Usually, we consider spam score while taking the links from a website. In My experience, there is no such thing as Spam Score. It is again one of the fancy metric of one of the popular third party tools i.e. Moz. Hence, spam score 1 is as good as spam score 10.
All you have to take care is of the below given pointers before taking the links:
- Relevancy of the website
- Audience of the Website
- Traffic trend of the website
- If website was penalised by Google
This guide will walk you through the meaning of spam score in SEO, how it’s calculated, and most importantly how to keep yours in the safe zone.
Main points of this blog are:
What Does an SEO Spam Score Mean?
What Is a Good Spam Score?
How Is Spam Score Calculated?
Why Spam Score Can Increase Suddenly
How to Check the Spam Score of a Website
What Does an SEO Spam Score Mean?
Moz created the “Spam Score,” an SEO metric that assesses a website’s risk of being reported as spam by search engines.
It’s expressed as a percentage ranging from 0% to 100%. The higher the number, the more likely it is that your site has characteristics associated with spammy websites.
It’s important to note that spam score doesn’t directly affect rankings—but it’s a signal you should never ignore.
What Is a Good Spam Score?
Moz categorizes spam score ranges as follows:
| Spam Score | Risk Level |
| 0% – 30% | Low (Healthy) |
| 31% – 60% | Medium (Monitor Closely) |
| 61% – 100% | High (Risky, Take Action) |
Therefore, anything under 30% is a good spam score if you’re wondering. That range is regarded as healthy.
How Is Spam Score Calculated?
Spam score is based on the presence of common features found in penalized or low-quality sites. Moz uses over 25 spam flags to make this calculation. Here are a few key ones:
- Low link diversity – Too many backlinks from the same domain
- Thin content – Pages with minimal or low-quality text
- Few internal links – Poor internal structure
- Long or hyphenated domain names – Often seen in spammy URLs
- Overuse of meta keywords – An outdated and red-flag practice
The more spammy traits your site has, the higher your spam score.
Why Spam Score Can Increase Suddenly
It’s not always your fault. Sometimes your spam score goes up because:
- You gained backlinks from low-quality or irrelevant websites
- Your site was cloned or scraped (common with WordPress blogs)
- You’re using outdated SEO tactics like keyword stuffing
- You have pages with duplicate content or poor formatting
Keeping an eye on your site’s backlink profile using a spam score checker tool can help you react early.
How to Check the Spam Score of a Website
There are several free spam score checker tools available:
- Moz Link Explorer
- Diib Website Checker
- SmallSEOTools Spam Score Checker
Just enter your URL, and the tools will give you a breakdown. Some even show which links are hurting your score.
How to Reduce Spam Score and Stay Safe
If your spam score is creeping above 30%, here are a few ways to lower it:
- Audit Your Backlinks – Use Moz, Ahrefs, or SEMrush to find toxic backlinks. Disavow them if necessary.
- Improve Internal Linking – Help search engines and users navigate better.
- Boost Content Quality – Avoid publishing short, duplicate, or keyword-stuffed articles.
- Avoid Over-Optimization – Don’t stuff meta tags or anchor text.
- Monitor Regularly – Set monthly SEO health check reminders.
Example
An eCommerce brand saw their spam score jump from 12% to 47% after a bulk directory submission campaign. Upon review, most links came from outdated forums and generic directories. After disavowing these links and removing thin content from category pages, their score dropped back to 19% within two months.
Final Thoughts
So how much spam score is good?
Stay under 30%, and you’re in the green zone. Between 31–60%, start auditing. Above 60%, take it seriously.
Spam score isn’t a direct ranking factor, but it’s a mirror into your website’s trustworthiness. Use tools like Moz and Diib to stay on top of it, clean up toxic links, and keep your site clean, valuable, and search-engine friendly.
Pro Tip: Add “spam score check” to your quarterly SEO checklist. Prevention is way easier than recovery.
FAQs
1. What is a spam score checker tool?
It’s an SEO tool that analyzes your domain or subdomain to flag spam-like signals. Moz is the most popular option.
2. Is a spam score of 0% ideal?
Yes, it’s great! But anything under 30% is generally safe.
3. Can a high spam score hurt SEO?
Indirectly yes. It can lead to manual penalties or reduced trust in your domain.
4. What is the spam score of website domains?
Each domain or subdomain gets a score based on spam indicators. Subdomains are measured independently.
5. Why is my spam score high but rankings are okay?
Spam score is just a warning signal. Your rankings may still be stable, but it’s a sign to audit your SEO health.
Mohit Verma I am an experienced professional with 9+ years of experience in Search Engine Optimization. I am on a mission to provide industry focused job oriented SEO so the students/mentees can get their dream SEO job and and start working from day 1.
