When Bing announced on 27^th June 2012 that they had introduced a Disavow Links feature to Webmaster Tools, of course a number of blog posts and comment pieces cropped up wondering when (as opposed to if) Google would follow suit.

We were therefore surprised to see posts like this one Search Engine Land and this one on Search Engine Journal which questioned whether it’s worth spending the time checking back links and submitting them to be disavowed through Bing and, when the time comes, Google. There are even suggestions that the functionality could increase black-hat and negative SEO, rather than stamp it out (more on this later).

I tend to agree with the majority leaving comments on the above articles – that disavowing links, in Bing at least, is simple and realistically can only help a website’s SEO. What it will do is help combat negative SEO, help companies try and rectify mistakes made in the past and, most importantly, is a strong signal to the internet marketing industry that black hat techniques of buying high volumes of low quality links is absolutely a thing of the past.

You can find more advice about how to make up for past SEO mistakes in our Penguin recovery post – and by coming on our SEO course which teaches only techniques for high rankings with longevity.

How to Disavow Links in Bing Webmaster Tools

Bing’s announcement makes it very clear that they want the move to be seen as a response to demand from “the industry” (that’ll be SEO, presumably). If nothing else, it’s a clever marketing move from Bing – who appear to be carving a role for itself as everybody’s friend.

It’s really simple to disavow links in Bing’s Webmaster Tools. First of all, identify which of your incoming links are unnatural and damaging, and ask the webmasters to remove them.

If that doesn’t work, log into Bing Webmaster Tools, open up ‘Configure My Site’ and choose the new option of ‘Disavow Links’. Enter the URL and click ‘Disavow’. It really is that easy!

What Happens to you when you Disavow a Link?

Bing says it can choose to ignore your request to disavow a link, e.g. if they see it as a link from a good site…but if that is the case then that can only really work in your favour.

Duane Forrester from Bing says “This new disavow tool…helps Bing to understand a webmaster’s intent around its site, and its links.” So, no promises with regards to exactly how or when supplying this information to Bing will influence your rankings, but it’s certainly a sign that the search engines are recognising the efforts of webmasters who have thrown their black hats aside and cleaned up their acts.

What Happens to the Domain you Disavow?

It is likely that Bing will be keeping a close eye on the domains that are disavowed by webmasters – if certain sites crop up regularly then this will be a clear sign that these sites are contenders for being deindexed.

Those still finding benefits from low quality links, i.e. those who Bing and Google are still trying to catch out, should take note.

Can you Disavow Links on Google?

Of course, it didn’t go by unnoticed that Bing have managed to sneak this development in ahead of Google.

Google have hinted here and there that a disavow service will be implemented in the near future. What Webmasters and SEOs should be doing in the meantime is making use of Bing’s provision after analysis and documenting of their link profiles. That means that, when Google do start allowing you to disavow links, you’ll be ready with the knowledge of which of your incoming links you would rather not have.

Of course, we’ll be keeping a close eye on developments and let you know as soon as anything changes.

The Case in Favour of Disavowing Links

Combating Negative SEO

“Negative SEO” has been a growing concern in the industry. Every time an algorithm update like Penguin is released to combat “spammy” links, webmasters and marketers get more concerned that competitors could get take the lead by buying spammy links and pointing them at a site they want to damage.

Being able to disavow links will make it much harder for companies to damage each other’s rankings via any other tactic than improving their own.

Making up for past mistakes

Of course there have been times when businesses have paid SEO agencies or even internal staff on the promise of good rankings, without questioning how these are obtained. Getting the rankings via black hat techniques like link volume worked well, so that’s what a lot of SEOs did. Companies only questioned the methods used once their rankings once the rankings dropped!

Of course, businesses need to take responsibility for past actions, whether they were done under direct instruction or not. But, given the prevalence of the practice, isn’t it only fair to give companies the chance to make up for past mistakes?

Google have taken steps towards acknowledging this, saying that if the source of spammy links do not respond to requests to remove them, webmasters can send documentation and screenshots to them (see our blog on BrightonSEO for more on this). What they didn’t do is promise anything as to exactly what they would do with this documentation. As with anything to do with SEO and algorithms, it’s unlikely that Google will ever tell us exactly what impact disavowing links will have on rankings, once the function is implemented.

The Case against Being Able to Disavow Links

It’s been suggested that a functionality to disavow links may actually encourage SEOs to go back to the old-school techniques of building countless spammy links – because, if caught out or it doesn’t work, they can then disavow them and start again.

It’s not altogether impossible, but unlikely. If external SEOs did this for a website, they run the risk of that site’s rankings being volatile, and therefore losing their credibility. I can only believe that this tactic will be far, far too high-risk to be attempted.

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Tags

Bing, Bing Webmaster Tools, Disavow links, google, Google Penguin, Google Webmaster Tools, Negative SEO, SEO, SEO advice

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