When Google Disavow made its first début, there were lots of waves being made about what this could mean for the future of link building and SEO. In the following weeks, much discussion was had on the benefits and drawbacks of the tool, with a wide variety of stories and experiences on how Disavow had worked (or had not worked) for their specific needs. Seeing as how the Disavow tool has been in circulation for many months now, we want to explore the insights and benefits any blogger or site owner can expect from its use. Below, we’ve outlined four specific insights that adequately summarize Google Disavow’s first few months.

Disavow Works, Is Not Negative

Many people in the SEO have expressed negative feelings about using the Google Disavow tool, with many feeling that pinging links for removal can negatively impact their search rankings. There certainly are instances in which this could happen, but they relate solely to when abuse of the Disavow system is occurring. If you have received an unnatural link notification or otherwise need to remove multiple links from your profile, then the system will not fault you for that. As long as they are legitimate requests, any number of Disavow requests can be submitted without negative consequences for your site.

How Long to Expect

Anyone who has used Google Disavow in the past knows that responses and actions are not instantaneous, but just how long should be reasonably expect for a resolution in any request? In many cases, it can take anywhere from two to three weeks to get a response from Google on a Disavow request, and may take up to six weeks to have your rankings modified. Over the past several months, the wait time for responses and resolution has increased – presumably due to an influx of requests from Google users.

Understanding What Google Does

In many cases, site owners have engaged in forms of link building that are no longer beneficial to their brands. It makes sense that these links will need to be removed, but all too often, owners will make excuses that these are still valuable links, that they go to high PR sites, or that the site is relevant to the subject. If Google has sent you any prior notice of unnatural links, then it is very much aware of the good and bad links on your site. By being honest about your links, you can rectify potentially negative situations by removing these questionable links. Even if lots of work once went into achieving them, they very well could be holding you back today.

Disavow Boosts Link Profiles

Whenever a reconsideration request is submitted, a near universal response comes from Google: complete crawling of your website’s pages. Much like pinging links to Google gets you added attention in search results, a Disavow request will result in a complete indexing of your website by Google – done under the guise of determining whether a reconsideration request is valid. If your site has addressed key issues such as bad links, then you site will have its reputation restored and be fully indexed for search queries.