Recently, I was in a forum, and we were discussing how to make our website unique from all. One of my good friends suddenly asked a question, and I thought oh yes, it is generic, and we have not attended it for a long time. Reduce your website’s spam score with easy tips. Improve your site’s reputation and attract more visitors. Learn how now!
He asked, “How to reduce the spam score of a website?” I was like oh yes, it is a fundamental thing. Then, every member of the forum raised their concern about the spam score. Everyone faces this issue at some point. Then I think, why does it happen? What can be the best possible solution? How to prevent it and all. So, I thought. I should share this answer with my audience. So, today, we are going to teach how to reduce the spam score of a website. It will be interesting and fun. So, stay with us.
When we talk about how to reduce a website’s spam score, it is like a spring cleaning session for your online presence. If your website has a high spam score, you will hurt your credibility and pass the negative messages to the search engines, and it might be possible that you will experience consequences like impacting search engine ranking, and your audience will start to doubt you.
If you are an online business/entrepreneur, a writer or blogger, or anything. You do not want to decrease the creditability of your website. If you know its value, then you have an idea of how harmful it can be in the near future. You will go so far as to decrease the spam score of your website. It is like if someone calls you Hey, spammer, come here. You might be offended by it. Same with the website.
So, without taking your more time, let’s put some light on spam score and its reducing technique.
Table of contents
What is Spam Score?
Let’s make it easy to understand –
Many people think spam score is designated by Google. Hold on, you are not on right path. The spam score is a metric of Moz, not Google. Moz uses this metric to estimate or tell how close your website is to Google’s penalty. It is scored from 1 to 100. If you are close to one, then you are safe, but if trending to 100, then …you should re-think your strategy and decrease your spam score.
Generally, people think that if your website gets a backlink from any high spam score website, then the spam score of your website may increase. It’s true, but this is not the only truth. You must think about how it started. Sounds interesting, isn’t it?
Spam score depends on various factors, including spam links, low-quality content, and excessive keyword stuffing. If your website has a high spam score, you may appear on the suspicious radar of search engines. It means the chances of penalties are higher. Luckily, you can reduce it by making a few strategic changes.
Method to Reduce Spam Score of Websites –
Everyone is excited to know how to reduce spam score but many of you do not know how. So, here are the best ways to reduce spam points on your website –
1. Audit Your Backlinks
It is a pillar of the spam scoring technology; if you are building backlinks from a high spam score website, then the chances of your website’s spam score increasing are very high. In short, your backlinks are the main reason for spam scores increasing. It is like “votes” from other sites; we all know that not all votes are helpful. So, if your website has many spam links, search engines may consider you a spammer.
- Use Tools: Google and Moz both have their own tools. However, we consider the Google Search Console to be the main source of our backlink analysis. Moz tools are also helpful, and you can figure out the website passing your spam score.
- Remove or Disavow: When you have identified your backlinks and marked them as spam and irrelevant sites. It means you have to remove it from your backlink profile. Google search console has a tool known as Link Disavow. Marked bad backlinks and used Google’s Disavow Tool. We suggest that if you do not know about backlinks and their analysis, you do not use them.
For example, if you have a fitness blog but you have backlinks from casino or adult sites—it is a not helpful to search engines.
2. Optimize Content Quality
We all know Google has released an update regarding thin content named Google Panda. It was ruled out for the first time in 2011. Suppose your website has thin content stuffed with irrelevant keywords. It means you are thinking about the bot, not your audience. Google always thinks about its audience. So, it is clear that you are working opposite to Google rules. It means you are strongly making your website spamming.
You should add High-quality content that can help to fight the lower spam score, add value to your readers, and gain their trust and search engines as well.
- Write for Humans, Not Bots: This is the fundamental rule of Google. Think about your audience, not the bot. So, when you are crafting content, make sure it is useful, engaging, and user friendly. Do not use “keyword stuffing”. You can use synonyms and related phrases of keywords. Use keyword research tools.
- Update Old Posts: You should work on content updating. Yes, if you have posted your content for a long time. You should read and add additional updated information. When you add recent statistics or new insights, it gives weight to your content.
If you have a shoe business, then you can use Best Shoes Buy Shoes Best Shoes 2024 as an alternative keyword; also, use “Check out the best shoes to buy in 2024 for both comfort and style!”
3. Avoid Overusing Pop-ups and Ads
People use pop-ups to showcase their deals, offers, or newsletter subscription buttons. We know that it can be useful, but do not use it in excesses because too much can lead your site towards a spam trap. Let it understand by an example if you are using a mobile phone and land at a website constantly poking you for the Sign up Now option.
