A Moz metric estimating the likelihood of a site being penalized.
I know the sheer panic of seeing your website labeled with a high Spam Score—it feels like a digital scarlet letter.
This metric, popularized by Moz, acts as an early warning system, showing me characteristics that Google penalizes.
I will tell you what What is Spam Score? really means for your business and give you my 15-year plan for keeping it low and clean.
What is Spam Score? The Risk Assessment
Let us clarify what this score is: What is Spam Score? It is a metric that estimates the probability of my website being penalized by search engines due to spammy or low-quality practices, like having bad backlinks.
The score is typically a percentage, where anything above 30% signals a medium risk and requires my immediate attention.
While not a direct Google ranking factor, it mirrors the exact signals Google uses to judge my site’s trustworthiness.
Spam Score on Different CMS Platforms
My CMS choice impacts the factors that can raise my spam score, particularly related to technical health.
WordPress (WP)
WordPress sites often face spam score issues from poorly coded, low-quality free themes or too many outdated plugins.
I actively audit my backlinks using SEO tools and disavow (tell Google to ignore) any toxic, irrelevant links I find.
I also use security plugins to prevent my site from being hacked and turned into a spam source itself.
Shopify
Shopify generally handles core technical security well, but I must watch out for the quality of my external links.
I focus on ensuring all my product descriptions are unique and high-quality, avoiding thin or duplicate content that triggers spam flags.
I avoid using the same, exact-match keywords excessively in the internal links or product page titles.
Wix
Wix can be prone to “thin content” soft 404s, which can contribute to a poor perceived quality, raising my score.
I make sure I include clear contact information and an “About Us” page because spam sites often lack these trust signals.
I always use an SSL certificate (HTTPS), which is a key signal of site security and credibility that helps lower the score.
Webflow
Webflow’s clean code base minimizes many technical spam score risks, but content and link issues are still on me.
I maintain high editorial standards for my content, avoiding short titles or descriptions that can flag the site as low-quality.
I use a variety of anchor texts when I link out to other sites to avoid looking manipulative.
Custom CMS
For a custom CMS, I have my developers ensure that technical signals, like a favicon and the correct canonical tags, are present on every page.
I monitor the velocity of my backlinks, ensuring I do not get a sudden, unnatural spike in links that looks like a paid link scheme.
I also check that my internal pages have a balanced link ratio, avoiding pages that only link externally with no internal links.
Spam Score Application by Industry
I adjust my strategy to fight the specific spam risks that are common in my industry.
Ecommerce
Ecommerce sites must be very careful about receiving spam links from irrelevant, low-quality product review sites.
I prioritize earning links from reputable, in-niche blogs and established product review sites to balance my link profile.
I also ensure my product pages have enough high-quality, unique text, avoiding being labeled as thin content.
Local Businesses
A high spam score can destroy my local reputation, so I focus on building trust signals.
I concentrate on getting links from high-authority local business directories and local news sources.
I also check to make sure my business address and phone number are displayed correctly and consistently across all pages.
SaaS (Software as a Service)
SaaS companies need high trust, so a low spam score is critical for establishing expertise and authority.
I focus on publishing detailed, unique research papers or reports that naturally attract high-quality, non-spammy links.
I make sure my technical documentation is robust and does not contain any hidden or deceptive text.
Blogs
Blogs often attract comment spam and links from low-quality sites trying to capitalize on my content.
I use robust comment moderation tools and anti-spam plugins to automatically filter out low-quality comments and links.
I regularly check the ‘best by links’ report in my SEO tool to see where links are coming from and remove the bad ones.
FAQ Section: Your Quick Spam Score Answers
What is a good Spam Score to aim for?
I always aim for a Spam Score below 30%, which is considered the safe zone with low risk.
Ideally, I want to be under 5% to show maximum trustworthiness and health to search engines.
Does a high Spam Score mean I will get penalized by Google?
Not necessarily, but it is a giant red flag indicating that my site shares characteristics with sites that have been penalized.
I treat a high score as an urgent warning that I need to audit my backlinks and content quality immediately.
Can a competitor raise my Spam Score on purpose?
Yes, this is called negative SEO, where a bad actor points thousands of spammy, low-quality links at my site.
I fight this by regularly checking my backlink profile and using Google’s Disavow Tool to tell Google to ignore those toxic links.
How do I reduce my Spam Score?
I reduce my Spam Score by auditing and disavowing toxic backlinks, fixing all my thin or duplicate content, and ensuring my site has clear contact information and an SSL certificate.
The key is a consistent, clean approach to both content and link building.
