Editorial Staff
Spam score is one of the metrics that frequently used by SEO experts to determine the value of a website.
Before knowing what it is, let’s check a little bit of history on how this metric came from.
History of Spam Score
Spam score was firstly introduced in 2015 by Moz, a SEO-focused company.
It was developed by the company’s director of data science, Dr. Matt Peters.
The spam score was initiated to fight against one of the black hat SEO technique, link spam.
Since the beginning of its first release, this spam score metrics has developed numbers of signaling factors to determine the spam score of a website.
The more signal factors detected, the higher the spam score and higher chance that the website will be perceived as spammy by Google.
What is Spam Score?
Spam score measures and predicts how spammy a website is.
It range from 1% to 100%, in which the higher the spam score rate is, the more spammy the website is.
The measurement are based on 27 spam signals that Moz determined. (You will learn about each of the spam flag later on this module.)
So, what is consider good and bad spam score?
Take a look on the table below:
- 1 to 30% is considered a low spam score. This normally happened if Moz detected 1 to 9 spam signals on a site.
- 31 to 60% is considered a medium spam score. This normally happened if Moz detected 10 to 18 spam signals on a site.
- 61 to 100% is considered a high spam score. This normally happened if Moz detected 19 to 27 spam signals on a site.
If your site has a high spam score, it indicates that you should investigate into the quality and relevance of the site.
You can check your site’s spam score here.
Spam Score Signals
We know that you’ve been holding a question in your mind like: what are these spam score signals? how do we maintain the spam score low for a site?
Moz found that the spam site have some similar criteria’s from one another that makes them easier to identify.
Because of that, they are using these criteria’s as the spam signals to determine the spam score of a site.
Here’s the rundown of all the 27 spam signals that Moz determine to rate the spam score:
1. Low Number of Pages
A spam and low quality sites tend to have low number of pages on their site.
This is because, the purpose of the site is just for spam, and that’s why you won’t find any content there.
This is why, if your site has a low number of pages and posts, the Moz spam score will add 1 spam signal to the overall score.
2. TLD Correlation With Spam Domain
In the previous module, we had mentioned that some of the TLD like .biz and .info are frequently used by spammers.
Other than that, here are some other example of TLD that being used by spammers:
- .stream
- .win
If you selected any of these TLD for your site, be prepared to get 1 signal spam!
3. Domain Length
A spammy site tend to use the domain name that has 63 characters. You definitely don’t want to name your domain close to this number if you don’t want your site marked as spam site.
A short domain length within 6 to 10 characters is ideal.
4. Numerical in Domain Name
Have you seen a site with a numerical in it domain?
For example: www.yoursite33390.com or www.y0urs1t3.com.
These are some samples of a domain name that are commonly used by spammers.
Avoid to use any number in your domain name. Stick to all alphabets!
5. No Google Font API
Moz found that most of the spam sites do not use special fonts such as Google API.
Spam sites tend use the default font type.
Meanwhile, real sites tend to customize their font type to be more stylish and unique.
6. Presence of Google Tag Manager
Google tag manager is a free tool offered by Google that help the webmaster manage the marketing tags.
By placing the tag inside the backend will help as a validity and also improves security.
And oftentimes, spam sites do not have them.
7. Presence of DoubleClick
DoubleClick is another tag that Google offers to manage advertising and help the webmaster to control time and location where the ads can appear.
Similar to the above, the non-presence of this tag is another indicator that a website is a spam site.
8. Presence of Contact Number
All the established and reputable sites have contact information available on their site.
This is the way that the site visitors can contact to the site administrator.
Meanwhile, spam sites are most likely do not have any contact number.
9. Presence of Email Address
Similar to above, email address is another form of contact info that a reputable site should has.
Normally, email address are almost never present on the spam sites.
10. LinkedIn Connect
Sites that link to LinkedIn are normally far from being marked as spam.
