Disvow tool - how do i know?

[pauledwards]

If i submit links via Google webmaster tools disvow tools - do i get any kind of confirmation it worked or not from Google?

I have a standard message saying 'disvow links updated' as soon as i submitted it.

Also how long roughly does this take to work, does it work much? I removed as many links as i could and the remaining ones submitted to this tool in the correct format.

Any info much appreciated as usual people.

[BCutrer]

We just went through this with a site that got penalized with the Penguin update because a previous SEO company had used a comment spinner that built a spammy profile across numerous porn sites. We uploaded as many as we could find. to the disavow tool.

We experienced about a five week period where none of the pages were ranking in the top 100 for the keywords that we had been tracking. It was only this week that across the board the majority of the keywords have bounced back to page 3. So we have a little more work to do.

Along with the disavow tool we also started a campaign of Authority building links over the last month. If the trigger of Penguin is ratios of spammy links to appropriate ones, we felt this would be a beneficial strategy.

[pauledwards]

That gives me some hope, thank you. Did Google send you any special message to say it had be done?

The issue for us is in 2009 someone did mass distribution of content to poor quality sites for the same anchor text, i've manually removed 110 domains roughly but left with 40. So have had to disvow them, i dont know whether to do a reconsideration request, were just not moving.

Is it wise to keep building links at this time which are quality and generally branded? I feel we are stuck currently.

[BCutrer]

No there was no response from Google. From what I've gathered from research on the issue, if the issue is an algorithmic penalty there is never a response. You are just altering your site's profile and when the search engine choses to use that information it affects your health in the index. If you receive a manual penalty with an email to your webmaster tools, it's more severe and you need to also send a reconsideration request through the web master tools.

[MarieHaynes]

Google does not give you any indication that your links are actually being disavowed.  However, as of this month, if you have errors in your disavow file that would prevent it from working, you would be notified of that when you uploaded the file.

For your disavowed links you will still see them in your backlink profile, even on WMT.  Google adds an invisible nofollow as they crawl each link but they don't show any outward evidence of this.

"Is it wise to keep building links at this time which are quality and generally branded? I feel we are stuck currently."

In my opinion Google is getting much better at determining which links are self made and not passing PageRank through those links.  If by "building" you mean creating links of your own then IMO it doesn't matter what anchor text you use...you're going to see limited effectiveness by doing this.  Google's not perfect and there are some ways right now that you can actually build your own links and succeed.  But the whole goal of the engineers working on the search quality team is to make it so that the only links that really pass PageRank are those that are earned.

[KarlBantleman]

Hi Paul,

The disavow tool should be used as a last resort really, you should really try and get the links taken down because Google wants to see you have made an effort. Did you receive the message in Webmaster Tools or is it just an algorithm penalty you received?

[BCutrer]

Just curious if you have any Empirical evidence on that thought of it should be used as a last resort? I know that google cautions usage of it, but my hunch is that they are afraid of two situations. The person who disavows all links and hurts their positive link profile and the strategy of someone purposely building suspect links knowing he can remove them.

I'd love your thoughts if you've seen harmful results of using the tool.