Have you recovered from Penguin using Google Disavow tool?

[Thaparian]

Has you website recovered from Penguin using Google Disavow tool? If so, after how many days?

I disavowed 5% of my backlinks, links from web directories with targeted anchor text. Awaiting results.

One of my small website recovered when I nofollowed the sitewide footer backlinks (from the websites I had access to).

Would like to hear your Penguin recovery story.

[goodroi]

I would also be interested to hear if people did anything to build good links after disavowing the "bad links".

[spunkle]

Impossible, penguin has not updated since the disavow tool was released. You can not recover from penguin until it updates.

[klark0]

- I've disavowed/removed about 800 links/60 root domains.

- Since getting hit in the May refresh, I've acquired new links like Dmoz, two PR7s at a .gov and a portal, mentions in Forbes and a few more.

No recovery yet.

[simonmc]

Webmasters are a very high priority to google when they are public facing but that seems to slip badly when actual action is required.

I think that there are a lot of people out there (not your everyday searcher as they use google maybe once a week and would not know any different anyway) that would not trust google with their daughter.

In the last year and a half, google has gone from highly respected to tread with caution. It´s will be interesting to see where they are without the support of webmasters in 2 years time.

[jimbeetle]

To the folks who used the disavow tool, just *how* did you use the tool? Did you simply upload a file, or did you take the steps Google recommended?

[bloard]

I do find it unfortunate that they give us the disavow tool, then we have to sit and wait for an unknown extended time frame for a penguin refresh to even see any possible results. So far there have been one or two penguin updates in 7 months. I submitted my disavow links within several days of the tool becoming available, and as I sit here it could be anywhere from tomorrow to next summer before we even have a penguin update for the tool to have any possible effect.

[seoskunk]

No recovery on <(") site but recovery on manual penalty due to disavow, each disavow file will be different but there are never any remarks in mine.

[Jez123]

<quote>To the folks who used the disavow tool, just *how* did you use the tool? Did you simply upload a file, or did you take the steps Google recommended?</quote>

I didn't take the steps that google recommended as they don't apply to all. The instruction was to upload the links and file reinclusion. My site was affected by penguin and is not a manual action so there was no point in a reinclusion request. Are you refering to anything else Jimbeetle?

[gerrigale]

I have heard both good and bad things about using this new tool , some are saying it brings attention to your site more than just lkeaving things alone but I guess if you have a huge problem already then it is most likely a good place to start.

[jimbeetle]

Are you refering to anything else Jimbeetle?

Yeah, the part where Google wants you to first get as many of the bad links removed before using the disavow tool. And then the part to use comments in the file to document your attempts at unsuccessful removal of the rest of the bad links.

[Jez123]

@jimbeetle: in my case it was spammy article directories that picked up an article that was written in 2006 (or 5 I don't remember) and has somehow ended up as public content. Most of them seemed to be owned by the same person just churning out duplicate articles on hundreds of sites. There was no way to remove any of those at all so I just said that in the disavow list. Some others I have no idea where they came from and again, seemingly no way to get rid of. Lots of others I managed to get rid of but you don't get to mention the sucesses, do you.

[jimbeetle]

so I just said that in the disavow list

Good, makes sense.

Lots of others I managed to get rid of but you don't get to mention the sucesses, do you.

You don't get to mention it directly, but Google can, and wants to, see it.

[Jez123]

My fingers are crossed but I am not holding my breath.

I know that probably most people think this but I really honestly believe that my site is one of the better ones in my niche. Most of my competitors have copied my products over the years but my site has always stayed a step or 2 ahead. It should be loved by google.

[Whitey]

< moved from another location >

From Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable...

It Works! The Google Disavow Tool Removed A Penalty
[seroundtable.com...]

Barry cites a post by Dixon Jones...

I have got a manual penalty lifted... which had a positive impact from a really bad place. There is no doubt that the site in question has not returned to previous levels from before the penalty... but then again it had a manual penalty for a reason!

I worked hard to remove the bad links - but was unable to move them all. So I documented the efforts in the disavow file and then gave time for the disavow file to take effect in the index. ...I was directly told in the re-inclusion email that I had a manual penalty which was now lifted. ...Now - many of the bad links still exist - but are now presumably disavowed - so causation v correlation seems strong. Plus - still nothing concrete - but look at who did a +1 on my initial comment ;)
[seroundtable.com...]

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 7:17 pm (utc) on Dec 20, 2012]

[Robert Charlton]

As Barry notes, the disavow tool is likely to work more quickly for a "manual penalty" than for a "Penguin link penalty" (which needs to wait for a Penguin refresh).

Mod's note: There was a consideration about whether to move Whitey's post to this thread or to start a new discussion. Clearly, we can't start a new thread for every success, so let's continue with experiences of using the disavow tool here.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

I wish I could disavow my G rated images out of Google's explicit safesearch feature too. No Google, the adult sites hotlinking my images have nothing to do with me! Wait, can I disavow a site that isn't linking but has my image urls on their pages ?

[diberry]

As Barry notes, the disavow tool is likely to work more quickly for a "manual penalty" than for a "Penguin link penalty" (which needs to wait for a Penguin refresh).

