TL;DR
This article provides a comprehensive guide on how to use Ahrefs to manage and create a disavow file for Google. While there is no direct button to perform an ahrefs upload disavow file action to Google within the tool itself, Ahrefs is the premier platform for identifying and formatting these files. The guide details the process of auditing your backlink profile to find toxic links, adding them to the disavow list within the Ahrefs dashboard, and exporting the final file. We explain the critical difference between using ahrefs disavow links features for management versus the actual submission in Google Search Console. The article also covers best practices for identifying spam, avoiding common pitfalls like disavowing good links, and when to use this advanced feature. By following these steps, site owners can protect their rankings from negative SEO and low-quality spam.
If you’re auditing backlinks in Ahrefs and find a large number of suspicious links, you may naturally search for an Ahrefs disavow tool or wonder how to disavow links directly inside Ahrefs.
There is an important distinction to understand first:
Ahrefs can help you find, analyze, filter, and export backlinks, but Google’s Disavow Links tool is where you submit a disavow file.
Ahrefs itself does not provide a Google-equivalent disavow submission tool. Its backlink reports can be used to investigate potentially problematic links and prepare the URLs or domains you want to review. Ahrefs also provides filters for identifying low-quality or known spammy links.
Google, meanwhile, treats disavowal as an advanced feature and recommends using it cautiously. In most cases, Google can ignore many unnatural or low-quality links without additional action from a site owner.
So the practical workflow is:
Ahrefs → investigate backlinks → create your disavow list → Google Search Console → submit the file
Let’s look at how that works.
What Does Disavowing a Backlink Mean?
Disavowing a backlink means telling Google that you don’t want certain backlinks to your website to be taken into account when evaluating your site.
It is different from actually deleting a backlink.
For example, suppose another website has placed a suspicious link to your domain. You generally cannot remove that link yourself because you don’t control the referring website.
You can first contact the website owner and request removal. If the links are genuinely problematic and cannot be removed, Google provides the option to submit a disavow file containing specific URLs or domains.
This distinction matters because:
- Link removal means the backlink is actually removed from the referring website.
- Disavowal tells Google not to take specified links into account.
- Ahrefs filtering only changes what you see in Ahrefs; it does not remove or disavow the backlink on Google’s side.
That last point is one of the most common sources of confusion.
Does Ahrefs Have a Disavow Tool?
Not in the same sense as Google’s Disavow Links tool.
You may see searches such as:
- Ahrefs disavow
- Ahrefs disavow links
- disavow links in Ahrefs
- Ahrefs upload disavow file
- setup disavow Ahrefs
- import disavow Ahrefs
These searches often come from people trying to figure out how to move from backlink discovery to disavowal.
Ahrefs can be useful during the investigation and preparation stage, but the actual disavow submission happens through Google’s tool.
Ahrefs also doesn’t assign a universal “spam score” to backlinks. Instead, it provides different backlink metrics and filters that can help you investigate questionable links. Its current documentation specifically notes that DR, UR, or another single metric should not be used by itself to decide whether a backlink should be disavowed.
So don’t treat an Ahrefs label or metric as an automatic instruction to disavow a link.
When Should You Disavow Backlinks?
This is the most important part of the process.
Finding backlinks that look strange in Ahrefs does not automatically mean you should disavow them.
Google says most sites don’t need to use the disavow tool. Its guidance recommends considering disavowal when a site has a considerable number of spammy or artificial links and those links have caused, or are likely to cause, a manual action.
A backlink can look low quality without being something you need to disavow.
For example, don’t automatically disavow a link just because:
- The referring domain has a low DR.
- The website has little organic traffic.
- The domain looks unfamiliar.
- The link is from a small website.
- The website isn’t in your industry.
- Ahrefs labels a link as low quality.
- You don’t recognize the referring domain.
Instead, look for stronger evidence of manipulation or a link scheme.
Links that deserve closer investigation may include:
- Paid links created to manipulate rankings.
- Large-scale link schemes.
- Clearly artificial backlinks created by an SEO campaign.
- Spam links generated in large quantities.
- Links associated with practices that violate Google’s spam policies.
- A significant unnatural link profile connected to a manual action.
Google recommends attempting to remove problematic links before using the disavow tool whenever possible.
How to Find Potentially Harmful Backlinks in Ahrefs
Ahrefs can be useful for the first stage: building a clear picture of your backlink profile. For websites with large or complicated backlink profiles, a broader SEO audit service can also help identify technical and off-page issues that may need attention.
Open your website in Ahrefs Site Explorer and review the Backlinks and Referring domains reports.
Instead of immediately exporting everything and calling it a disavow list, investigate the links.
Look at factors such as:
- Referring domain
- Referring page
- Anchor text
- Link type
- Follow/nofollow status
- Traffic to the referring page or domain
- Context in which the link appears
- Whether the link appears intentionally created
- Whether multiple suspicious links come from the same domain
Ahrefs’ current Backlinks report provides filters for different link characteristics, including nofollow, UGC, sponsored, redirects and other backlink types.
