Disavow Links - how do you know if it's worked?

[Cocoonfxmedia]

I asked another SEO company to analysis my link structure (as I was too busy!) As I was flat lining on some work I was doing. They said I potentially had an algo penalty and that i need to do a disavow , even though I had no messages from Google saying I had unnatural links. stupidly I agreed to the disavow. Looking at Webmasters tools it seems they've submitted a bunch of links. Since they've done this traffic dropped by 60%, ranking dropped massively. In google Webmasters all the links which are meant to be removed are still showing. How do I know if the actual disavow has been done? And should I do a reconsideration request? Even though Google hadn't flagged an issue ??

[BCutrer]

Here is my thoughts based on experience.

First the links don't disappear from Webmaster tools. You will still see them there. A reconsideration request only helps if you got hit by a manual penalty not algorithmic ones. If your traffic dropped after the disavow list was supplied it could be that you told Google to kill some valuable links and now you are missing that link juice. Though with that the  flip side from mantra of causality and correlation that Rand preaches. Google has been rolling out some changes so your traffic drop could be unrelated.

I would go back to the disvow list though and see if they put some links in it that shouldn't have been flagged as spam and resubmit the list.

[Cocoonfxmedia]

Thanks Bill, I can see some sites on the list so I can resubmit without these key urls

[MarieHaynes]

I agree with Bill.  Your disavowed links will still remain in GWT.  You can download your current disavow file here:

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/disavow-links-main

Even if you don't have a manual penalty, it's still not a bad idea to do some disavowing if you may have been affected by the Penguin algorithm.  You won't get a message if this is the case.  And, as Bill pointed out, you can't file a reconsideration request unless you have a manual penalty.

I'd download your disavow file, and review it to make sure that it contains obviously spammy links.  One area that is grey are directory links.  If the company has disavowed directory links that are from non-spammy looking directories it might be a good idea to re-allow them.

Another iffy area is guest posts.  Right now, guest post links are working really well.  But, I am quite suspicious that the next Penguin update will hit sites hard that have used guest posting extensively as a way to rank higher.  For one of my own sites, I have just disavowed a number of guest posting links and yes, I took a hit in rankings.  But, if I'm right, when Penguin refreshes, my site will come out ok whereas my competitors will be in trouble.

And one final thought....if your rankings drop happened any time around May 20, you may be dealing with a Panda issue and not a disavow problem.

Back to your disavow file....if you remove the links that you want to start counting again and re-file, then the next time Google crawls those links they will be credited back to your site again.

[Cocoonfxmedia]

Thank you for this, it answers the question. I am going to get the sites which shouldn't of been cleaned out back into the mix.