Spam Score Checker
Verified Tools checks any domain's backlink spam score free — DataForSEO's 0–100 estimate of how much of its link profile looks spammy — and shows Ahrefs' Domain Rating and referring domains beside it, because a risk score you cannot put in proportion is not usable. Not Moz's Spam Score, which measures something else (compared below). One domain at a time, no signup. Checked 2026-09-02.
What is a spam score?
A spam score estimates how much of a domain's backlink profile looks manipulated or junk, on a 0-100 scale where lower is better. The number shown here is DataForSEO's, calculated from the links pointing at the domain — anchor text patterns, the quality of the linking sites, and how those links were acquired. It is not produced by Google and is not a penalty prediction; Google publishes no spam score and says it ignores most low-quality links rather than acting on them. What the number is genuinely good for is screening. Before you pay for a listing, accept a link exchange, or pitch a guest post, it tells you whether the domain's link profile is mostly real. Read it next to referring domains: the same score means something very different on a site with 2,000 linking domains than on one with 12.
How to check spam score for any domain
- Enter a domain name (e.g., example.com) in the input field.
- Click 'Check Spam Score' to run the lookup.
- Read the score next to referring domains and DR — a raised score on a large, established profile is normal noise; on a small one it is most of the profile.
- Use it to screen domains before you pay for or accept a link, rather than as a verdict on a site you already own.
100% Free — No sign-up and no email. Lookups are capped at 40 a day per IP because each one is a paid call to DataForSEO and Ahrefs.
Spam score analyzer: what to do at each level
| Score | Reading | If you are considering a link |
|---|---|---|
| 0–5 | Clean | Nothing here to stop you. |
| 6–15 | Low risk | Ordinary. Almost every site that has existed a few years sits here. |
| 16–30 | Moderate | Check referring domains. Common on older sites that have collected junk over the years. |
| 31–60 | A real share of the profile | Open the site. If it is a directory that lists anything for $5, you have your answer. |
| 61+ | Most of the profile | Pass, particularly if you would be paying. |
These bands are a reading aid, not thresholds published by anyone. The score is one vendor's model, and the honest use of it is comparative: run the domain you are considering, run two you already trust, and see where it falls.
A high score on your own site is usually not your fault
Anyone can link to you. Scrapers copy your pages, auto-generated directories list you without asking, and expired-domain networks link to real sites to look legitimate. All of it lands in your profile. The signal worth watching is not the level but the change: if the score climbs while referring domains climb, look at who arrived. If it climbs while referring domains sit still, something is being re-counted, and that is a data artefact rather than an event. Either way, the fix is almost never the disavow file — it is earning enough real links that the junk stops being a large share of the total.
Backlink spam checker: what the score is built from
The score is a backlink spam checker result, not a review of your pages. DataForSEO's model looks only at the domains linking to you — how many there are, what else they link to, the anchor text they use, and whether the pattern resembles networks it has already classified. Nothing you write enters into it.
That is why a careful site with no bought links can return a raised number, and why a thin site nobody has found yet returns a clean one. It also sets the limit of what the number can tell you: it is a judgement about who found you, not about whether you deserve to be found.
What it will not give you is the list. A spam backlink checker that names the offending domains needs a full backlink export — Ahrefs, Semrush or DataForSEO's own index, all paid. This page returns the summary figure and the referring-domain count beside it, which is enough to screen a domain but not enough to clean one up.
Domain spam score: comparing sites before you swap links
The defensible use of a domain spam score is comparative. Run the site you are considering, then run two you already trust in the same niche, and read the three together. A domain spam score checker cannot tell you whether a link will help you — nothing can — but it does tell you when a profile looks unlike the ones you already accept.
Some tools print the same idea as a spam rating or a trust score. Spam scores from different vendors are built from different link indexes and different models, so they are not interchangeable: a domain at 12 here and 40 somewhere else is not a contradiction, it is two vendors measuring two things. Compare within one tool, never across them.
Use it at the moment of decision — before you pay for a directory listing, accept a reciprocal link, or pitch a guest post. Treat an outlier as a reason to open the site and look at it, not as an automatic no.
Is this the same as Moz's Spam Score?
No — and the difference matters if you are comparing a number here against one you saw in Link Explorer. They are not the same quantity, so they are not expected to agree.
| Score | What it measures | Bands |
|---|---|---|
| Moz Spam Score | “The percentage of sites with similar features to the site you're researching which we've found to be penalized or banned by Google.” A judgement about the site, by analogy to other sites. | 1–30% Low 31–60% Medium 61–100% High |
| This page (DataForSEO) | The share of the links pointing at the domain that the model judges spammy. A judgement about the incoming links, not the site. | See the reading aid above |
A domain can sit low on one and raised on the other without either being wrong. A clean site that spam networks have linked to scores badly on a link-profile measure and fine on a similarity measure; a thin site with few links can do the reverse. Neither is produced by Google, and neither predicts a penalty. We do not show Moz's figure here — we do not license it, and putting our vendor's number under their name would be the one thing this site is not for. Moz's definition and bands above are quoted from their own help page, checked 2026-09-18.
