What is Spam Score? how to reduce it 2026

Spam score and how to reduce it

Last year, MOZ, one of the most reputable SEO websites, published results that provide us with good information about what a spam score is. In this report, they examined numerous factors that may lead to a penalty or ban from Google. The result was a strong correlation among 17 factors, called spam flags, and, by converting them into a score, a spam score was created. In this article, we want to tell you more about this scoring and its uses. Stay tuned with us.

What is Spam Score?

Currently, Spam Score only works on subdomains of a site and is not active for pages or the main domain. Based on the experience of many SEO experts, spam links are usually created more on subdomains. Many reputable sites have a lot of spam links on their pages, but according to our research, the subdomain spam score can indicate potential risks more than anything else. So let’s see what the Spam Score’s use cases are and what information it provides.

What is the use of Spam Score?

The following are not all the uses of Spam Score analysis, but these are the most common uses MOZ has identified.

1. Check for spammy links pointing to your site: Almost every website has at least a few bad links pointing to it. But it can be hard to know how many or what percentage of those links are actually problematic. Do a quick spam analysis and see if there is anything to worry about.
2. Assessing Potential Links: This is one of the most important things MOZ believes SpamScore can be useful for. It’s still not going to identify every potential bad link this way. You’ll probably still need to use your common sense to do the right assessment, but as you’re looking at the list of links, you have a chance to see if these links are carrying a lot of spam flags and are a warning sign for your site.
3. Link Cleanup: One of the most confusing, complex, and tedious tasks is link cleaning. SpamScore may not find everything, but sorting the links yourself can make things much faster. Since SpamScore lets you filter links by various criteria, link cleaning will be much easier.
4. Delete folders: Again, SpamScore can’t detect everything perfectly. You’ll probably have to do some manual work yourself, especially if your site has purchased links on reputable domains. But it can greatly reduce the time it takes and help you list the worst cases and those that clearly need to be deleted.

To find out what the future holds for Spam Score, MOZ stated in this report that it is working to improve Spam Score so it can also calculate DA (Domain Authority) and PA (Page Authority). DA, or domain authority, is a score for websites given by MOZ that can predict each site’s ranking in search engines.

The importance of spam score in website SEO

Spam score is one of the metrics you should pay attention to because it provides you with two important SEO-focused pieces of information:

1. Your subdomains are likely to be spam.
2. The possibility of backlinks being spam

Both are very important in your ranking in Google results. On the one hand, you need pages that are not suspected of spam, and on the other hand, backlinks have a significant impact on achieving top rankings. That is why Spam Score is very important. In addition, this score provides a framework for the spam status of each page, so you know which pages may be penalized by Google.

What is the relationship between the number of flags and spam score?

The overall spam score is currently based on 17 different flags. Think of each flag as a “red flag.” These flags indicate that a site may be spam. In general, the more of these flags a website has, the more likely it is to be spam. The flags are designed to work together, so one or even a few won’t tell us much. It’s safe to say that many sites have multiple red flags. But not all of them are spam.

The table below clearly shows the exact relationship between the number of flags and the percentage of sites we found to have been penalized or banned by Google because of them:

In the table above, green sections indicate a low probability of being spam. The yellow section indicates a 10-50% chance of being spam, and the red section, which is at risk, has a greater than 50% chance of being spam. However, some materials do not fit into this category. For example, a small number of sites are recognised as spam by Google despite a few flags, while sites with a large number of flags are still not banned.

How to access Spam Score?

You can find the Spam Score from the MOZ website’s Link Explorer section, both at the top of the page and in the Spam Analysis tab. Of course, this section is currently only active for special users of this site. But in the future, its access will be opened to all users.

On the Spam Analysis page, you will see a list of subdomains or pages that link to your site. You can see the details by clicking on each line of the Spam Score. This section shows which flags were observed on your site. Note that this information is largely confidential and also important. Do not remove all links without proper planning and analysis. You may unintentionally lose your ranking in Google by doing so.

How is spam score calculated?

In fact, the spam score is calculated by the complex algorithms of the MOZ site. But in general, your site’s spam score is calculated by comparing it with other competing sites. Then, based on the dangerous signals the MOZ site has received in the past and the possibility of your site being penalised by search engines like Google, they arrive at a score out of 100 called the spam score.

