Question about spammy links and the use of Google disavow tool

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

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  john matthew: hi there, could you provide me URL of the page you having 66 links? and what tool did you use to verify if those links are Spammy? and those links really exist in Google webmaster ?before changing the or creating new page!
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  Alba SEO Services: Hi,
  
  This is where the links are supposed to come from: ;ivfworksprogram.com.
  In google webmaster it says that I have 66 links pointing to one page and they are all from this url.
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  Ranu Jain: By Disavowing links we tell Google not to consider certain links and not to count them. ;
  
  So when you disavow them, it does not remove the links to your site, thus the no. of backlinks remain the same.
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  Alba SEO Services: Yes, I understand, but the page is still ranking poorly so not sure Google has ignored them! How can you tell?
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  Ranu Jain: Yes, ;Google says it still takes several weeks until the disavow request is processed. So it may take time to retain the rankings back. ;
  
  Also, ; ;you may have to wait until the next time Google runs your site against whatever part of its algorithm hit you.
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  Greg Baka: The 66 "spammy looking" links provided very little link power to your page because they were all weak. So you had something like this:
  66 x .002 = .132
  
  Then you did a Disavow and basically told Google to not count those links either for or against your page. Essentially you gave them a strength of zero, and changed your page's equation to this:
  66 x .000 = 0
  
  There's not much difference between .132 and 0, so you page is still buried in the search results.
  
  You need to add some GOOD links now to get the page's rank to improve.
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  Alba SEO Services: Thank you. Is there a particular tool to use or you recommend to analyse spammy links?
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  Ashish Ahuja: There may be many other factors for the page not ranking properly that than those 66 links. Also, using disavow tool too frequently can even harm your website http://www.seroundtable.com/google-disavow-tool-harm-17327.html. You need to check in webmaster tools if there is any manual action taken on your website otherwise you may not need to disavow those links.
  
  Also, for checking spammy links I use Majestic Seo and check for low CF TF links
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  Alba SEO Services: Thanks
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  David Harry: Uhm yea... disavow is more about manual penalties and the ol Penguin.
  
  A. Manual action; you'd know via webmaster tools (more here; ;http://seotrainingdojo.com/Blog/new-tool-finding-manual-penalties-from-google.html )
  
  B. Penguin - while it's debatable (?) you actually need to see the hit around a known Penguin refresh date. If you believe you've been hit, then indeed use the disavow for the one's that are suspect.
  
  "Is there a particular tool to use or you recommend to analyse spammy links?"
  
  Only Google knows. Let's just say this; if you don't know the difference between a good link and a crap one, you might not want to be trying to assess this. Hire help.  ;I have reviewed/used most of the tools out there and none actually get it right. You need someone that knows what to look for.
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  John Britsios: David if you have a manual action notification, without removing as many links as possible physically the disavow cannot be as effective. For the Penguin Matt Cutts said that the disavow can help.
  
  IMO and experience I must add there that, to increase your chances to recover from the Penguin, removing links physically are necessary.