A high spam score can make your website look untrustworthy to potential partners, advertisers and link-building prospects. Here is what spam score means and how to reduce it.
What is spam score?
Spam Score is a metric from Moz that estimates the percentage of sites with similar features that have been penalised or banned by Google. A low percentage is good; a high percentage suggests your site shares characteristics with spammy sites — such as thin content or a suspicious link profile. Like Domain Authority, it is a third-party estimate, not a Google metric.
14 ways to reduce your website’s spam score
1. Publish quality content
- Provide valuable, relevant and original content.
- Avoid duplicate, thin or auto-generated pages that offer little value.
2. Clean up your backlink profile
- Audit your backlinks in Google Search Console, Moz, Ahrefs or Semrush.
- Ask webmasters to remove clearly spammy links where possible.
- Focus on earning links from relevant, reputable websites.
3. Optimise pages without over-optimising
- Target relevant keywords, but avoid keyword stuffing.
- Make sure titles and meta descriptions accurately describe each page.
4. Improve user experience
- Make navigation clear, pages fast and the site mobile-friendly.
5. Use HTTPS
- Secure your site with an SSL certificate; secure websites are more trustworthy for users and search engines.
6. Remove hidden text and links
- Delete any hidden text, cloaked content or links that could be seen as manipulative.
7. Build a genuine social presence
- Engage authentically on social media; avoid fake followers or automated engagement tools.
8. Fix technical SEO issues
- Fix broken links, redirect chains and crawl errors.
- Add structured data correctly.
9. Check for malware and hacked content
- Scan your site regularly and check Search Console’s Security issues report.
- Keep your CMS, plugins and themes updated.
10. Reduce intrusive ads
- Too many ads or pop-ups hurt user experience and trust; reconsider their number and placement.
11. Add trust signals
- Include an About page, contact details, privacy policy and terms; show real authors and reviews.
12. Monitor brand mentions
- Keep an eye on mentions of your brand and respond to negative reviews professionally.
13. Run regular SEO audits
- Use Moz, Ahrefs, Semrush or Screaming Frog to find and fix issues early.
14. Follow search engine guidelines and use disavow carefully
- Read Google Search Essentials and Bing Webmaster Guidelines.
- Use Google’s disavow tool only if you have many spammy links you cannot remove — especially after link schemes or a manual action. Google already ignores most spammy links, so disavowing is rarely needed.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good spam score?
Moz groups scores into low (1–30%), medium (31–60%) and high (61–100%). Aim to keep your site in the low range.
Does spam score affect Google rankings?
Not directly — it is a Moz metric. But the issues behind a high score, such as spammy links or thin content, can hurt your SEO.
How long does it take to reduce spam score?
Changes appear after Moz recrawls your site and links, which can take weeks to months.
Should I disavow all low-quality backlinks?
No. Google ignores most low-quality links automatically. Use the disavow tool only for large numbers of clearly manipulative links or after a manual action.