Ahrefs also provides a way to filter known spammy domains through its Best Links settings. However, this should be treated as a starting point for investigation rather than an automatic disavow recommendation.
Don’t confuse “toxic” with “must disavow”
The phrase toxic backlinks is commonly used in SEO tools and discussions, but there isn’t a universal Google-defined toxicity score that means a link must be disavowed.
A more useful question is:
Is there a credible reason to believe these links are artificial or manipulative, and is disavowal actually necessary?
That question leads to a much better audit than simply filtering every backlink with a low metric.
How to Create a Disavow List Using Ahrefs
Once you’ve manually reviewed your backlinks, you can use the data from Ahrefs to create your list.
The basic process is:
1. Identify the backlinks you genuinely want to disavow
Don’t automatically include every backlink that looks weak.
Review the referring domain and the specific page where the link exists.
2. Decide whether to disavow individual URLs or entire domains
Google allows both individual URLs and domains in the disavow file.
For example:
https://example.com/spam-page.html
disavows a specific URL.
Whereas:
domain:example.com
tells Google to disavow links from that domain.
3. Compile the list in a text file
Your final list should be a plain .txt file.
You can add comments beginning with # to explain why certain domains or URLs were included.
For example:
# Artificial links identified during backlink audit
domain:example-spam.com
domain:another-example.com
https://example.com/specific-spam-page.html
Google requires the file to be UTF-8 or 7-bit ASCII encoded, use a .txt extension, and follow its specified file-size and line limits.
URL vs. Domain: What Should You Disavow?
This is another area where caution matters.
Disavowing a URL
Use an individual URL when the problem is limited to a particular page.
Example:
https://example.com/suspicious-page
This is more specific than disavowing the entire website.
Disavowing a domain
You can use:
domain:example.com
when you want to disavow backlinks from the domain as a whole.
This can be useful when the same domain contains many problematic links.
Google specifically supports the domain: operator for disavowing links from a domain.
Which is better?
There isn’t a universal rule that domains are always better or URLs are always better.
The choice depends on the evidence.
If only one page contains an artificial link, an individual URL may be more appropriate.
If a domain is consistently generating manipulative links and you have a clear reason to exclude the domain, domain-level disavowal may make more sense.
The important thing is to avoid unnecessarily disavowing legitimate links
How to Submit a Disavow File to Google
After creating your file, the actual submission happens through Google’s Disavow Links tool.
Google’s current process is:
- Prepare your .txt disavow file.
- Open Google’s Disavow Links tool.
- Select the relevant property.
- Upload your file.
- Check for any file errors.
- Submit the file.
Google notes that the disavow tool does not support Domain properties.
One important point: uploading a new list replaces the existing disavow list for that property. If you’re updating an existing file, make sure the new upload contains everything you still want disavowed rather than only the newly added entries.
Google Disavow File Format and Example
Google expects a simple text file.
A basic example could look like this:
# Links reviewed during backlink audit
domain:spam-domain-one.com
domain:spam-domain-two.com
https://example.com/suspicious-link-page
https://another-example.com/artificial-link
The # lines are comments and are ignored by Google.
For domain-level entries, use:
domain:example.com
Do not write:
example.com
if your intention is to use Google’s domain operator.
Google also states that you cannot disavow an entire subpath such as:
example.com/en/
The supported options are individual URLs or domains.
How Long Does Google Take to Process a Disavow File?
A disavow submission isn’t an instant change.
Google says that after a successful upload, it can take a few weeks for the list to be incorporated as Google recrawls the web and reprocesses the pages it finds.
That means you shouldn’t submit a file today and expect an immediate ranking change tomorrow.
Also, don’t assume that every ranking movement after a disavow submission was caused by the disavow itself. Search performance can change for many reasons
Can You Remove or Hide Links From Ahrefs?
This is where several of the keywords around “hide links from Ahrefs”, “remove links from Ahrefs”, and “Ahrefs how to remove a site from my dashboard” can become confusing.
There are three completely different actions:
1. Remove a backlink from the web
You contact the website owner and ask them to remove the link.
2. Disavow a backlink with Google
You submit a disavow file to Google.
3. Filter a backlink in Ahrefs
You change what Ahrefs displays in its reports.
The third option doesn’t affect Google.
Ahrefs provides filters that can help you focus on the backlinks you consider more useful or exclude certain domains from reports. Its Best Links filter can function as a kind of internal filtering mechanism, but Ahrefs explicitly distinguishes this from Google’s disavow process.
So if you hide a link from Ahrefs, you have not removed the backlink from the internet and you have not submitted a Google disavow.
Does Disavowing Backlinks Actually Work?
It can be useful in the situations for which Google provides the tool, but it should not be treated as a routine backlink-cleaning technique.
Google describes disavowal as an advanced feature and warns that using it incorrectly can potentially harm a site’s performance in Google Search.
Google also says that most sites won’t need to use the tool because its systems generally work to assess which links to trust.
This means the goal shouldn’t be:
“Find as many bad-looking backlinks as possible and disavow them.”
