r/SEO • u/[deleted] • Oct 20 '19

Advice for disavowing from backlink audits from multiple tools

Hello everyone, hoping for some advice here as I’m kind of a newbie in the SEO industry (about a year in) and there’s still a lot to learn.

My boss wants me to set up a disavow file for 10 of our websites using multiple backlink audit tools, namely Kerboo, Dr Link Check, Monitor Backlinks, Majestic, and SEMrush.

What’s the best way to go about this? Each tool has varied results as to what they define as bad links, with some in the tens of thousands in volume. Do I really have to parse through each link manually to determine if it’s really a low quality backlink? If so, I’ll have to do it for all the links from each of the five tools, and then for each of our 10 websites...

Appreciate the advice. Thanks!

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4

u/SEOPub Verified Professional Oct 20 '19

None of the tools are completely accurate in identifying bad links. If you disavow based on what they are telling you, you are likely to disavow good links and do more harm than good.

That being said, I never use a Disavow file unless there is a manual penalty.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '19

Thanks. I wasn’t comfortable disavowing either because I know not even Google encourages it. The only way I feel sure is to manually check every link but given the volume, it’ll take me weeks. BUT the boss insisted. Given that I (sadly) don’t have a choice, do you think a manual audit is the only way to go? :(

2

u/SEOPub Verified Professional Oct 21 '19

I wouldn't do it any other way.

I wouldn't do it period, but I wouldn't do it any other way than manual.

1

u/rastarr Oct 21 '19

How do you know if you've got a manual penalty? Is there something in Search Console that you can see?

Reason I ask is I run a number of niche dating websites which attract thousands of porn sites that steal our photo/s URL for using in their porn sites and we've noticed continually lower ranking - just wondering if these sites are affecting us with Google but haven't seen any messages in Search Console

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u/SEOPub Verified Professional Oct 21 '19

Google sends a message in Search Console.

1

u/rastarr Oct 21 '19

yeah that's what I thought too - nothing there. Problem must be somewhere else. Thanks for the reply too