Google Senior Search Analyst John Mueller recently said on X that he’s sure Google will remove the disavow link tool within Google Search Console at some point.

John Mueller responded to recent questions regarding the disavow tool, reiterating that most sites don’t need it. John also explained when and when not to use it, saying that you can remove the disavow tool if you don’t have a history of link schemes or manual actions.

Here’s that conversation on X:

Google’s Gary Illyes confirmed John Mueller’s opinion regarding the disavow tool at a PubCon event, saying:

•  “If it were up to me, I would do away with the disavow link tool because, often enough, it hurts more than it helps many sites.”

What is the Google disavow tool?

Google implemented the disavow link tool (later migrating to the Google Search Console interface) to allow webmasters to report unwanted poor-quality links pointing to their site; the tool enables SEOs to tell Google which domains or URLs it should ignore when evaluating its ranking factors. 

Here’s Google’s explanation:

• “If you have a manual action against your site for unnatural links to your site, or if you think you’re about to get such a manual action (because of paid links or other link schemes that violate our quality guidelines), you should try to remove the links from the other site to your site. If you can’t remove those links yourself or get them removed, you should disavow the URLs of the questionable pages or domains that link to your website.”

The removal of the disavow tool isn’t a surprise!

Google’s announcement of the future removal of the disavow tool hasn’t come as a great surprise to users on X; in fact, the consensus is it’s about time!

Here are some of those conversations:

Bing thought the same back in September 2023 when it removed the disavow links tool from its Bing Webmaster Tools; it seems Google will soon follow suit!

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Terry O'Toole

Terry is a seasoned content marketing specialist with over six years of experience writing content that helps small businesses navigate where small businesses meet marketing - SEO, Social Media Marketing, etc. Terry has a proven track record of creating top-performing content in search results.
When he is not writing content, Terry can be found on his boat in Italy or chilling in his villa in Spain.

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