This is an important distinction. We've been linking Penguin and disavow together, and there may well be a lot of overlap, but not all Penguinized sites fit the criteria for using disavow*, and some sites not hit by Penguin might benefit from using disavow. Anyone recovering now, before there's been a Penguin update, probably had a manual penalty or some additional ranking issue besides Penguin.

*Lots of spammy backlinks, have received an unnatural link notice, have tried other removal methods first. Just being affected by Penguin is NOT the criteria.

[seoskunk]

No recovery on <(") site but recovery on manual penalty due to disavow

Dec 7, 2012


Its great when your ignored until a some so called expert confirms it....

As Barry notes, the disavow tool is likely to work more quickly for a "manual penalty" than for a "Penguin link penalty" (which needs to wait for a Penguin refresh).

Dec 19, 2012


Great to see to see my own words regurgitated

[seoskunk]

OK this one is mine for sure .....there will be a penguin update very shortly... maybe before the end of the year.

[fathom]

The disavow tool simply forces a nofollow on the links cited in your list... that you have deemed as unnatural or inorganic.

PENGUIN simply does that as well... forces a nofollow on links Googlebot deems as unnatural or inorganic.

Google disseminating information based on TRUE FAQ does not suggest you should use, or need to use, or you MUST use the disavow tool to revert a PENGUIN issue... they leave that up to you to decide... don't put words in their mouth though... Google has never EVER implied the tool will do anything for PENGUIN problems.

So ... the disavow tool is 100% worthless for a PENGUIN issue... FULL STOP!

[Jez123]

OK this one is mine for sure .....there will be a penguin update very shortly... maybe before the end of the year.

What makes you think that seoskunk? I hope you are right

[klark0]

The disavow tool simply forces a nofollow on the links cited in your list... that you have deemed as unnatural or inorganic.

PENGUIN simply does that as well... forces a nofollow on links Googlebot deems as unnatural or inorganic.

So ... the disavow tool is 100% worthless for a PENGUIN issue... FULL STOP!

Where's your evidence for any of this ?

[jimbeetle]

Google has never EVER implied the tool will do anything for PENGUIN problems

link [googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com]

Q: Should I create a links file as a preventative measure even if I haven’t gotten a notification about unnatural links to my site?
A: If your site was affected by the Penguin algorithm update and you believe it might be because you built spammy or low-quality links to your site, you may want to look at your site's backlinks and disavow links that are the result of link schemes that violate Google's guidelines.

[indyank]

If your site was affected by the Penguin algorithm update and you believe it might be because you built spammy or low-quality links to your site

If the spammy links were created by some spammer, should one use the disavow tool? The above quote actually seem to assume/imply that anyone using this tool is doing so because he was at fault in building those links.

Google is anyway supposed to be disregarding those link credits, isn't it? So how is this tool helping really for a penguin affected site? I can understand that it will help in case of a penalty.

so I really don't understand the need for using disavow tool for a penguin scenario, as explained in that blog post.

[diberry]

See, I read that as Google saying disavow is strictly for webbies who built significant amounts of unnatural links, which CAN be a Penguin issue but is not the only one.

Penguin definitely affected sites with clean backlink profiles, so it would not help those sites to use disavow. Might even make things worse. Penguin clearly deals with more "spam" issues than just backlinks. I mean, the old algo could deal with spammy backlinks and had been doing so for years - why build Penguin to do what's already being done?

[Lorel]

I had a client hit by Penguin due to a competitor buying junk links and pointing them at his site using his preferred keywords. I just disavowed 2 sets of sitewide links set up by my client's competitor. When you do sitewides you have to use a special command in the disavow file:
site:domain.com
I had to search for instructions on how to do sitewides as Google is very stingy with instructions. The first time I tried this it didn't take as I didn't do it right.
I'll report back here if I see any recovery.

[rish3]

I had a client hit by Penguin due to a competitor buying junk links and pointing them at his site using his preferred keywords. I just disavowed 2 sets of sitewide links set up by my client's competitor. When you do sitewides you have to use a special command in the disavow file:
site:domain.com
I had to search for instructions on how to do sitewides as Google is very stingy with instructions. The first time I tried this it didn't take as I didn't do it right.
I'll report back here if I see any recovery.

You might want to recheck that syntax. It's "domain:site.com", not "site:domain.com".

More info:
[googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com...]

[atlrus]

One could never know if the tool works, since it' not in a closed system.

Case in point, I had a website penalized (and got the unnatural links messages), but I said screw Google and did nothing - my website is almost fully recovered, "unnatural links" and all. So if you used the tool and your website recovered for some other reason, it's only natural (yet wrong) to assume that you recovered thanks to the tool.

Best way to look at this tool (or any other tool Google offers) is by asking yourself "Would Google really give webmasters a tool that would manipulate both the algo and results?"...

[PittyC]

The tool can and does work, but the scale of the problem plays a large part of success.

It is all very well disavowing the links being indexed today; but what of the links being found tomorrow that you have not as yet disavowed?

If there were a large amount of links built in previous months, they are going to continue to be discovered for some time.

The disavow tool is not a one time use tool; it needs to be continually added to. Addtionally, if you have a manual penalty then you need to be submitting fresh reconsideration requests.

<snip>

[edited by: Andy_Langton at 11:47 am (utc) on Feb 27, 2013]
[edit reason] No personal links, please - see charter [/edit]