Published:
Updated:
by Wayne Smith
Over a decade ago, uploading a disavow file to Google was considered a best practice. But much has changed in SEO since then—especially in how Google evaluates link quality and interprets link text to associate pages with keywords.
Search engines have long relied on the collective data of the internet—essentially crowdsourcing—to build and refine their search indices. However, with significant algorithmic advancements, the need for manual inputs like meta tags and disavow files has diminished for most websites.
When Google introduced the disavow tool, its algorithms were still evolving in their ability to detect spammy or low-quality sites and backlinks. At that time, manually disavowing links helped webmasters avoid penalties associated with manipulative link-building practices.
Today, Google’s systems are far more sophisticated and often ignore harmful or irrelevant links automatically. As a result, Google no longer recommends using a disavow file in most cases.
Disavowing Bad Neighborhoods
One of Google’s ongoing challenges has been dealing with link farms and sites that automatically scrape content. These low-quality or spammy websites were often prime candidates for disavowal.
Now, search engines use crowdsourced link graphs and behavioral signals to identify these "bad neighborhoods" without relying on manual disavow submissions. Such pages are typically easy to detect—they often feature scraped content, lack originality, show poor user engagement, and rarely earn backlinks from independent or authoritative sites.
Google even holds a patent for identifying networks of associated pages that webmasters use to place links shortly after publishing content — recent Patent 11,991,262.
In short, search engines no longer require a disavow file to recognize and disregard these low-value links. In many cases, such links are algorithmically devalued before the webmaster even discovers them.
Exposing the structure of a link bomb
Before Google introduced stronger link-quality and relevance validation, rankings could be manipulated through “link bombs,” where large numbers of external sites pointed to a page using anchor text for terms that did not appear anywhere on the page. The cumulative anchor text artificially increased Google’s assessment of the page’s relevance for those terms.
Today, entity-based search—Google’s shift toward understanding “things, not strings”—combined with layered AI relevance algorithms has virtually eliminated the ability to manipulate a page’s topic through external anchor text alone. However, the foundational principle behind this system remains: search engines still use external links as a form of crowdsourced relevance, validating which entities and topics the broader web associates with a given URL.
As reported by Search Engine Land: New DOJ exhibits reveal insights into how Google Search ranks content, Navboost, RankEmbed, and LLMs reshaping the future of search.
Keyword Anchor Text
Before entity-based search systems, anchor text could boost a keyword’s relevance for the target URL beyond what on-page factors—such as keyword frequency and placement—could support. Today, however, qualifing anchor text against relevant or salient query terms, which align more closely with the page’s topic or its underlying entity.
Edge cases still exist. For example, a sign-up page may have no clearly defined entity, since some content is hidden behind a paywall. In such cases, unusual external signals can influence perceived relevance, as demonstrated by incidents like Disney’s accidental exposure to black hat SEO campaigns. These are legacy cases in which the page lacks a clear topic and therefore require careful monitoring and management.
At-Risk Pages
Pages that rank based on legacy algorithms and do not have a clearly defined main entity are at higher risk for negative SEO than other types of pages. However, such campaigns generally increase visibility for queries the page does not intend to target rather than removing existing visibility.
Thin content or soft-404 pages also present Search Engine Risk Management issues -- In particular, soft-404 pages generated by site search can create vulnerabilities to manipulative links.