though Google hasn&#8217;t indicated that those links are causing a problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And I&#8217;ve seen exactly that happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A client of a client had seen a drop in rankings and, concerned that their increasing number of \u201ctoxic\u201d backlinks might be responsible, carried out a backlink audit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rather than first establishing whether the ranking decline was actually being caused by links, they went ahead and disavowed the backlinks the tool had classified as toxic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ranking and traffic declines can have many other causes, including <a href=\"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/how-to-fix-search-console-errors-why-pages-arent-indexed\/\">indexing problems<\/a>, technical issues, content quality or changes in the search results, so making that connection based on a toxicity score alone can be risky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first large batch of links was disavowed between December and January, which you can see in the backlink audit history below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"659\" height=\"192\" src=\"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/sem_rush_link_report.png\" alt=\"SEMRush toxic link report\" class=\"wp-image-1601\" srcset=\"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/sem_rush_link_report.png 659w, https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/sem_rush_link_report-300x87.png 300w, https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/sem_rush_link_report-150x44.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 659px) 100vw, 659px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By January, the report was showing no toxic or potentially toxic backlinks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, if those \u201ctoxic\u201d links had been responsible for the site&#8217;s declining visibility, you might expect performance to start recovering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But that&#8217;s not what happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After the familiar seasonal drop in December, organic clicks didn&#8217;t recover in January. They continued to decline through to April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"650\" height=\"168\" src=\"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/gsc_data.png\" alt=\"GSC data drop\" class=\"wp-image-1602\" srcset=\"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/gsc_data.png 650w, https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/gsc_data-300x78.png 300w, https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/gsc_data-150x39.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That doesn&#8217;t prove that disavowing the links caused the decline. What it does show is that <strong>removing the links classified as toxic didn&#8217;t produce the recovery that was expected<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At this point, the number of disavowed domains had increased from <strong>910 to 1,581<\/strong>. When performance still hadn&#8217;t recovered by April, even more domains were added to the disavow file, eventually bringing the total to <strong>5,889<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"649\" height=\"158\" src=\"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/disavowed_domains.png\" alt=\"Disavowed domains\" class=\"wp-image-1603\" srcset=\"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/disavowed_domains.png 649w, https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/disavowed_domains-300x73.png 300w, https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/disavowed_domains-150x37.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 649px) 100vw, 649px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">and confirmed here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"465\" height=\"156\" src=\"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/disavow_update.png\" alt=\"Disavow Update\" class=\"wp-image-1604\" srcset=\"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/disavow_update.png 465w, https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/disavow_update-300x101.png 300w, https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/disavow_update-150x50.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 465px) 100vw, 465px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Did_disavowing_the_toxic_backlinks_work\"><\/span>Did disavowing the toxic backlinks work?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In this case, no. The initial removal of the links classified as toxic didn&#8217;t coincide with the expected recovery, and increasing the number of disavowed domains didn&#8217;t address the underlying decline either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That&#8217;s not evidence that using the Disavow Tool will always cause rankings or traffic to fall. There were other factors affecting this site&#8217;s performance, and the timing alone doesn&#8217;t establish causation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The important point is that <strong>a third-party tool labelling backlinks as \u201ctoxic\u201d wasn&#8217;t evidence that those links were responsible for the original decline<\/strong>. Disavowing thousands of domains therefore wasn&#8217;t a substitute for investigating what was actually affecting the site&#8217;s organic performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Should_you_disavow_toxic_backlinks_reported_by_Semrush\"><\/span>Should you disavow toxic backlinks reported by Semrush?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I wouldn&#8217;t disavow backlinks simply because Semrush, or any other third-party SEO platform, has classified them as toxic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Those scores can be useful as a starting point for investigating a backlink profile, but they&#8217;re not a Google penalty notification and they don&#8217;t tell you that Google is using those particular links against your site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Don&#8217;t disavow backlinks simply because an SEO tool has labelled them \u201ctoxic\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Google&#8217;s own guidance says that most sites don&#8217;t need to use the Disavow Tool. If you have a genuine history of manipulative link building, a manual action, or a considerable number of artificial links that could realistically lead to one, that&#8217;s a different situation. Otherwise, I&#8217;d be very cautious about uploading a disavow file based purely on a third-party toxicity score.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you&#8217;re seeing a drop in organic visibility, don&#8217;t assume that a rising toxicity score is the explanation. Investigate what has actually changed before disavowing links that may be doing your site no harm, and could potentially be helping it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you&#8217;re concerned about a drop in visibility and aren&#8217;t sure what&#8217;s causing it, there may be <a href=\"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/services-and-consultancy\/\">other SEO issues worth investigating<\/a> before you start disavowing backlinks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many website owners misuse Google&#8217;s Disavow Tool, harming their search rankings. Initially designed to combat spammy backlinks, the tool is now mostly obsolete due to advanced algorithms. Modern SEO tools often misclassify links as toxic, leading to unnecessary disavows and traffic drops. This post explains why you should avoid using the Disavow Tool unless you have a manual Google penalty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daveashworth.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}