How to Reduce Spam Score: Complete 2026 Guide

A high Moz Spam Score can suppress your rankings even with great content. Here is the step-by-step process to clean it up.

What Is Spam Score?

Spam Score is a metric developed by Moz that indicates the percentage of sites with similar link profiles that have been penalised or banned by Google. It is expressed as a percentage from 0% to 100%.

A Spam Score of 1-30% is generally considered low risk. Scores of 31-60% are medium risk and warrant investigation. Scores above 60% indicate a high concentration of spammy backlink signals.

What Causes a High Spam Score?

• Backlinks from sites with thin, auto-generated, or duplicate content
• Links from private blog networks (PBNs) or link farms
• Exact-match anchor text over-optimisation across your link profile
• Links from sites in unrelated foreign languages with no topical connection
• Backlinks from sites that have themselves been penalised by Google
• Sudden, unnatural spikes in link velocity

How to Reduce Spam Score: Step-by-Step

Step 1: Run a full backlink audit

Export your complete backlink profile from Ahrefs, Semrush, or Moz. Cross-reference this with Google Search Console to identify all referring domains currently passing signals to your site.

Step 2: Identify toxic links

Flag links from domains with Spam Scores above 50%, sites with no organic traffic, exact-match anchor text patterns repeated across multiple domains, and links from irrelevant foreign-language sites.

Step 3: Attempt manual removal

Contact the webmasters of toxic linking sites and request link removal. Keep a documented record of all removal requests including dates and responses.

Step 4: Submit a disavow file to Google

For links you cannot remove manually, compile a disavow file and submit it through Google Search Console. Use the domain-level disavow format for efficiency.

Step 5: Build clean replacement links

Simultaneously build high-quality, topically relevant backlinks to dilute the proportion of toxic links in your profile and demonstrate positive link velocity to Google.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Google use Moz Spam Score directly?

No. Google does not use Moz Spam Score as a direct ranking signal. However, the factors Moz uses to calculate Spam Score correlate closely with the link quality signals Google's own algorithms evaluate.

How long does it take to reduce Spam Score after disavowing?

Moz recalculates Spam Score periodically as it recrawls the web. You can expect to see score improvements within 4-8 weeks of submitting a disavow file, though significant improvement may take 3-6 months.