On July 26th 2024, I exported all “toxic” and “potentially toxic” 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.

After disavowing, traffic (as reported by GSC) fell by 7.1%:

Before disavowing, according to GSC, traffic to these posts was trending slightly upward:

After disavowing? Slightly downward:

However, Ahrefs’ organic traffic estimates tell a slightly different story. Visibility is trending slightly downward before disavowing…

… and after disavowing:

I asked Patrick Stox how he’d interpret this. Here’s what he said:

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’s not as consistent of a measure.

Makes sense. In this case, it looks like disavowing had little to no impact on rankings/visibility overall. But let’s take a closer look at the data…

Test pages

This page was our SEO pricing guide.

For the 20-day period before the disavow, the post got 574 organic visits. This fell by 12% to 505 visits in the following 20 days (when the disavow was in place).

Before disavowing, organic traffic to this post was flatlining:

After disavowing, it’s still flatlining:

Ahrefs data tells a slightly different story…

Before disavowing, estimated organic traffic was trending slightly downward:

After disavowing, it’s flatlining:

Long story short? Disavowing might have had a small positive impact, but I believe it’s more likely that a long downward trend is just finally leveling off.

This page was our list of top YouTube searches.

For the 20-day period before the disavow, the post got 291 organic visits. This fell by 8.25% to 267 visits in the following 20 days (when the disavow was in place).

Before disavowing, organic traffic to the post was trending upward:

After disavowing, it’s trending downward:

Ahrefs’ data tells the same story…

Before disavowing, estimated organic traffic was trending upwards:

After disavowing, it’s trending downwards:

The results seem pretty clear: disavowing likely had a negative impact—especially with a big drop in estimated traffic around ten days after.

This page was our list of top Bing searches.

For the 20-day period before the disavow, the post got 156 organic visits. This grew by 12.82% to 176 visits in the following 20 days (when the disavow was in place).

Before disavowing, organic traffic to this post was trending upward:

After disavowing, it’s still trending upward:

Ahrefs tells a slightly different story here…

Before disavowing, estimated traffic was trending ever so slightly (it really is slight!) downward:

After disavowing, it’s the same story:

So, disavowing seemed to have little or no impact here…

What does all of this mean?

Is this a surprise? Not really. Google has been saying this pretty much forever:

That said, while the most likely outcome of disavowing is basically nothing, it’s definitely still risky. Disavowing “toxic backlinks” could tank your traffic, as this reply to John on Reddit illustrates:

Does this mean that disavowing is always a bad idea? No. If you already have a manual penalty for unnatural links or a very large number of manipulative links (e.g., paid links), then you should absolutely disavow. 

Google recommends this…

You should disavow backlinks only if:

You have a considerable number of spammy, artificial, or low-quality links pointing to your site,

AND

The links have caused a manual action, or likely will cause a manual action, on your site.

… and so does Marie Haynes:

There are two situations where we will recommend to our clients a thorough link audit followed by filing a disavow:

• The site has a manual action for unnatural links in GSC.
• The site has a very large number of links that we feel the webspam team would consider to be “manipulative”.

If that’s not you, then disavowing “toxic backlinks”—especially those reported by SEO tools—probably isn’t the best idea or use of your time. As Marie Haynes said, they’re unlikely to be truly toxic anyway:

I find that the truly toxic links…the ones that could have the potential to harm your site algorithmically are rarely returned by an SEO tool.

That said, plenty of SEOs don’t agree with this advice and are convinced that disavowing “toxic backlinks” helps. If that’s you and you’re seeing good results from disavowing, fantastic! Don’t let me stop you 🙂

For everyone else, it’s probably not the best idea…

This isn’t the first time we’ve studied this either. My colleague Patrick disavowed all links to these same three posts back in 2021—and traffic fell off a cliff:

We didn’t specifically disavow “toxic” backlinks here, but links clearly still help pages rank. If an SEO tool wrongly labels some of these helpful links as “toxic” and you disavow them, it could harm your traffic.