Frequently asked questions
- What does this spam score measure?
- It is DataForSEO's backlink spam score, 0–100: the share of the links pointing at a domain that its model judges spammy. It describes the backlink profile, not the site's content. A careful site can still carry a raised score if spam networks have linked to it, which is common and mostly out of your control.
- What is a good spam score?
- Lower is better, and context matters more than the number. Up to 15 is unremarkable for most sites. The 16–30 range is worth a look at who is linking to you. Above 60 on a domain you are considering a link from is a reason to pass. The comparison that means something is against sites in the same niche, since some industries attract far more junk than others.
- Is spam score a Google penalty risk?
- Not directly. Google does not publish or use a spam score, and a high one does not mean a penalty is coming — Google's own guidance is that it ignores most low-quality links rather than punishing sites for them. Treat it as a screening signal when you are choosing where to get links, not as a verdict on a site you already own.
- Why is my spam score high when I have never bought a link?
- Because anyone can link to you. Scraper sites, auto-generated directories and expired-domain networks copy links around without permission, and they land in your profile whether you want them or not. Check whether referring domains grew at the same time. If the score rose without you doing anything, it is usually incoming junk rather than something you did.
- Should I disavow links to lower it?
- Usually not. Google has said for years that most sites never need the disavow file and that it ignores unnatural links on its own, and a careless disavow removes links that were helping you. Reserve it for the case where you know links were bought or built for you. Lowering a third-party score is not on its own a reason to touch it.
- Why does this show Domain Rating and referring domains too?
- Because a spam score alone cannot be acted on. A score of 20 on a domain with 2,000 referring domains and DR 60 is a rounding error; the same 20 on a domain with 12 referring domains means most of what links to it is junk. The same lookup returns all three, so the page shows all three.
- Where does the data come from, and how fresh is it?
- The spam score, referring domains and backlink counts come from DataForSEO's backlink summary; Domain Rating comes from Ahrefs. Results are cached for up to seven days, so a figure can be a few days behind. If a lookup fails the page says so instead of showing 0, because 0 reads as 'clean' when it means 'we could not check'.
- Is this spam score checker free?
- Yes, with no signup and no email. Each lookup is a paid API call on our side, so requests are capped at 40 a day per IP address. That is more than enough to check your own domain and the sites you are considering links from.
- Is this Moz's Spam Score?
- No. Moz's Spam Score is the percentage of sites with similar features that Moz has found to be penalized or banned by Google, banded 1-30% low, 31-60% medium, 61-100% high (their help page, checked 18 September 2026). The number here is DataForSEO's and describes the incoming links rather than the site, so the two are not expected to match. We do not license Moz's figure and will not print ours under their name.
- Can I check Domain Authority (DA) here?
- Not DA itself — that is Moz's metric and we do not license it. The authority number beside the spam score is Ahrefs' Domain Rating (DR), labelled as such. DR and DA are built by different companies from different link indexes and routinely differ by several points on the same domain, so treat a DR figure as a DR figure rather than a stand-in.
- Is this an email spam score checker?
- No. This checks a website's backlink profile. If you are trying to find out whether your newsletter or cold email will land in the spam folder, that is a different measurement entirely — it looks at your sending domain's authentication, content and reputation, not at who links to you. Nothing on this page will tell you that.
- How do I check a website for spam links?
- Enter the domain above and read the spam score beside the referring-domain count. That gives you the share of the profile the model judges spammy, which is as close as this page gets to the question. It will not name the individual links — that needs a paid backlink export. If you want to check a website for spam links before accepting a link from it, the score plus the referring-domain count is usually enough to decide. If you want to clean up your own profile, you need the list, and this will not get you there.
- Is this an SEO spam checker?
- It checks one SEO signal and nothing else. People search for an SEO spam checker meaning at least three different things: spammy backlinks, spammy content on a site, and hacked-page injections. This page only does the first. The SEO spam score here is a statement about incoming links, so a site with thin or duplicated content can sit at 3 and a genuinely good site that spam networks have linked to can sit at 35.
- Can I use this as a website spam score checker?
- Yes — website spam score and domain spam score are the same number here, because the lookup is done at the domain level. Enter a bare domain rather than a full URL. A website spam checker that scores individual pages would be measuring something else; backlink spam is a property of the domain, and a single page does not have its own.