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Don’t Get Penalized: How to Check the Spam Score of a Site (And Why You Should!)

Oct 9, 2020 | website

Nobody likes getting spammed, yet there are more than 14.5 billion spam emails sent mailboxes every day.

That accounts for a whopping 45% of all the emails sent worldwide!

Spamming doesn’t only apply for email messages, but also for websites. For example, your spam scoring determines how well you rank in search engine result pages and whether your website is seen well by Google or not.

Certain websites are considered to be spammy based on various factors and flags.

But what exactly is spam and why should you care about it?

Let’s find out in this article.

Spam Scoring Explained

There are various ways you can rank a website.

You can use the Alexa ranking system, Google Page Rank, Moz rank, etc.

Spam is considered to be an unsolicited and irrelevant message used online. Certain backlinks can also be considered as spam if they come from websites with a bad reputation on the internet.

Spam is also used for fraudulent activities such as identity theft. It is estimated that the annual cost to productivity caused by spammers is around $20 billion.

Each website is checked for various flags or signs which indicate spam content.

For example, Moz has released a ranking system for websites which contains 17 different flags for spam.

If a website has many spam flags, its spam scoring is considered to be high and vice-versa.

This metric system helps website owners keep track of their subdomains, individual pages, and backlinks. By monitoring spam on your website, you avoid getting penalized by Google or other search engines.

Site Accessibility and Mobile Viewing

In addition to a site getting flagged for spam, it can also be triggered for bad browsing capability and user navigation outside of traditional desktop usage. With mobile usage now on the rise like never before, Google is putting huge weight into this area for sites of all types. And if you already have web hosting set up with a reliable solution like WPEngine, they can help you in making sure your site is fully responsive across all devices and platforms.

Take a quick look at some of the global mobile usage stats below.

71% of users visited a retailer website or used a retailer app
64% of users conducted a search on a search engine
42% visited a non-retailer website or used a non-retailer app
41% visited a store or other location
23% looked at images or photos online

To learn more about these stats and how you can improve your mobile usage and engagement, you can refer to this mobile SEO optimization guide. This resource not only dives deeper into what you need to know about mobile usage and keeping your site up to date to avoid Google penalties and spam score, but also how to improve your on-site and off-site SEO to rank above the competition.

How Web Site Spam Scoring Works

Spam scores are easy to determine. They use the Moz Index to check for flags for each subdomain.

When flags are found, they are added to the score. The spam score is cumulative, so the higher the number of flags found, the higher the spam scoring.

For example, sites with 4 flags have a 7.5% spam probability.
Sites with 7 flags have an approximately 30% spam probability.
Sites with 13 or more flags have an almost 100% spam probability.

If your website triggers a few spam flags, it’s not a very big deal. You should be worried when more than 7-8 flags are detected as this can make Google label your website as spam.

It’s important to mention that spam scoring focuses on subdomains only. The root domains are not taken into account.

The spam score takes other factors into account such as external links, the location of the top-level domain, etc.

Let’s take a look at some of the flags checked by the Moz Index system.

Spam Score Flags

These flags can be divided into two categories such as link flags and on-page flags. There are other signals on top of these 17 flags that might contribute to the spam scoring of a website.

#1 – Site with multiple pages but a few links

It is not normal for a large website to have very few links pointing to it (backlinks).

This means that the site content isn’t extremely valuable and Google will eventually rank it lower in search engine result pages.

#2 – Few number of branded links

If a site has a few branded links or branded keywords in its content then it might trigger a spam flag.

Google and other search engines look for anchor text links containing branded keywords. If the total number of branded links is low, that might cause an increase in the spam score.

#3 – Low score on MozTrust and MozRank

These are independent metrics released by Moz.

If a site scores low on these two metrics, it might trigger a spam flag and have its spam scoring increased.

This usually happens for websites with poor-quality content or bad on-site SEO.

#4 – Low number of internal links

An internal link points to a page on the same website.

Internal linking is good for SEO and also helps readers find more information related to the same subject.

If a website has few internal links, this might increase the spam score.

#5 – A high number of external links

Each website must point out to other websites.

However, when Google discovers that there are simply too many external links on a website, this might result in a spam flag.

