To reduce your website's Spam Score, change the on-site features Moz's model measures: default to HTTPS, publish a phone number, email address and contact page, link to a company LinkedIn profile, add a favicon, remove the meta keywords tag, fix very long or short titles, and grow the number of real indexed pages. Disavowing backlinks does not lower it, because Moz says the score is based entirely on your own site, not on who links to you.
The situation that brings people here: a client, a prospective link partner or a report has pointed out that your site shows a Spam Score of 40% or more, and you have already started looking at your backlinks for the culprit. That is the wrong place to look, and the rest of this page explains where to look instead.
Why disavowing links does not reduce spam score
Spam Score describes your site's own features, so removing or disavowing links cannot move it. Moz's guide to investigating Spam Score is explicit: the score "is NOT dependent on your backlink profile" and "disavowing links is not the best strategy for improving your Spam Score". The metric is the percentage of sites with features similar to yours that Moz found penalised or banned by Google, derived from 27 features its model identified among penalised sites.
Moz adds a second caveat worth keeping in mind before you change anything: the score is based on correlation with penalisation, not causation, so "the solution isn't necessarily to change these factors on your site". In plain terms, a small clean site can score medium because small sites and spam sites share surface features, and you may reasonably decide to leave some signals alone. Google does not use the score, and a clean Manual Actions report in Search Console is the only authoritative statement about penalties. What is Spam Score in SEO covers the model in more depth.
The signals you can change this week
Of Moz's 27 signals, these are the ones a site owner controls directly and can fix in an afternoon. The descriptions are Moz's own, from its Spam Score help page.
Default to HTTPS
Moz notes that few spam sites invest in SSL certificates. Type the http:// version of your domain into a browser; it should redirect to https://. If it does not, fix the redirect at the server or CDN level. Is HTTPS a ranking factor covers the Google side.
Publish real contact details
Three separate signals in the model are about contact information: a phone number present, an email address present, and a link to a LinkedIn page. Moz says spam sites rarely have any of them. A contact page with a phone number, a monitored email address and a link to the company's LinkedIn profile covers all three.
Add a favicon
Moz lists "Browser Icon" as a signal: spam sites rarely use a favicon, legitimate sites usually do. It is a one-file fix.
Remove the meta keywords tag
Pages that use the meta keywords tag are, in Moz's data, more likely to be spam than those that do not. Google has ignored the tag for years, so there is no cost to deleting it. Moz's own MozBar extension shows whether a page has one.
Fix very long or very short titles and descriptions
Two signals cover the length of the title element and of the meta description. Very long or very short values correlate with spam. A site crawler lists the outliers; rewrite them to normal lengths. What makes a good title tag has the ranges.
Check your canonical tags
Moz flags a "non-local" rel=canonical, meaning a canonical tag pointing at a different domain. That is normal for syndicated copies and a red flag everywhere else. If your pages canonicalise to a domain you do not own, find out why. What is a canonical tag explains the mechanics.
The signals that take longer
These move the score too, but they are months of work rather than an afternoon, and two of them are decisions you may not want to reverse.
Publish more real pages
"Low number of pages found" is the first signal on Moz's list: many spam sites have very few pages. The fix is the one you would do anyway, which is to publish pages that answer real questions in your niche over time. Thin pages created to pad the count would trip other signals (title lengths, link-to-content ratio) and get you nowhere with Google.
Earn real visits
Moz's "Visit Rank" signal is based on clickstream panels: sites with very few visits were more often spam. You cannot fake this, and you would not want to. It falls as the site earns traffic from search, referrals and direct visits.
Tidy outbound links
Three signals look at your outbound links: the number of external links, the number of domains linked to, and the ratio of external links to content. Abnormally high or low values correlate with spam. Pages stuffed with affiliate or partner links, or sitewide footers linking to dozens of domains, are what this is catching. How many outbound links per page sets out normal ranges.
