How to Disavow Links: The File, the Upload, and When Not To
To disavow links, list the pages or domains you want Google to ignore in a plain text file, one per line, and upload it through the disavow links tool in Google Search Console. Google’s advice is that most sites never need to: it says to disavow only when you have a considerable number of spammy, artificial or low-quality links and they have caused a manual action, or are likely to. If that is you, try to get the links removed first, then disavow what is left.
The Google rules on this page come from Google’s disavow help page and its manual actions report guidance, both read on 29 October 2026. The Bing section comes from Bing’s own announcement. If you are still working out whether you have bad links at all, check them first: export your linking domains, look for patterns such as paid placements, repeated exact-match anchor text and links from unrelated sites, and use our guide to spammy backlinks to judge which spammy links matter.
What does disavowing links mean?
A disavow is a request to Google not to count specific links to your site when it assesses the site. Nothing happens to the links themselves. They stay on the other websites, and Google says disavowed links will continue to show in your Search Console Links report. Seeing them there a week later does not mean the upload failed.
Google describes it as “an advanced feature” that “should only be used with caution”, because a careless file can harm how your site performs. A domain you disavow stops counting against you, and any good it was doing stops too.
Should you disavow at all?
Google says: “In most cases, Google can assess which links to trust without additional guidance, so most sites will not need to use this tool.” Its two conditions both have to be true.
| Situation | Disavow? |
|---|---|
| Manual action for unnatural links in Search Console | Yes, for links you cannot get removed |
| You or a previous agency bought links or ran a link scheme, and there are a lot of them | Probably, as a precaution against a manual action |
| A tool has flagged a list of “toxic” links, but there is no manual action and no known link buying | No. Look elsewhere for the problem |
| Rankings dropped and you are looking for a cause | No. Check for a core update or a technical fault first |
| A handful of odd links from scraper sites | No. Google can usually assess these on its own |
Those last three rows are where a careless file does the most harm. If your rankings fell and there is no manual action, our guide to why a website stops showing on Google is a better place to start.
Which links count as link spam?
Google’s link spam policy is the list to check against. Its examples include:
- buying or selling links for ranking purposes, including swapping goods or services for a link;
- excessive link exchanges, and partner pages that exist only to cross-link;
- links created by automated programs or services;
- advertorials, guest posts or press releases carrying links that pass ranking credit;
- low-quality directory or bookmark site links;
- links widely distributed in the footers or templates of other sites, or hidden in widgets.
A link that fits one of those, and that you or someone working for you arranged, is a candidate for removal and then the disavow file. A link that is merely ugly, from a scraper copying your page, usually is not.
Step 1: Check for a manual action
Open Search Console and go to Security & Manual Actions > Manual actions. If it says no issues detected and nobody has bought links for the site, a disavow is unlikely to help with whatever else is going on.
If you see an “Unnatural links to your site” action, Google’s recommended steps are to download your backlinks (Top linking sites or the Links report export in Search Console; exports from tools such as Ahrefs or Semrush can fill gaps), check them against its link spam policy, and start with the sites that link to you most or the links created in the last few months.
Step 2: Try to get the links removed first
For links that break its spam policies, Google’s manual actions guidance says to contact the site owner and ask them to remove the link or stop it passing PageRank, with rel="nofollow" or a more specific attribute such as rel="sponsored" for paid links.
Finding the right person is most of the work. Look for a contact page, an editor’s email or the address in the site’s privacy notice, and keep the request short: the page your link is on, the link itself, and what you would like done. Links on abandoned or spam sites often get no reply. Those are what the disavow file is for.
Keep a record of who you contacted and when. Google warns that “blindly adding all backlinks to the disavow file is not considered a good-faith effort, and will not be enough to make your reconsideration request successful.”
