How Google's New Disavow Tool Will Change SEO
Bruce Rymshaw, October 16, 2012
As our own Chris Countey reported just moments ago, Google's Matt Cutts announced at #PubCon in Las Vegas earlier today that the world's most prominent search engine is releasing a "Disavow Links" feature within Webmaster Tools.
Formerly, the removal of damaging, low quality links from Google's consideration was a tedious and often difficult process. Going forward, removing such links (once they are located) will be a much less complex procedure and the tool is expected to be one of the most useful resources in the digital marketing industry.
The Disavow Links page, which is now live within Webmaster Tools states:
“If you believe your site’s ranking is being harmed by low-quality links you do not control, you can ask Google not to take them into account when assessing your site.”
The tool will utilize a new "disavow.txt" file, which will work similarly to the long-standing "robots.txt" and specific pages containing links (or even entire domains) can be added to the file and subsequently eliminated as a ranking factor.
While this tool has been rumored for quite some time and even hinted at by Cutts since July, the official announcement and debut of the new resource is a major leap forward for SEOs and is certainly going to impact the industry for the foreseeable future.
