Disavowing Links: Yes, No, Maybe – What Gives?

Question. You talked about disavowing links in one of your videos. But online Google says to be “very careful” because doing this can “harm the ranking”–Google is confusing me with this statement. I’m working on a website where 66 links (out of 300) are coming from weird sites in Indonesia, not written in English. (I don’t think anyone bought back-links). Can I just ignore Google’s warning and go ahead and disavow the weird back-links?

Answer. Well, as is so often true, this is complicated. Here are some factors to consider:

• If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. While you should NEVER engage in “crazy link schemes” (more below), if you have in the past but you STILL RANK on your keywords, I am inclined to do NOTHING. The Google Disavow link tool is controversial – for, among other reasons, it’s a clear signal to Google that you’ve “been naughty” – sort of like calling up the local Police and admitting to drunk driving, even though you made it home safe. Not a good idea, if for that reason alone. Secondly, it’s not clear it even works or does anything realistic. So if you’re ranking for keywords, then don’t disavow any links – just stop building “naughty” links.
• Undo the Links. This is by far the “preferred remedy.” If you control the websites (e.g., they are in your own Private Blog Network), then turn them OFF, disconnect them, etc. This is better than disavowing them. Your performance should improve if you are being subjected to a “Penguin Penalty” after you undo the naughty links.
• Use the Google Disavow Links tool.  You can read about it here. You need to have an active Webmaster Tools (Search Console) account, of course to use it.

Now, all of that goes with the understanding of the “Penguin Update.” It penalizes “unnatural link footprints,” especially links from “link farms” (usually a whole bunch of crappy blogs set up in India that all point to your site, often around an optimized phrase). Now, it’s not evenly applied! Many, many sites are violating Google’s policies left and right and STILL RANKING. Others are under penalty so badly, that they literally have to ABANDON their domains and start over 100%. For your on-going strategy, you want to build links in a “natural” and “legitimate” way.