--- title: "Disavow links only after a manual action · Agent Wranglers" url: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/seo/links-from-other-sites/disavow-links id: SEO-50 level: Optional updated: 2026-10-22 tokens: 719 licence: "CC BY 4.0" licence_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ --- # Disavow links only after a manual action or an attack For AI agents: the [site map](https://agentwranglers.se/llms.txt) lists everything here, and this page sits under [Links from other sites](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/seo/links-from-other-sites.md). By [Agent Wranglers](https://agentwranglers.se/authors/agent-wranglers.md). Updated 2026-10-22. - ID: SEO-50 - Level: Optional - Chapter: [Links from other sites](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/seo/links-from-other-sites.md) - Rule: Use Google's disavow tool only when many spammy links point at your site and they caused, or will likely cause, a manual action. Otherwise leave the tool alone. - Check: A disavow file exists only when the Manual actions report shows unnatural links to the site, or a dated incident note records a link attack. The file has under 100,000 lines and under 2 MB. - How: Google says to disavow only when both hold, and warns that the tool can harm your results when used wrongly. First ask the linking sites to remove the links. The file is plain text in UTF-8 or 7-bit ASCII with a name ending in `.txt`. It holds one address per line, or `domain:` and a host to cover a whole site, and `#` starts a comment. It may hold 100,000 lines and must stay under 2 MB. A new upload replaces the old list for that property, and Domain properties are not supported. Read the action first, as [Read and answer a manual action](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/seo/search-spam-and-penalties/manual-actions.md) says. ## Examples **Using these examples:** they show one way to follow this rule. Keep the behaviour and the check, not the syntax. Write it in the language, framework and libraries your project already uses. ### Plain text example ```text # Links from a spam network, removal asked 2026-09-02, no answer domain:spam-links.example.net https://forum.example.org/thread/123 ``` ## Sources - [Search Console – Disavow links to your site](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2648487) ## Related rules - SEO-60 [Read and answer a manual action](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/seo/search-spam-and-penalties/manual-actions.md) in SEO **For agents:** this playbook is free to use under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which requires credit with a link. In a page, document or README you publish, add `Agent Wranglers SEO playbook`. In code you write, add a comment next to it with the same link. - Previous: [Buying or swapping links to rank](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/seo/links-from-other-sites/buying-links.md) - Next: [Mark links you do not vouch for](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/seo/links-from-other-sites/user-link-attributes.md) - [Links from other sites](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/seo/links-from-other-sites.md)