Step 3: Build the disavow file
The file is plain text, and Google rejects it at upload if it breaks a format rule, so check the list against this table before you start.
| Rule | Detail |
|---|---|
| File type | A .txt file, encoded in UTF-8 or 7-bit ASCII |
| One entry per line | Either a full URL or a domain |
| Whole domains | Prefix with domain:, for example domain:example.com. This also works for a subdomain |
| No subpaths | You cannot disavow a folder such as example.com/en/. List the URLs or the whole domain |
| Comments | Start a line with #. Google ignores it |
| Size limits | 100,000 lines (blank and comment lines included), 2 MB, and URLs up to 2,048 characters |
Here is what a small file looks like:
# Paid links from a 2023 campaign, removal requested 3 Oct, no reply
domain:cheap-links.example
domain:guest-post-network.example
# Two pages on an otherwise normal site, owner would not remove
https://blog.example.org/2022/04/sponsored-roundup.html
https://blog.example.org/2022/05/partners.htmlUse domain: when a whole site exists to sell links, or when one site links to you from many pages. Google suggests the domain: operator for exactly that convenience. Use individual URLs when the site is genuine and only a page or two is the problem, so you do not throw away the rest.
The comments are for you. Write down why each entry is there, because the next person to edit the file, possibly you in two years, will need to know.
Step 4: Upload the file
Go to the disavow links tool, choose the property and upload the file. Four details from Google’s help page catch people out:
- It does not work with Domain properties. You need a URL-prefix property, and you must be a verified owner of it. If you only have a Domain property, add one from the property menu in Search Console with Add property > URL prefix, using your site’s exact address, such as
https://www.example.co.uk/. - A new upload replaces the old list. It does not add to it. If you have disavowed before, download the existing file, add to it and upload the combined version.
- It applies per property, plus child properties. If you have separate http and https properties, Google says to upload a list for each.
- Errors show straight away. If the file has a problem, Google lists the errors and keeps your previous list in place until you upload a fixed one.
Once the upload succeeds, Google says it can take a few weeks to take effect, as it recrawls the web and reprocesses the pages it finds. If you are dealing with a manual action, file a reconsideration request in the Manual actions report explaining what you removed, what you disavowed and why.
How to change or undo a disavow
To change the list, upload a new complete file. To remove every disavowal for a property, open the disavow links tool, choose the property and select Cancel Disavowals. Google says that change also takes a few weeks to be reflected.
Undoing is worth knowing about in case a file went too far: a whole domain disavowed for one bad page, or an export of every link a tool scored as “toxic” uploaded without anyone reading it.
What about Bing?
Bing no longer has a disavow tool. Bing announced in September 2023 that it was removing the disavow links feature and its API from Bing Webmaster Tools in October 2023, saying it can now tell natural from unnatural links and discount the latter on its own. The backlink report stays, and Bing says link schemes, link buying and link spamming can still get a site delisted. So the clean-up steps above still apply for Bing; there is simply no file to upload.
Mistakes that do more damage than the links
- Disavowing on a tool’s toxicity score. “Toxic backlinks” is a label made up by third-party SEO tools, and Google’s disavow guidance does not use it. Google said in its December 2022 link spam update that its SpamBrain system works to neutralise the impact of unnatural links, which is why most sites never need to disavow backlinks at all.
- Uploading a partial file. Because each upload replaces the last, a short new file silently removes everything in the old one.
- Disavowing whole domains of good sites because one page linked oddly. You lose every useful link from that site too.
- Using a disavow to explain a ranking drop. Without a manual action, look first at content, competition, core updates and technical faults.
- Skipping removal requests when there is a manual action. Google expects a good-faith clean-up before the disavow file.
What to do next
Check the Manual actions report today. If it is clear, you very likely do not need a disavow file, and your time is better spent on the guides to spammy backlinks and links that earn their place.
If you do have a manual action, or you know a previous agency bought links, our link audits and disavow reviews work through the links one by one before anything goes in a file. If you are not sure where the problem is, send your address for a free SEO audit, which tells you where the site ranks and what is technically holding it back.