My advice? Spend your time improving your SEO, not disavowing “toxic backlinks” that might actually be helping you!

Got questions? Disagree? Ping me on LinkedIn (or X if you insist!)

This week’s Ask An SEO question comes from Carrazana in Cuba, who asks:

“How do you find the right, long-tail keywords for articles? I can not find the right keywords and long tail keywords for my post and articles. I use keywords everywhere.”

Great question, Carrazana! Lots of content professionals struggle with finding long tail keywords, and many worry about cross-over between posts, also known as keyword and topic cannibalization.

The way to find long tail keywords and prevent cannibalization is to change your mindset on needing keywords by article and incorporate non-traditional research tools. So, let’s solve this so it is no longer an obstacle for you.

I’m going to start by addressing cannibalization, then jump into using non-traditional keyword research methods like LinkedIn hashtags and strategies our agency uses to generate ideas for our clients.

One thing I’d like to emphasize is to not focus on keywords; focus on the topic, and providing the best possible user experience for the intent of the topic.

Cannibalization

Instead of thinking about the keywords that are needed, think about the topic that you’re writing for.

The same words and phrases could mean different things and have different intent based on the topic, even if they’re used in the same way. Not in the sense of a homonym or double entendre, but as in search intent.

The same phrase for the service should exist in multiple pages of content, including product or service pages for conversions, and in guides to help consumers learn more, decide where to purchase, or how to prepare. The difference here is the topic changes based on the intent.

On the conversion page, the phrase needs to reinforce that this is a page that the consumer can take action on. For a how-to guide, it is more informative and should help the consumer know how to do it themselves, prepare for the professional to come and visit, or learn how to hire the right person for the job.

Search engines are smart enough to know the intent of content and can show it as needed. This is why you want to have a clear intent when creating content.

If you sell apples, do not define what an apple is on your product or service page.

The person already knows; instead, define it on a blog post about “what an apple is.” The product or service page should be about the benefits of using the specific apple, like baking, eating it directly, or feeding it to specific animals as a treat.

Your blog posts can include definitions, guides, and comparisons of which apples are better for specific purposes and why, as well as other non-conversion-oriented content.

Both the product page and at least one guide will have “apples for horses,” but the intent is different.

One page clearly shows where you can buy an apple to feed a horse, while the other explains why that particular apple is better for horses, which may be its nutritional value or the way a horse’s tastebuds and body respond to the sugar or fiber content.

I’m making this up for the example; don’t take it as factual advice. You can deploy schema to let the search engines know when to show each page based on search intent.

Product and service schema goes on the pages where you want conversions, and article or blog posting schema can go on the guides and informative ones. The machine learning portions of the search engine will look at the associations around the text while other aspects read the schema to determine what the purpose of the page is.

Proper implementation and clear wording make the search engine’s job easy and reduce the chance of cannibalization. Now that you know how to prevent cannibalization, let’s go into finding long tail keyword topics.

Finding Long-Tail Keyword Phrases

Finding long-tail keyword phrases is simple when you step outside of the normal tool sets.  You have data points your competitors and third parties don’t have access to using customer data, and there are non-traditional places you can search.

Customer Support

Start by reading customer service and live chat transcripts. See if you can extract questions that mention specific products or services or by a category like blue t-shirts or red apples. With this information, you can see the words and language your customers are using, and how frequently.

These become long tail phrases for content on all forms of pages. You can also see the questions they have, reasons they return product, and recommendations customer support offers to guide them to the correct option to purchase.

These data points lead to sizing guides and comparison shopping content, articles about one fabric being better than another for a purpose like cocktail parties or running a marathon, and answer questions for the shopping and checkout process.

You may also find that these are questions being asked about your competitors like which of their models is similar to a specific product on your website.

You can create solutions on your site to bring in this type of traffic by answering their customers’ questions and optimizing your site for them via search.

LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, And Other Hashtag Sites

Social media sites that power part of their search and algorithm with hashtags are a goldmine of topics.

