Links report and the Disavow tool in Google Search Console: what they show and when to use them

The Links report shows a sample of the external and internal links Google found, not a full backlink audit. The Disavow tool is an advanced feature that Google ties to manual actions for unnatural links, so most sites should leave it alone. Open the report for top linked pages, top linking sites and top linking text; export it if you need more than the table shows; and decide about disavow last (Links report help, Disavow links help).

Reading the Links report

The report has two parts. External links are links to your site from elsewhere: top linked pages are your most linked-to URLs, top linking sites are the domains that link to you most, grouped by root domain, and top linking text is the most common anchor text. Internal links are links within your own site: top internally linked pages show where your own links point, and opening a page shows which pages link to it, which helps you find important pages that have few internal links.

You can export up to 100,000 rows as CSV or Google Sheets, with Latest links or More sample links, while a single table on screen goes up to 1,000 rows.

A sample, not a complete list

The report is a sample and not comprehensive. It shows links Google has found over time, so a link you removed may still appear and a new one may be missing; it also does not say whether a link is nofollow. Where are all my backlinks, then? Not in this report, and no single tool lists every link. Treat the report as direction for investigation rather than as an audit result. For your own site’s links, the workspace has a link crawl, which complements the report’s view of what Google found and is the right place to look for broken internal links.

Should you disavow?

Usually not. Google calls the Disavow tool an advanced feature that can harm performance if used incorrectly, and says to use it if you have a manual action for unnatural links or think one is coming, for example because of paid links or other policy violations. It is not routine hygiene, and Google does not recommend it as general advice about spammy links.

If you do need it, the file is a .txt in UTF-8 or 7-bit ASCII, with one URL or domain per line, domain: before a domain to disavow all of it, and # for comments. At most 2,048 characters per URL, 100,000 lines and 2 MB; you cannot disavow a subpath. Only a property owner can upload it, the tool does not support Domain properties, and the list applies to the property you upload for and its child properties, so http and https each need their own. It can take a few weeks for Google to reprocess pages and use your list. To undo it, upload a new file to replace the old one or use Cancel Disavowals to remove all disavowals for the property.

Which links break the rules?

Google’s spam policies name buying or selling links for ranking, excessive link exchanges and automated link creation as violations (spam policies). Such links are fine if they are qualified with rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored". So do not buy links for ranking, and qualify advertising links. If a manual action does arrive, the article on manual actions and removal walks through the review steps.

Go further

FAQ: manual actions and removal: What a manual action is and how to request a review. Docs: advanced analysis: Including the workspace link crawl. Glossary: backlink audit: The concept in one place.