The verdict
If you have a real reason to disavow, the file is the easy part, and still the place it most often goes wrong. It is a plain text list, one URL or domain per line, and every upload replaces the one before. The two mistakes that do damage are domain lines nobody checked and a new file quietly wiping out an old one.
I almost never recommend a disavow file now. When one is justified, it is because there is a manual action for unnatural links, or because a business knows it bought links that are still live and cannot get them removed. In both cases the file has to be right, because there is no feedback afterwards to tell you it was wrong.
The format
Google’s disavow documentation is short and strict.
- A plain text file. Encoded in UTF-8 or 7-bit ASCII, with a name ending in .txt.
- One entry per line. Either a full URL, or a whole domain written with the prefix
domain:. - Comments allowed. Any line starting with
#is ignored by Google and is for you. - Limits. 100,000 lines, including blank and comment lines, and 2MB.
A small one looks like this:
# Paid placements from a 2021 campaign. Removal requested, no reply.
domain:example-directory.com
https://example.com/2021/best-plumbers-in-town/
https://example.net/sponsored/roof-repair-guide/The two decisions that actually matter
URL or domain. A domain: line throws away every link from that site, including any genuine one. Use it only when the whole site exists to sell links. Where a site gave you one paid link and one real mention, list the paid URL and leave the domain alone. It is one of the commonest ways a disavow file removes something that was helping.
Replace, not add. Google is explicit: “Uploading a new list for a property will replace any existing list for that property.” If somebody uploaded a file two years ago, a new upload deletes it. Download the existing list first, merge, then upload the merged version. If the new file has errors, Google keeps the old one, which is the only safety net there is.
Three practical details
- Domain properties are not supported. The tool works on a URL-prefix property. If Search Console only has a domain property, add the https version of the site as a URL-prefix property first.
- It takes weeks. Google says it “can take a few weeks” to incorporate a list. Nothing confirms when it has.
- Google’s own warning applies. It calls the tool “an advanced feature” that “can potentially harm your site’s performance” if used incorrectly.
Use the comments as a record
A line with no comment is a decision nobody can explain later. I write the reason and the date above each group: which campaign, when removal was requested, whether anyone replied. If the file is part of answering a manual action, that record is most of what the reconsideration request needs, because Google asks you to explain the issue, the steps taken and the outcome.
Removal comes before any of this. I have written up how to ask for a bought link to be taken down separately. And whether you should be building a file at all is the earlier question, set out in when a disavow file is worth using at all.
The short version
- Plain text, one entry per line. UTF-8, .txt, comments start with #.
- 100,000 lines and 2MB at most.
- Use domain: only for sites that exist to sell links. Otherwise list the URL.
- Every upload replaces the last. Download, merge, then upload.
- URL-prefix property only, and weeks to take effect.
- Comment every group with a reason and a date. It doubles as the reconsideration record.
If a site should be ranking and it isn’t, that’s the work I do. Link building covers the off-site half, including when to clean up and when to leave a profile alone.