This number is usually shown as a percentage. For example, if your site’s spam score is 7 out of 100 (7%), it means that %nt of your site may be penalised by Google. If your site’s spam score is between 1 and 30 per cent, your site does not have any particular problems, and its performance is good and acceptable. If it is between 30 and 60 per cent, you should be more careful with your site, but you will not encounter any particular problems yet. But if it is above 60 per cent, it has entered a dangerous range, and you should think of a solution for your site as soon as possible to reduce this number.

Spam Score Signals

Sometimes, your site may send signals to Google and search engines. This can increase your site’s spam score and result in a Google penalty. With this in mind, MOZ experts and specialists have identified 27 common causes that occur most often, so you can easily reduce your site’s spam score and improve its quality by reviewing them. Below, we will briefly introduce and explain these 27 cases.

• Small number of pages

Spam sites usually have a low number of pages, and if this is the case on your site, try to produce content quickly to fix this problem and prevent Google from confusing you with a spam site.

• Domain extension used

Be careful when purchasing a domain, as Google recognises some domains as spam sites, which can increase your site’s spam score. If your domain extension is one of the following and you also have a high spam score, take steps to change it.

• • .rest
  • .buzz
  • .gq
  • .tk
  • .fit
  • .cf
  • .top
  • .ml
  • .work
  • .ga
  • .cc
  • .pl
• Domain name length

Do not choose a long domain name, or Google will confuse it with spam sites and increase your site’s spam score.

• Using numbers in domain names

Another feature often seen on spam sites is the use of numbers; minimise their presence in your domain name as much as possible.

• Unusual fonts

Try to use authentic and common fonts as much as possible, because if the font you use is unknown to Google, it will consider you spam.

• Not using Google Analytics.

Spam sites don’t use Google Analytics, and if you don’t, you’ll be the same.

• Two-click advertising

Using two-click ads is a feature not usually found on spam sites, and using them shows Google that you are not spam.

• Contact Us Page

Spam sites do not provide users with contact information or communication methods. By including this feature on your site, you can easily separate yourself from spam sites.

• Linking to LinkedIn

You won’t find a spammy site linking to a LinkedIn page. Not linking to it is also one of the reasons Google identifies it as spam and increases its spam score.

• Email address

Spam sites do not provide email addresses to users.

• Using SSL

In simple terms, SSL means your site’s URL starts with HTTPS, which spam sites don’t use and is considered a positive, reliable signal to Google.

• Using keywords in meta tags

Excessive keyword use is an old SEO technique that is now obsolete, and a site that uses it will be identified as spam by Google.

• Site Visit Rank on Jumpshot

A site that has low visits in this site’s panel is likely to be identified as spam.

• Canonical relation

Using a non-local canonical tag is a sign that your site is spam.

• Title tag length and H1 heading

A title that is too long or too short is another sign that the site is spam and will increase the spam score.

• Meta description length

As the title suggests, long or short meta descriptions are another sign that your site is spam.

• Favicon or browser icon

In addition to spam sites, most non-spam sites don’t use this either. But you can pay attention to it to reduce your spam score percentage.

• Keyword length

Spam pages use keywords as tags and are long.

• Facebook tracking Pixel

No spammy site has this feature, and paying attention to it can easily reduce your spam score.

• The amount of outbound link usage

On spammy sites, there are either too few or too many external links per page. If you see this feature on your site, you should expect your site’s spam score to increase.

• Backlinks are given to your domain.

For spam sites, this rate is significantly higher or lower.

• Number of outbound links relative to content

Spam sites, for example, use multiple external links in a short piece of content. So if you are doing this in your content, fix it.

• Domain naming

On spam sites, you will see a domain with a lot of repetition of letters, which Google will recognise as spam.

• Using symbols and other marks in domain names

If you use symbols in your domain name in addition to numbers and unfamiliar fonts, you will cause your site to be identified as spam by Google.

• Length of URLs

The URL of spam sites is either too long or too short.

• The presence of poisonous words

Spam sites often have spammy topics within their site and use them. Using their words and phrases can increase the site’s spam score.

• Using CPC in internal link anchor texts

Spam sites, based on their topic, build internal and external links in the words mentioned in the previous section, which leads to your site being recognised as spam.

Final words

By reducing your site’s spam score, youare telling Google that your site is doing useful work and won’t cause disruption. If your site’s spam score is high, carefully review the 27 items listed and edit them if needed. In most cases, reviewing these 27 items will reduce your spam score; if not, talk to an SEO consultant.