{"id":179248,"date":"2024-08-29T08:34:32","date_gmt":"2024-08-29T13:34:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/?p=179248"},"modified":"2024-08-29T08:34:37","modified_gmt":"2024-08-29T13:34:37","slug":"toxic-backlink-disavowal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/toxic-backlink-disavowal\/","title":{"rendered":"I Disavowed \u201cToxic Backlinks\u201d: Here\u2019s What Happened"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
On July 26th 2024, I exported all \u201ctoxic\u201d and \u201cpotentially toxic\u201d backlinks to three of our blog posts from a well-known SEO tool. There were 129 URLs in total, which I disavowed in Google Search Console.<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Disavowing<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After disavowing, traffic (as reported by GSC) fell by 7.1%<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Traffic<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Sidenote.<\/div> Google began rolling out a Core Update on August 15th, which is why I cut the experiment short to only 20 days. My plan was to leave it running for a full month, but I think just shy of three weeks is enough time to see results anyway.<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Before disavowing, according to GSC, traffic to these posts was trending slightly<\/em> upward:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After disavowing? Slightly downward:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

However, Ahrefs\u2019 organic traffic estimates tell a slightly different story. Visibility is trending slightly downward before<\/em> disavowing\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2026 and after<\/em> disavowing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I asked Patrick Stox how he\u2019d interpret this. Here\u2019s what he said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

I would personally look at Ahrefs data here. Average search volume in Ahrefs will show if it impacted rankings and visibility, although our data may be slower to update than GSC. GSC can have seasonality, luck, etc. involved, so it\u2019s not as consistent of a measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>

\"Patrick<\/div>
Patrick Stox,<\/span> Product Advisor & technical SEO Ahrefs<\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Makes sense. In this case, it looks like disavowing had little to no impact on rankings\/visibility overall<\/strong>. But let\u2019s take a closer look at the data\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n

Contents<\/div><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Test pages<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The data above is for all three pages combined, so let\u2019s take a look at what happened to each page individually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n