Google’s John Mueller answered a question about the Disavow Tool where someone was worried about how a steady stream of links that he said were accruing to the site but redirecting to another site, saying that they don’t technically link to the site.
The thing about that scenario is that there is no link from the spam site to their client’s site.
What is likely happening is one of these three methods:
- The spam site links to an internal tracking URL first
- It uses JavaScript to rewrite the link
- It uses a link wrapper
In all three scenarios there is no actual link to the other site. But, what could be happening is that the spam site is cloaking for Googlebot and actually showing a link to a legitimate site. In that case, the SEO does have a reason to worry. And that’s probably why he asked Mueller about dropping the spam site into a disavow file.
Here is what the person worried about the spam site asked (sans the spam URL):
“@johnmu.com
I know you’re not a fan of disavow files, but bear with me. A client is getting about 50 links/week redirecting to this kind of page a week. Should I include them in a disavow file, or nah? They technically don’t link to the site.”
If You’re Conflicted Then Use The Disavow
Mueller didn’t comment on the actual technical aspect of whether or not Google could see those links. He acknowledged that the SEO was uncomfortable and wanted to be safe.
He responded:
“If you’re conflicted and just want to be sure, it’s totally fine to set up & use disavow files. If you notice that the bulk of the problems are from a few TLDs, you can also disavow the whole TLD. The disavow file is a tool, not a religion :-). Most sites don’t need it, but that’s not all sites”
Sometimes you need to be sure and it makes sense to file a disavow “just to be safe” if there’s any doubt.
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Andrey_Popov