On the other hand, no link to LinkedIn is most likely corelated to a spam site.
11. SSL/HTTPs
SSL certificate or known as HTTPs is an indicator that a site is safe and secured.
You will learn more in depth about this on the future module.
Basically, a site without SSL certificate are used for scam and created for spam.
12. Use of Meta Keywords on External Site
Meta keywords is a type of meta tags in the HTML source code of a webpage which no longer has any relevance on Search Engine understanding of the page.
Sites that use meta keywords are more likely to be marked as spam site.
13. Length of Meta Keywords
Still related to the previous point, but this time is the length.
Pages with very long meta keywords are often being marked as spam site.
14. Visit Duration
Besides having a good authority and link profiles, a well established website normally will have a high visit duration on the site.
This indicates that the website contain the information that the user was searching for.
Meanwhile, a spam site will normally has a low visit duration and high bounce back rate.
This is because, a spam site tend to use some clickbait strategy and the user ended up exiting their site right away.
15. Rel=Canonical Tags Presence
A rel=canonical tag helps search engines know that the specified URL is the master version of the page.
However, if the canonical tags are pointing to another sites, this is an indicator of a spam site.
This is because, canonical tags are supposed to target your own site’s primary content. (You will learn more in depth about this in the future module)
16. Title Tag Length
A site’s page that has too many unoptimized title tag, in this case; too short or too long, is an indicator of a spammy site.
This is because, spam sites are normally auto generate their pages including the titles which will produce default title tag that is either too long or too short.
You will learn more on how to optimize title tag on module 5: On-Page SEO Checklist.
17. Meta Description Length
Similar to above, an optimized meta description is an indicator of a real site.
Meanwhile, if the meta description is too long or too short, it is an indicator that the meta description is auto generated by the robot automatically, for a spam purpose.
You will learn more on how to optimize meta description on module 5: On-Page SEO Checklist.
18. No Favicon
Favicon or also known as browser icon, is the small website logo that appeared on top of the browser page.
Generally, there will be no favicon found on spam sites.
19. Presence of Facebook Pixel
Facebook tracking pixel is a tag by Facebook that work similarly like Google tag, but in this case, owned by Facebook.
Facebook pixel is used for the webmaster to install the tag that can track and collect the data of their visitors.
Spam sites generally do not have this Facebook pixel installed.
20. Number of External Link
Spam sites tend to have extremely high or low number of external link on their site.
A good ratio is the key.
21. External Links that Has Low Number of Unique Domain
Imagine there is a website that always link to the same site in all their content.
Doesn’t it look suspicious?
In this case, we believe that the site is purposely created for black hat SEO link building strategy.
22. Ratio of External Links as Compared to The Content Length
It is suspicious if a website has 50 external links in 500 words content length.
The suspicious number here are measured in percentage comparison with their overall number of content and pages.
This is why, you will find a very high number of external links although the spam site only has few thin articles.
In other word, this is a signal that the site content is created only for schemed link building strategy.
23. Vowels/Consonant in Domain Name
Spam sites often have many sequential vowels or consonants in their domain name.
24. Hyphens in Domain Name
When choosing a domain name, avoid to use hyphens (-) inside it.
25. URL Length
Spammy sites tend to have abnormally long or short URL length on their pages.
You will learn more on how to optimize URL on module 5: On-Page SEO Checklist.
26. Presence of Webspam Topics Words
Spam sites often employ specific words that are associated with webspam topics like pharmaceuticals, adult content, gaming, and others.
27. Keyword Stuffing
Spam sites tend to have abnormal of repetitive keywords in their pages in the purpose of manipulating the search engine.
Understanding The Spam Score Terminology
The percentage of spam score represents a wide variety of spam signals from the abnormal activity that most likely done by bot.
A link from high spam score sites can damage your site SEO.
Vice versa, if your site has a high spam score, chance is your site will be avoided by all the sponsor and possible collaboration.
