Would you re-avow links in GSC after seeing traffic drop?

[ChrisRoark]

The issue is as follow:
1. On 13th of February, for the first time for this website, I disavowed several domains (by using the domain:example.com disavowing way in GSC Disavow Tool). All these linking domains looked very "spammy".

2. Several days later, I see a drop in organic search and average rank position in on decline (not massive, but still on a decline).

Several factors to take into account:
1. Google Update over the weekend - This was mentioned on several SEO blogs.
2. President weekend in the US - holiday in the US, so lower traffic.

Given that this happened this week, should I re-assess these domains and re-avow some of these links? Or is it too early to correlate this drop in traffic with disavowing links for the first time?

[tangor]

@ChrisRoark ... welcome to the forum!

If YOU had a reason to disavow, leave it alone. After all, you have the right to determine who comes to your site, even if it is just a link.

On the other hand, it is not your job to do g's job. Nuking the odd for g is a thankless and unpaid job.

Holidays are the worst time to make decisions regarding web traffic. Always have been.

[tangor]

Secondary note: If you nuked some links, it might take g a bit of time to address the issue. After all, they are world wide and it take a little time to distribute the info and some collateral damage might ensue.

[ChrisRoark]

Thank you @tangor+ for your reply.

I think I rushed in on this decision, especially as the traffic was climbing steadily and there were no issues with rankings.

[Wilburforce]

I think I rushed in on this decision

In my view, changing it back again after only a week would also be rushing. Apart from anything else, chopping and changing things like that is a signal to Google that you are trying to manipulate results.

As a secondary point (as Tangor points out), it usually takes a while before the effect of changes is reflected in Google results. What you are observing may be the effect of some other unrelated matter. With Google, wait-and-see is your best policy.

Google is generally pretty good at spotting and ignoring spammy links, but disavowing them is unlikley to do much harm, so my advice would be to leave it alone for now. The time to revisit the question is months away, not a week or two.

[JesterMagic]

"All these linking domains looked very "spammy"

Sounds like you did nothing to hurt your site. A very good chance Google had already marked them as spam.

[ChrisRoark]

Thank you @Willburforce

You are right with rushing to change and giving fake signals to Google.

And yes, everything takes time with Google, so the changes might take effect later on and this CORRELATION is not indication of CAUSALITY.