Walk softly when using Google Disavow Links Tool

Perhaps last week when I published my article on the brand new Google disavow tool I did a mistake by making it too long and informative that people really didn't get the essence of the tool and started sending me email on how they have finally sorted out all their bad backlink problems.

NO! Your problems are all but sorted.

Google itself suggests you might consider other remedies first, such as contacting the site owner, but this approach achieves limited and unpredictable success. Besides, how many webmasters will to take the time and expense of attempting to remove bad links that way when instead they can simply upload a txt file to Google? Before you decide to go that route let's take a look at some of the potential pitfalls of the “disavow links tool.”

If you are going to use the “disavow links tool,” let's look at some of the things you need to be aware of. If you get the format wrong when entering your txt file into the tool, you can accidentally take out good links that you want to keep. You can eventually get them back, but they'll be missing for a long period of time. Many webmasters wonder if using the tool is tantamount to admitting guilt, as though Google asked for guilty parties to please take one step forward. It's like saying, "Here's a list of the questionable links I purchased to trick you". Of course there are many legitimate reasons to disavow links—scrapers that link back, for example—and hopefully Google will learn to distinguish between the two.

The link notification emails will give examples of problem links, but it won't be a complete list so it's difficult to work out all the links that are a problem

Not only is it difficult working out the links that may be a problem, it can be difficult getting a view of the entire link graph. Third party tools such as Google’s own Webmaster Central can help but they aren’t exhaustive.

It is clear that use alternative like BigQuery offer benefits and possibilities anywhere differently. If you are not believing me, well have a look at how many other companies are posting about BigQuery: from companies who do SEO in Philadelphia to UK SEO companies ... they all suggest (perhaps reiterate) what Matt Cutts said.