Advanced SEO
📅 February 26, 2025
⏱️ 9 minutes read

Cleaning Up a Mess: How to Disavow Bad Backlinks on a Newly Acquired Domain

You did your due diligence and acquired an expired domain with strong authority and a mostly clean history. However, no domain is perfect. Upon closer inspection, you've found a handful of spammy, low-quality backlinks that you'd rather not have associated with your new project. While Google's algorithm is smart enough to ignore most spammy links, in some cases, you may want to proactively tell Google, "Don't count these links against me."

This is where the Google Disavow tool comes in. It's a powerful, advanced feature that allows you to submit a list of domains or pages that you want Google to disregard when assessing your site. This guide will walk you through when to use this tool, how to create a disavow file, and how to submit it correctly.

A Crucial Warning: Use This Tool with Extreme Caution

Before we begin, it's essential to understand Google's own warning about this tool. The Disavow tool is an advanced feature and should only be used with caution. If used incorrectly, you can harm your site's performance. Disavowing the wrong links can damage your authority.

For a newly acquired expired domain, you should only use this tool if you are confident that the domain has a number of spammy, artificial, or low-quality links that you believe might be causing a problem, or if you suspect it has a manual action penalty for unnatural links.

Step 1: Auditing Your Backlinks and Creating a Disavow List

The first step is to conduct a thorough backlink audit to identify the toxic links you want to remove. You'll need a tool like Ahrefs, Moz, or Semrush for this.

  • Export Your Backlink Data: Download a complete list of your domain's referring domains into a spreadsheet.
  • Identify Toxic Link Candidates: Go through the list and flag any domains that are clearly spammy. Look for common red flags like foreign language sites (if irrelevant), domains with spammy names (e.g., `free-seo-links.xyz`), low-quality directories, or sites from "bad neighborhoods" (gambling, adult, etc.).
  • Make the Right Choice: Disavow the Domain, Not the Page. When you find a bad link from a spammy site, it's almost always better to disavow the entire domain rather than just the single URL. If one page on the site is spammy, the whole site is likely low-quality. This prevents any other links from that site from harming you in the future.

Your end result should be a simple list of the domains you want to disavow, for example: `spamwebsite.ru`, `bad-seo-directory.info`, `linkfarm.xyz`.

Step 2: Formatting Your Disavow File

Google has very specific formatting rules for the disavow file. It must be a simple text file (`.txt`) encoded in UTF-8 or 7-bit ASCII.

The format is simple:

  • To disavow an entire domain (recommended): Add a line starting with `domain:` followed by the domain name. Example: `domain:spamwebsite.ru`
  • To disavow a specific page (rarely used): Simply paste the full URL of the page.
  • You can add comments: Any line that starts with a pound sign (`#`) will be ignored by Google. This is useful for keeping your file organized.

Example Disavow File:

Open a plain text editor (like Notepad on Windows or TextEdit on Mac) and create your file. It should look something like this:

`# List of spammy foreign domains identified during audit on 2025-09-08`
`domain:spamwebsite.ru`
`domain:chinesespam.cn`

`# Low-quality web directories`
`domain:bad-seo-directory.info`

Save this file on your computer as `disavow.txt`.

Step 3: Submitting the File to Google

With your `.txt` file ready, it's time to submit it to Google.

  1. 1. Go to the Google Disavow Tool page: `https://search.google.com/search-console/disavow-links`
  2. 2. Select the correct property (your newly acquired domain) from the dropdown list. Ensure you have already added and verified the domain in Google Search Console.
  3. 3. The tool will show you another strong warning. Acknowledge it to proceed.
  4. 4. Click the button to upload your disavow list. Select the `disavow.txt` file you created.
  5. 5. Google will process the file. If there are any formatting errors, it will alert you. If the file is correct, it will be submitted.

What Happens Next? Be Patient

Submitting a disavow file is not an instant fix. It is a "hint" to Google, not a command. It can take several weeks or even months for Google to re-crawl the web and for the disavowed links to be fully ignored. You will not see an immediate change in your rankings or metrics.

If you ever need to add more domains to your disavow list, you must download the existing list, add the new domains to the file, and then re-upload the complete file. Uploading a new file will overwrite the old one.

Conclusion: A Necessary Tool for a Clean Slate

The Disavow tool is your final line of defense when cleaning up a newly acquired domain's history. While Google's algorithm is smart, proactively disavowing the most egregious and spammy links can give you peace of mind and ensure your new project is built on the cleanest possible foundation. It's a powerful tool that, when used carefully and correctly, helps you fully control your backlink profile and protect your site from the ghosts of its past.