SEOs have begun noticing that Google is showing links in Google Search Console that aren’t true links at all.  Rather, they are text URLs that are not even linked at all.  But Google is showing them in Search Console as if they are a true link, even though the actual hyperlink isn’t there.

With them showing up as links, there has been some question about whether these need to be disavowed or not, if they are a low quality link.  John Mueller from Google responded on Twitter to say that while they can pick up text links, if they don’t pass PageRank, no disavow is needed.

The question was then raised about these “links” and Penguin, and whether Penguin is somehow considering them valid links or applying penalties related to these links.  But Mueller confirms that since they do not pass PageRank as a regular link normally would, they do not need to be nofollowed or disavowed.

It does show that Google is recognizing URLs as such, even if they aren’t truly linked to the site in question.   But webmasters don’t need to worry about these un-linked URLs.  But if you are concerned that a webmaster could link them in the future, you could still disavow if you want to be sure.