Domain name and TLD
Spam sites cluster on certain top-level domains (Moz names .download, .stream, .win and .biz), use numerals and multiple hyphens in the name, and have unusual runs of vowels or consonants. You cannot change these without changing domain, and you should not change domain for a vendor's metric. Accept the points and make up for them elsewhere.
A checklist to work through
Work top to bottom; the first six are the quick wins.
| Signal (Moz's wording) | Fix | Effort |
|---|---|---|
| Defaults to HTTPS | Redirect all http:// URLs to https:// | Minutes |
| Phone number present | Add a real number to the contact page and footer | Minutes |
| Email address present | Add a monitored address | Minutes |
| Links to LinkedIn | Link your company LinkedIn page from the footer or about page | Minutes |
| Browser icon | Add a favicon | Minutes |
| Use of meta keywords | Delete the tag sitewide | Minutes |
| Length of title element / meta description | Rewrite outliers found by a crawl | Hours |
| Rel canonical | Make sure canonicals point at your own domain | Hours |
| Number of external outlinks / domains linked to / link-to-content ratio | Trim sitewide link blocks and link-heavy pages | Days |
| Low number of pages found | Publish real content over months | Months |
| Visit rank | Earn traffic | Months |
| TLD, numerals, hyphens in domain | Not worth a domain change | Leave |
How long until the score changes
Moz recalculates Spam Score when it updates its link index, not when you change your site, so expect a lag of weeks between a fix and a new number. Check once a month using the free lookup described in how to check Spam Score for free, and record the date and value so you can see the trend rather than one reading.
When a high spam score actually costs you
Google never sees the number, so the cost is with people who do: link partners, guest-post editors and agencies who run your domain through Moz before saying yes. That is the practical reason to fix the quick wins even though they do nothing for rankings directly. The same signals (HTTPS, contact details, a real about page, normal titles) are what a human checks when deciding whether to link to you, and on a swap platform such as Backlinkster the partner sees your domain before accepting, so a tidy site clears that first look.
Frequently asked questions
How do I reduce the spam score of my website?
Fix the on-site features Moz measures: default to HTTPS, add a phone number, email address and LinkedIn link, add a favicon, remove the meta keywords tag, fix abnormally long or short titles and descriptions, and keep publishing real pages. Moz says the score is based on your own site, so disavowing links does not change it.
Does disavowing backlinks lower spam score?
No. Moz's investigating guide says Spam Score "is NOT dependent on your backlink profile" and that disavowing links is not the best strategy for improving it. Disavowing also carries its own risk under Google's guidance, so do not use it for this.
Why is my spam score high when my site is clean?
Because the score is a correlation: small sites, new sites and sites with few pages, no contact details or no HTTPS share features with penalised sites. Moz itself says a high score does not mean the site is spammy, only that it warrants a closer look.
What spam score is acceptable?
Moz labels 1% to 30% low, 31% to 60% medium and 61% to 100% high. A low or medium score on a site with no penalty is, in Moz's words, not a cause for concern. Aim for the low band if partners are checking you, but do not change your domain to get there.
How long does it take for spam score to go down?
Weeks at least. Moz recalculates when it refreshes its index, so a fix made today shows up in a later index update. Check monthly and look at the direction over several readings.
Does spam score affect Google rankings?
No. Spam Score is a Moz metric computed from Moz's own crawl; Google does not use it. It can affect you indirectly, because link partners and editors check it before agreeing to link.
The bottom line
Reducing Spam Score means making your site look like an established business to a model that has only surface features to go on: HTTPS, contact details, a favicon, sensible titles, no meta keywords, and a growing number of real pages. Leave the disavow tool alone, accept the points your domain name costs you, and check the number once a month rather than once a day.
Related: What is Spam Score in SEO? · How to check Spam Score for free · How to disavow bad backlinks · What is a bad backlink? · How many outbound links per page? · What makes a good title tag?