John Mueller, senior search analyst at Google, said on X that the disavow link tool will eventually have to go away. This was his response when asked last May if Google would follow Bing’s move to remove its disavow tool or keep it as an option for those who have a manual action against their site.

Google regards its disavow link tool as an advanced feature that must be used cautiously. The search giant warns that incorrect use of the tool can negatively affect a website’s performance in Google Search. 

Interest in the fate of the disavow tool developed as the SEO community discussed the proper time to use it. 

In response to another post on X, Mueller said:

“We’ve touched on this over the years… If you have a manual action for link-spam, or if you’re certain you’ll get one when someone looks, then disavowing can make sense. Most spammy / paid / placed / swapped links are just ignored nowadays. It’s rare you’d need it.”

He also warned against SEO tools that require users to clean up toxic links regularly:

“In particular, the disavow links tool is not something you’d *ever* need on a regular basis. I’d consider it a big red flag if any SEO tool reported on “toxic links” and suggested you need to clean it up regularly – that’s been wrong for many years now. Don’t fall for it.”

A few days after his prediction about Google’s disavow link tool, Mueller, who announced on the Google blog that, effective July 5, Google will not index websites that do not load on mobile devices, reiterated in his response to a question on Reddit his dislike of tools that prompt users to remove toxic links:

“The concept of toxic links is made up by SEO tools so that you pay them regularly.”

However, he later updated it and advised the OP to “save yourself the effort” instead.