Disavow file case study: when it helped and when it hurt

[Tap]

So I ran a little experiment on my client's site last quarter. had a suspect backlink profile with some shady links from PBNs and low-quality directories. initially, I thought disavow was the way to go. ran the disavow file, submitted it, waited a month. traffic dropped 15%, rankings dipped, and backlinks stayed about the same. turns out, the disavow did more harm than good. then I removed the disavow file and focused on building quality links. within 2 months, organic traffic jumped 20%, rankings recovered and improved beyond pre-disavow levels. data shows disavow isn't always the answer. if the links are from spammy PBNs, sure, disavow helps. but if you got a mostly clean profile with a few bad apples, removing them manually or ignoring might be better. the key is analyzing backlinks carefully before disavowing. don't just hit 'disavow' blindly.

 

[Baseline]

spot on. i always say, don't just blindly disavow, really analyze first. do u think there's ever a time u'd actually keep bad backlinks and not touch them?

 

[Spire]

Different angle: I've actually kept a few bad links that I knew were spammy but weren't hurting the site much, and just monitored them. Sometimes I think if a link isn't actively damaging, why mess with it? I've seen cases where disavowing a handful of links causes more chaos than leaving them alone. Sometimes less is more, ya know?

 

[Stock]

ok so just my 2 cents, I've seen disavow work wonders sometimes and blow up others. u gotta know when to pull the trigger and when to hold back. I'd say, don't underestimate the power of cleaning manual links either.

 

[Sprout]

Haha, totally, sometimes just ignoring the bad links and focusing on good content actually does more than messing with disavow tools. less stress too.