Spam score

[steadyoptions1]

This post is deleted!

[samantha.chapman]

Hi there - Sam from Moz's Help Team here!

The Spam Score is an aggregate of 17 different flags we set up. The higher the number of flags on a link, the higher the chance that its spammy. If a link has 1 or even 4 flags, you’re okay. You only need to start worrying when the flags start to stack past 7.

Large Number of External Links A subset of pages within this subdomain has a large number of external links. - this means that there are a large number of external links pointing back to that specific subdomain (a specific set of pages - not to the site in general). You can check for external links in Open Site Explorer if you plug in https://steadyoptions.com/ and use the dropdown (Target - 'This Subdomain', Link Source - 'Only External'  - I'm able to pull up a large number of external links for your site there).

External Links in Navigation
There's a large number of external links within sidebars and footers - this does mean that we're finding a number of links pointing to other sites from these areas. This could only include the social media links, if those are what we're finding. In this case, 'External' links means links pointing OUT from your site, whereas 'Large Number of External Links' represents links pointing IN.

That said, however, to be fully transparent, it's actually been quite a bit of time since the data that feeds the spam score has been updated. It's entirely possible that your site used to have more external links in the footers and/or sidebars, and that that's the version of the site this spam score reflects. If you really have  few links in your sidebars and footers, that's not going to be enough to get penalized by Google. We hope to be updating the spam score much more consistently in the future!

I hope this helps to clarify! If you have any other questions, please feel free to pop an email over to help@moz.com (our response time is generally quicker there).

[GrahameD]

I have exactly the same question - and I do not have many external links anywhere - except 1 page (well 10 as the site is in 10 languages but most of the other languages have very few, if any,external links on that page) which is deliberately a list of links to other great sites.

What would be useful is a list of some (or all) pages that you think has this. Either there is something very odd with my site or your interpretation of an "external link" is not the same as mine. There are very few links you can follow on my site to leave the site - and they are usually social media or a link to get Adobe Flash.

Can you provide that info?

Thanks

[steadyoptions1]

Sam, thank you for your response.

After yesterday update, my spam score went down to 2 - External Links in Navigation is not listed anymore. But **Large Number of External Links **still listed, and I have very few external links. Again, you mentioned that you are able to pull up a large number of external links for your site there, but I don't see them.

[samantha.chapman]

Hi there Kim,

This can be a little confusing as the definition of 'External Links' differs here - External Links in Navigation refers to links pointing to other sites from within your own site.

Large Number of External Links refers to the links pointing to your site from other websites.

If you plug in https://steadyoptions.com/ to Open Site Explorer, and filter by 'this subdomain' or 'this root domain' under 'Inbound Links', the links that populate there represent the 'Large Number of External Links'.

Does this help to clarify?

[samantha.chapman]

Hi Grahame!

I'd love to help you out with this and take a deeper dive in here. Are you also referring to 'Large Number of External Links', or 'External Links in Navigation'? If it's the former, I responded to Kim below with an explanation of the difference between the two (it can be a bit confusing given the alternate use of 'External').

If not, could you please pop an email over to help@moz.com with the URL so I can take a peek on my end?

Thanks very much!

[steadyoptions1]

Okay, now I'm really confused.

I thought that large number of external links pointing to my site is a good thing?

So now I have only 2 factors in spam score:

Large Site with Few Links
We found very few sites linking to this site, considering its size.

Large Number of External Links
A subset of pages within this subdomain has a large number of external links.

It is a bit contradicting: first factor says very few links to my site, second factor says "Large number of links", and according to your explanation, those are links to to my site (not from my site as I thought).

[samantha.chapman]

My goodness - it turns out this was actually quite confusing! My sincerest apologies, this was a mistake on my behalf.

I've conferred with a resident expert, and as it turns out, you are absolutely correct.

Large Number of External Links
A subset of pages within this subdomain has a large number of external links.

This does mean that there are a large number of external links pointing out from your site at other sites.

Here are some examples of what would be considered as 'External Links' from

http://www.screencast.com/t/g8HB7QpQ

http://www.screencast.com/t/fIIaakkAlBu

Apologies again for the confusion!

[steadyoptions1]

Okay, that makes sense, thanks for clarifying it!

So around 25 external links on one page is considered too many? That's a bit strange, I heard somewhere that Google considers more than 100 external links as too many.

[GrahameD]

Hi

I have mailed you. I am talking about both. Both have suddenly flagged up. Both appear incorrect.

I'll not say more on here for now as it's not fair for you to give me support in two places about the same problem

Thanks

Grahame