Go to LinkedIn and click on a hashtag like #SEO or #business. You’ll see how many people subscribe to it, how often it is used, and engagement on new content published within the hashtag’s feed.

If the hashtag is being used regularly and has engagement, look at the posts that exist within it. By knowing which gets the most comments, activity, and other signals, you can use them as a basis for new content on your own website.

As a bonus, they can be shared on these social platforms and hopefully get social media engagement too.

Bonus tip: The most engaged may only be engaged because the person or company that shared has an active following.  Look for three that are similar in topic and see if two of the three have engagement to determine if it has the potential for a bit of virality on social media.

Forums And Q&A Sites

Next, use forums and question-and-answer sites. Take a Reddit forum and plug it into an SEO tool like Semrush, Ahrefs, or Moz to see the keywords and phrases they’re ranking for.

You may find a lot of long tail that could be relevant to your own product or service offerings.

Then look at the specific threads showing up for these phrases and see if there are new long-tail keyword phrases being used by the community. This gives you insight into their mindset – compare it with your own live chat and customer service data.

Q&A Keyword Tools

There are some great tools out there to find long-tail phrases, like AlsoAsked.com and AnswerThePublic.com.  When you type a keyword phrase in you can see the ideas these tools come up with for topics to write about and the keywords the tools feel are related to the main topic.

Use Autocomplete On YouTube And Search Engines

The last tip is to use auto-complete on search engines, including YouTube. Once on YouTube, type in a portion of a phrase or a keyword and you’ll see it begin to autofill potential matches.

When there’s one that is relevant for your audience, click it and then look at the titles and descriptions from each video.

Many creators use chapters, and these chapters are what the content creator found to be helpful and relevant to the phrase. Each can become topics and phrases for you as well. Next, watch each video, listen to the wording and phrases the YouTuber uses, and read the comments section below.

You’ll learn the questions that weren’t answered in the video, the jargon users use, and find more content ideas as well as gaps you can fill in to bring new information into the mix. This same strategy applies to TikTok, Instagram Reels, and other video content platforms.

There’s no shortage of ways to find long-tail keyword phrases; the only limit is your own creativity.

As a content writer and SEO professional, you have tons of it! I hope this post helps you find more to write about.

More resources: 

Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal

For lead gen marketers, we know it’s not just about generating leads; it’s about attracting the right leads – those that are most likely to convert into valuable customers.

Value-based bidding is a strategic approach that allows businesses to focus on optimizing campaigns for conversions that truly matter.

We’ve seen value-based bidding work for online sales and brick-and-mortar businesses as well, but here we’re going to focus on using it for driving higher quality leads.

This is the first of five articles I’ll be sharing weekly to delve in deeper and build on each episode of our new video series on value-based bidding for lead generation.

As you’ll see in this first video below, each is short enough to take in over a quick coffee break.

We’ll start from the beginning and cover what it is and whether value-based bidding could be the right strategy to elevate your lead generation efforts in Google Ads.

The Power Of Quality Leads

Not every customer brings the same value to your business. High-quality leads are more likely to engage with your brand, convert into paying customers, and contribute to long-term business growth.

Value-based bidding is particularly beneficial for businesses that typically need to nurture relationships with customers between an initial online conversion and a final sale.

By focusing on quality leads, you can streamline your sales funnel, improve conversion rates, and ultimately boost your bottom line.

So how can you do that with value-based bidding?

Bidding To Value

Value-based bidding allows you to prioritize specific value goals that align with your business goals.

These goals could encompass sales, revenue, profit margins, or even the lifetime value of a customer.

With this strategy, Google’s AI uses billions of combinations of signals along with your first party data to identify conversions that are most likely to deliver on your defined value objectives.

It then optimizes bids to focus your ad spend on reaching those higher value customers.

