Disavow File Generator

When Google says to disavow

Google's disavow help page calls it "an advanced feature" and says "In most cases, Google can assess which links to trust without additional guidance". It says to disavow only if both are true:

• "You have a considerable number of spammy, artificial, or low-quality links pointing to your site,"
• "The links have caused a manual action, or likely will cause a manual action, on your site."

A manual action for unnatural links settles the second. Even then, Google says to "remove as many spammy or low-quality links from the web as possible" first, and to disavow the ones you "can't remove". The disavow guide covers the removal step.

Bought links count. Google's spam policies list "Exchanging money for links" as link spam, unless the links are "qualified with a rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored" attribute value".

Ask for removal before you disavow

The tool drafts one removal request per domain or URL you paste, under the disavow file. Each draft names the linking page and asks the owner to remove the link or mark it rel="nofollow".

1. Find a contact. Use "Open site" to reach the contact page, or the site's footer and about page. Skip sites that only exist to sell links: nobody reads that inbox.
2. Send one request, then one follow-up. Copy each draft, or copy them all as CSV for a mail merge. Wait about a week between the two.
3. Keep a log. Note the date you asked and whether the link came down. For a manual action, Google's manual actions page warns that "Simply disavowing all backlinks without attempting to remove them might lead to rejection of your request", and says a good reconsideration request "Documents the outcome of your efforts". The log is that documentation.
4. Disavow what stays up. Remove the links that came down from the box, tick "Note in the file that you asked for removal first" and download the file.

Never pay a site to take a link down. If an owner asks for money, disavow that domain instead.

Disavow file format rules

Everything in this table is from Google's help page. The generator writes files that follow it and warns when you pass a limit.

A disavow file example in that format:

# Two pages to disavow
http://spam.example.com/stuff/comments.html
http://spam.example.com/stuff/paid-links.html

# One domain to disavow
domain:shadyseo.com

Before you upload

• Merge, don't overwrite. A new upload replaces the property's existing list, so anything missing from the new file stops being disavowed. Paste the old file into the tool before you download.
• Pick a URL-prefix property. The disavow links tool doesn't support Domain properties, and only a property owner can upload.
• Whole domain or exact URL. Use domain: for sites you want nothing from, exact URLs for one bad page on a site you'd keep. The tool leaves shared hosts such as blogspot.com or wordpress.com at the subdomain even with "root domain" on, so one spam blog doesn't disavow every site on the platform.
• Expect weeks, not days. Google says it can take a few weeks to take the list into account. If the upload has errors, Google lists them and your old list is not replaced.
• Check what you keep. Before you disavow a whole domain, confirm it isn't one of your real placements with the nofollow link checker.

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