Earlier this month, we reported a case of someone removing all their links from their disavow file and then saying they saw a huge ranking benefit from doing so. Of course, there may have been other variables in that case, but still, it isn’t the first time I’ve heard of this.
In the Google Hangout yesterday with Google’s John Mueller, someone asked John if that is okay or are you setting yourself up for being reviewed as a spammer. The question was, can you safely remove links in mass from your disavow file. John said, you can do whatever you want, it is just a technical change and it doesn’t necessarily result in a manual review.
The question was at the 30:35 minute mark into the video:
John Mueller responded short and sweet:
So go for it, but of course, if those links hurt you, then removing them from the disavow file can cause some serious damage.
Here is the video embed:
Forum discussion at Google+.