A better approach is:
“Identify links that are genuinely problematic, determine whether they create a real risk, attempt removal where appropriate, and use Google’s disavow process only when justified.”
Does Disavowing Links Help With Negative SEO?
Negative SEO is another reason people often start looking into disavowal.
A website may suddenly receive thousands of strange backlinks from unrelated domains, spam pages, or automatically generated websites.
That doesn’t automatically mean the site has been successfully attacked or that every backlink needs to be disavowed.
Google states that it works to prevent actions on third-party websites from negatively affecting your site.
Therefore, don’t react to a sudden increase in backlinks simply by uploading a huge disavow file.
First investigate:
- Where the links came from.
- Whether they are actually indexed or active.
- Whether they appear manipulative.
- Whether there is a manual action.
- Whether the links are connected to previous link-building activity.
- Whether there is a genuine reason to believe they pose a problem.
Common Disavow Mistakes to Avoid
Disavowing every backlink with a low DR
A low Domain Rating does not automatically make a backlink harmful.
Ahrefs itself cautions against relying on DR, UR, or a single metric to decide whether a backlink should be disavowed.
Treating Ahrefs’ data as Google’s judgment
Ahrefs and Google have different systems and datasets.
A backlink appearing in Ahrefs does not mean Google has evaluated it in the same way.
Uploading every “spam” link
Even if a tool identifies a link as spammy, investigate it before adding it to your disavow list.
Disavowing legitimate backlinks
Google warns against disavowing organic links.
Over-disavowing can create unnecessary risk.
Forgetting previous entries when updating the file
Uploading a new file replaces the existing list for that property. Make sure your new file includes the entries you still want to retain.
Expecting immediate results
Google says processing can take a few weeks.
Assuming disavowal deletes backlinks
It doesn’t.
The original link can continue to exist on the referring website and may continue appearing in backlink tools.
Google specifically states that disavowed links can continue to appear in the Search Console Links report.
A Safer Ahrefs-to-Google Disavow Workflow
If you’re working through a large backlink profile, use this sequence:
Step 1: Export or review your backlink data in Ahrefs.
Step 2: Group suspicious links by referring domain.
Step 3: Investigate the context of each suspicious link.
Step 4: Separate genuinely manipulative links from merely low-quality or irrelevant links.
Step 5: Try to get problematic links removed when practical.
Step 6: Decide whether individual URLs or entire domains should be included.
Step 7: Create a properly formatted .txt disavow file.
Step 8: Upload the file through Google’s Disavow Links tool.
Step 9: Keep a record of what you submitted and why.
Step 10: Give Google time to process the file rather than repeatedly uploading new versions without a reason.
This approach is much safer than treating backlink metrics as a simple “toxic = disavow” formula.
A thorough backlink review is often one part of a broader SEO services strategy. Regularly monitoring your backlink profile can help you identify unusual patterns, evaluate referring domains, and address off-page issues before they become larger concerns.
If you are reviewing your website’s overall SEO performance, SEO packages may include broader activities such as technical audits, on-page optimization, backlink analysis, and ongoing performance monitoring. The right scope depends on the site’s current issues and goals.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q.1 Does Ahrefs have a disavow tool?
Ans. No. Ahrefs can help you analyze backlinks, identify potentially suspicious links, filter backlink reports, and prepare data for a disavow list. The actual disavow submission is handled through Google’s Disavow Links tool.
Q.2 How do I disavow backlinks using Ahrefs?
Ans. Use Ahrefs to investigate and identify backlinks that may genuinely need to be disavowed. Then create a properly formatted .txt file and submit it through Google’s Disavow Links tool. You don’t submit the disavow directly inside Ahrefs
Q.3 Should I disavow all toxic backlinks in Ahrefs?
Ans. No. A backlink that appears low quality or spammy in Ahrefs isn’t automatically something you should disavow. Google recommends using the tool cautiously and says most sites don’t need to disavow backlinks.
Q.4 What’s the difference between disavowing a URL and a domain?
Ans. A URL entry applies to a specific page, while a domain: entry applies to links from the specified domain. Choose based on the extent and nature of the problem rather than automatically using one method for every backlink.
Q.5 How do I disavow backlinks in Google Search Console?
Ans. Create a properly formatted .txt file containing the URLs or domains you want to disavow, then upload it through Google’s Disavow Links tool. The tool is an advanced feature and isn’t available for Domain properties.
Q.6 Does disavowing a link remove it from Ahrefs?
Ans. No. Disavowing a backlink through Google doesn’t delete the backlink from the referring website, and it doesn’t remove the backlink from Ahrefs’ database. Ahrefs and Google are separate systems
Q.7 How long does a Google disavow take to work?
Ans. Google says it can take a few weeks for a submitted list to be incorporated as it recrawls the web and reprocesses relevant pages.
Q.8 Can I remove a disavow file later?
Ans. Yes. Google provides an option to cancel disavowals for a property. Google says removing the disavowal can also take a few weeks to be incorporated.
