Best practices with the Google disavow tool – confirmed

Ever since Google announced its Disavow Tool, we've had a lot of concerns expressed on the forum here about how best to use the tool to clean up backlinks, how to avoid collateral damage, possibilities of negative SEO with the tool, etc.

In a recent post on his blog, WebmasterWorld senior member pontifex (aka in real life as Ralf Schwoebel, and well-known to many here) shared some information he'd gotten from Uli Lutz, of the Google Search Quality team in Germany, covering some of these questions. This is the first official information I've seen on the subject, and I've gotten permission from Ralf (who has further cleared this with Uli) to pass it on. 



Questions Ralf asked included what source of backlinks to look at for disavow candidates, and could he accidentally hurt a friend or good source if he reported a link as bad. Summary of answers he got back (using his translation from the original German) are...
"I would concentrate on the links reported in the Webmaster Tools on Google"
"Do not worry about damaging other people, that does not happen"
"Be aware of the site-wide disavow possibility, it will make your life easier" have been the key sentences in his reply. I am thankful for such a definite answer and thought I’d share it here.

Additional information and blog post here...

Best practices with the Google disavow tool – confirmed 

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