Not too long ago, John Mueller from Google blasted an agency for using a disavow file and now he is doubling down on that, adding on Twitter in response to disavow link services, saying, "Some people do things that they can bill, regardless of whether it's needed or makes sense."
Recently, Gary Illyes from Google reiterated his disavow advice saying at PubCon not to use it. He repeated that it hurts more than it helps for the most part.
John also added the other day on Twitter, "To be honest, anyone who does not know, should *not* use it. That's why the tool is not a part of the search console UI. That's why our messaging has been consistently to not use it unless you know there's an actual issue. To paraphrase: When in doubt, leave disavow out."
So stop using the link disavow tool unless you have a manual action.
Here are these new tweets:
Some people do things that they can bill, regardless of whether it's needed or makes sense.
— johnmu is not a chatbot yet 🐀 (@JohnMu) March 9, 2023
To be honest, anyone who does not know, should *not* use it. That's why the tool is not a part of the search console UI. That's why our messaging has been consistently to not use it unless you know there's an actual issue. To paraphrase: When in doubt, leave disavow out.
— johnmu is not a chatbot yet 🐀 (@JohnMu) March 8, 2023
Even with super bad links pointing to your site, don't disavow:
Ignore them. You don't need to disavow those links.
— johnmu is not a chatbot yet 🐀 (@JohnMu) March 14, 2023
Forum discussion at Twitter.