How will you feel? If you are frustrated, you may leave the website without reading the content. It is very annoying to users.
- Limit Pop-ups: Do not use many pop-ups, and limit it to one or two pop-ups. You should be sure that these pop-ups are non-intrusive. Ask your developer to set them to 5 or 10 seconds after landing on the website, or set them on the website page scrolls down.
- Reduce Ads: Having too much also makes the audience very annoying. You have seen that websites with ads or auto-play videos are low in quality, and we usually close the video. You should use relevant ads in minimal to maintain a clean view.
4. Improve On-Page SEO Practices
A good website starts with Good on-page SEO practices. When you improve the on-page SEO of your website, it helps search engines understand the content of the website without any red flags. If you are an SEO professional, then you know the importance of this red flag. So, you must stick to best practices and keep learning new legitimated things to keep your website clean.
- Optimize Meta Tags: People mostly write title and Meta description for bots. But start using it for your users, like clear, concise titles and Meta descriptions without using forceful keywords.
- Use Clean URLs: You have two options to choose “example.com/p12345” and “example.com/best-seo-tips.” Which one looks clean and fresh? Obviously, the second URL because it looks clean and user friendly. So, do not make URLs complicated. Make it simple.
For example, if I show you a page titled “Best Facial Scrubs for skin” with a URL like “yourwebsite.com/best-facial-scrubs-for-skin,” it appears more organized and professional.
5. Check for Duplicate Content
Duplicate content will not help your website. It destroys your website and makes it suspicious in Google’s view. When you have duplicate content on multiple pages or websites, it may be yours or others. So, it happens search engines get confused and it is not good news for your website spam score.
- Use Copyscape or Similar Tools: Never post any content without checking its online existence. There are many tools, like Copyscape and other plagiarism checker tools, that can help you check your content. So, copy your content, put it in the tool, and run the diagnosis.
- Canonical Tags: If you have similar content across several pages, you must declare the main page to the search engine by using canonical tags.
6. Avoid Black-Hat SEO Tactics
Many clients have sent us emails regarding SEO Techniques; they mentioned their strategy and asked us how to improve search engine visibility. We have found that most of them use Black-hat SEO; yes, they are practicing black hat techniques to improve website performance. It is very dangerous, like playing with fire. Google and other search engines have high levels of penalties and higher spam scores for such websites. You should stick to ethical practices.
- Say No to Paid Links: People think Buying links from PBNs will works, but in reality, it is not allowed. It is like a shortcut, which is not allowed in Google, and its algorithms are good for identifying unnatural links.
- Avoid Cloaking: In the early days, people used the Cloaking technique, and it might be possible it is still in practice. Which means you are showing different content to users and search engines. Like, you are showing an informative page to a Google bot, but the user lands on a shoes-buying website. Google has serious rules and penalties for such websites.
7. Improve User Experience
User experience (UX) does matter a lot. It is a direct ranking factor nowadays. If you have a website taking more than five seconds to load, it is not a good sign. People will exit from your website, and you can check Google Analytics and find high bounce rates. So, if your website has good UX, the audience will spend more time, and Google will consider it safe.
- Fast Loading Speed: If your website is loading slowly, you should use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights GTmetrix tool to analyze issues and later fix them to increase speed.
- Mobile-Friendly Design: You cannot survive if your website is not mobile-friendly. While creating a website, check its responsiveness on all devices, like mobile and laptop.
8. Monitor Regularly and Adjust
Many people think that spam score reduction is a one-time task. But hold on. It is a process, and you have to keep checking all things on a weekly and daily basis to keep your spam score low. When you monitor your website regularly, it allows you to find issues as they come up.
- Set a Schedule: You should keep auditing your website on a daily or weekly basis. If your website has pages in thousands, then do monthly.
- Use Google Analytics: An innovative Digital marketing professional never misses Google Analytics. It is our fundamental tool to monitor traffic sources. It might be possible that you may see a sudden unusual spike indicating spam traffic.
Sum up: Spam Score Down, Credibility Up!
Reducing websites’ spam scores is one task, and keeping in touch is another. It is about your approach. If you see a consistent increment of spam score metrics, then you should re-consider your SEO strategy. Do website auditing, such as backlinks, content, improving user experience, and many other things. If you keep everything in check, you will surely see everything in check and better search engine performance.