The Basic Mechanics Of Value-Based Bidding

Value-based bidding offers two primary pathways to optimize your campaigns by bringing values into Smart Bidding:

• Maximize conversion value: If you’re working with a fixed budget, this option focuses on extracting the maximum lead conversion value from your campaign within the constraints of your budget.
• Set a ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) target: This option enables you to optimize for conversion value at a specific target ROAS to help ensure your ad spend generates a desired level of return. When you set a ROAS target, the system will optimize to find as much value as possible on average at your target. There are data thresholds to using target ROAS which we will cover later in this series, but this is the preferred strategy when you want to achieve specific ROAS goals and be able to respond dynamically to shifts in demand. Target ROAS is available for single campaigns or a portfolio strategy applied to multiple campaigns.

Value-based bidding will maximize the conversion value based on budget constraints and ROAS targets where applicable, so higher value customers will be prioritized over volume alone.

Keep this in mind when comparing target CPA performance, which optimizes for conversion volume irrespective of value.

While the emphasis will be on attracting high-value customers, it’s important to note that you might still see some medium to low-value customers depending on the dynamics of the ad auction.

When using ROAS targets, the higher your target, the fewer auctions your ads are likely to enter. In other words, ROAS targets are your lever to make your ads more or less likely to enter the auction.

Is Value-Based Bidding The Right Fit For Your Business?

Value-based bidding has seen success across a spectrum of industries, but whether it’s the right fit for you depends on your specific business needs and capabilities.

Before embracing this strategy, you’ll need to address these key questions:

Can You Assign Meaningful Values To Your Conversion Actions?

You are likely already differentiating your customers’ value in some facet, formally or informally.

You’ll need to set a concrete value to each conversion, whether through static proxy values like lead scores or dynamic economic values such as total profit. (We’ll cover proxy values more in the third article in this series.)

Do You Need To Strike A Balance Between Volume And Value Goals?

Bidding to value means your campaigns likely will not generate the same volume of conversions as they would using Maximize conversions with an optional target CPA bid strategy. This strategy is designed to return a higher total value of conversions. Bid simulators can help you to understand this tradeoff.

If you want to maintain a certain level of traffic, use the Smart Bidding bid simulator to help you gauge the optimal ROAS target that will yield your desired volume of leads while maintaining a focus on quality.

Lowering your target ROAS will increase your reach, and raising your target ROAS will decrease reach while seeking out higher value conversions.

Are You Able To Measure And Connect Your Value Data To Google Ads?

Access to accurate and comprehensive value data is a must for implementing value-based bidding effectively. To start, this means having proper site tagging to track conversions.

Feeding the right first-party data values into Google Ads is key to training the system to identify and differentiate predicted customer value for each auction.

If your value objective is sales value, for example, you’ll need to be able to measure and connect that data back to your Google Ads account. We’ll cover how to do that later in this series.

Reaping The Rewards Of Value-Based Bidding

The initial setup of value-based bidding typically requires some effort up front, but don’t let that intimidate you.

You can start with a more basic set up and adopt more sophisticated approaches that have more technical requirements, such as optimizing for margin or lifetime values for example, later if you wish.

Value-based Smart Bidding gives the system the flexibility to set each bid based on the predicted value of the conversion and target higher value conversions. Over time, it learns which users are more likely to be higher value and more profitable, then bids accordingly.

Bidding to find the most valuable customers can deliver incremental revenue uplift and profitability. Businesses that have found success with this strategy report a marked improvement in lead quality.

On average, advertisers that switch their bid strategy from a target CPA to target ROAS can see 14% more conversion value at a similar return on ad spend.¹

Beyond The Basics

While we’ve covered the foundational aspects of value-based bidding, we’re just getting started.

In the upcoming articles in this series, we’ll dive deeper into this strategy, including how to identify and leverage the right data and values for your business, and how to share your value information with Google Ads.

By aligning your campaigns with the conversions that truly matter most to your business objectives, you can optimize your ad spend, maximize your return on investment, and achieve sustainable business growth.

Up next week, we’ll talk about figuring out the right data and values.

^{SOURCE: Google Internal Data, Global, March 2021}

More resources: 

Featured Image: BestForBest/Shutterstock