Spam Score Checker
Check the spam score of any domain for free. Enter a site to see its 0–100 score, the spam score of the links pointing at it and what that means for your link building.
What the spam score measures
The score comes from DataForSEO's Backlinks API. It checks every crawled page of the domain against 18 signals that spammy sites tend to share, gives each page a score from 0 to 100, and averages them into the domain's score.
It is comparable in spirit to Moz's Spam Score, but it is not the same number: Moz works from the share of similar sites that were penalized, DataForSEO from the signals themselves. Compare domains with one tool, not across tools.
It says nothing about Google's opinion of the site. It's a fast first filter before you spend time, or money, on a link.
Signals that raise or lower the score
- Plain HTTP instead of HTTPS
- Digits and odd lengths in the domain name
- Top-level domains that spammers favour
- Pages with a hundred or more external links
- Missing or broken title and description tags
- Contact details and social meta tags, which lower it
How to read your spam score
The bands are DataForSEO's. Read the domain's own score first, then the score of its backlinks next to it.
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0–30
Low
Few spam signals. Nothing here is a reason to avoid the site, but a low score is not proof of quality either: check traffic and topic before you buy a link.
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31–60
Medium
Some signals are present. Read it as a prompt to look closer: real content, real authors, real traffic, and how many links the site sells.
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61–100
High
Many signals on most pages. Treat links from the domain with caution, and if it's your own site, fix the on-page causes and audit your links.
What to do after you check a spam score
The score is where the work starts. These are the next steps, from the audit to the links that keep a profile clean.
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Medium or high? Audit the links
A spam score tells you that something looks off, not which links cause it. Our free backlink audit walks you through judging each referring domain by traffic, country and topic, and planning a careful disavow.
Run the free backlink audit -
See who links to the domain
The backlink checker lists the referring domains behind any site, with a sample link from each, so you can see the pages that shape its profile, yours or a competitor's.
Open the backlink checker -
Clean profile? Build on it
The best way to keep a score low is to earn links from real publications with real readers. On Growwer you pick the outlet, check its metrics and choose the anchor before you buy.
Buy quality links
Spam score FAQ
What the score means, where it comes from and what to do about it.
- A spam score estimates how many of the traits common to spammy websites a domain shows. This checker uses DataForSEO's spam score: it scores each crawled page of the domain on 18 on-page signals and averages them into a number from 0 to 100.
- No. Moz's Spam Score is the percentage of sites with similar features that Moz found penalized or banned by Google. DataForSEO scores the signals directly. Both run from 0 to 100 and point the same way, but the two numbers are not interchangeable, so compare domains with the same tool.
- DataForSEO's own bands are 0–30 low, 31–60 medium and 61–100 high. For a site you want a link from, low is what you look for; for your own site, a medium or high score is a reason to fix the on-page causes and review your backlinks.
- No. Spam score is a third-party metric; Google has its own systems and does not read Moz's or DataForSEO's numbers. Use the score as a quick filter that tells you where to look, not as a prediction of rankings or penalties.
- The main one is the domain's own score, from its pages. The second is the spam score of the backlinks pointing at the domain, which describes the company it keeps. A clean site with spammy backlinks is a case for a backlink audit.
- Fix what the score measures on your own pages first: serve HTTPS, write proper titles and descriptions, add contact details, and trim pages that link out to hundreds of sites. Then review toxic backlinks and grow the profile with links from real, relevant publications.
- The checker queries DataForSEO live on every search and counts only live links. Results are cached in your browser for 24 hours, so searching the same domain again that day does not use one of your free checks.
Keep your link profile clean as it grows
Choose every outlet, check its metrics and set the anchor of each link before you buy.
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