The spam signal is more evident when the ratio of external links to internal links is abnormal (too many external links compared to internal links).

#6 – Poor-quality content

Google loves websites with valuable, diversified content.

If the content of a website seems duplicated, automatically generated or looks like scraped content, this can trigger a spam flag and the site might be penalized.

#7 – Contact details are missing

All high-quality websites have their contact details prominently displayed on the front page or in a “contact” page.

This helps to build trust with the customers and make it easier to get in touch via phone or email.

Sites with no contact info displayed are considered spammy by search engines and their spam scoring will be high.

#8 – Sites with long domain names

It is not a good idea to have a website like “www.getthebestgamesonlinecheapprices.com”

This is a surefire way to have your website penalized for spam.

It’s called keyword stuffing and Google doesn’t like it anymore, so if you create a website, stick with short and sweet domain names.

#9 – Low number of pages

There must be a correlation between the age of a website and its total number of pages.

For example, a 5-year old website with just 4 pages indicates that the website hasn’t been updated in a long time.

Similarly, a very high number of pages isn’t much appreciated either, so try to be somewhere in between.

#10 – Too much anchor text

The anchor text represents the actual words which redirect you to an external link when you click on them.

It is normal for every web page to have some anchor texts. However, if the page is stuffed with links (25 or more) then this is might trigger a spam flag.

Other Signals For Spam

There are other signals used by the research team at Moz to check for spam.

These signals act as spam flags and they can increase or decrease the spam scoring. Let’s take a look at them:

#11 – A domain name with numerals

Websites such as “www.catfood123.com” are not seen well by Google. Numerals are not required in a domain name and they usually indicate a spammy website.

#12 – Not having an SSL certificate

SSL certificates are a must-have these days.

They ensure that the information entered through the site is encrypted and protected against theft.

A site with an SSL certificated begins with “https://”. A site without it begins with “http://”.

Not having an SSL certificate can be seen as a spam flag, so make sure you always have one on your website to avoid being penalized by Google.

#13 – Titles too long or too short

The title of your web page is very important.

It should convey what’s the page or blog post about and provide interesting information to entice visitors to read more.

Pages with very long titles are considered spammy. So are those with titles made from just a few words.

#14 – Not having a favicon

A favicon is also known as the browser icon of a website.

It is displayed next to the website name on each browser tab. Not having a favicon is usually seen as a spam signal. All trustworthy sites have a favicon and should your website.

#15 – Hyphens in the domain name

Websites such as “www.cheap-cat-food.com” are not seen with good eyes by Google.

Having one or more hyphens in the domain name is usually associated with spammy websites and it should be avoided at all costs.

Reasons To Check the Spam Score

Having a clean website is paramount for the success of your online business.

Checking the spam scoring regularly helps you stay on top of your spam backlinks and avoid a penalization from Google.

Here are a few reasons why you should do it:

1. Prevent bad links from dragging your website down

Each website will eventually have a few spammy backlinks pointing to it. You should run a spam check to see how much weight these bad backlinks carry and which one you should eliminate.

2. See how many spam flags are found on your website

It’s great to know if you are about to be penalized by Google or not.

By running a spam check, you can discover spam flags or signals you previously didn’t know about.

This gives you a clear picture of what to work next to improve your website.

3. Build a better relationship with your customers

Remember that everyone hates spam!

If potential clients look up your website and discover that it has a high spam scoring, they might not want to do business with you.

By keeping your spam score down and trying to optimize your website or blog, you can build a trustworthy relationship with your clients.

Conclusion

Knowing more about spam and spam scoring helps you become a better website owner. You can check your subdomains or individual pages and make tweaks to reduce your spam score.

To extend your knowledge about spam, feel free to also check out our article on eliminating spam comments on WordPress!

Wait! Don’t forget to check out these related articles:

Best Time to Post on Facebook [Check this before Publishing!]

Oct 7, 2020 | facebook, Social Media

How often do you post on Facebook? Do you only post maybe once a week or a month? Are you obsessed like me and post every 10 minutes? Okay, perhaps that’s a little much. But with all the things going on today you feel like you need to post a lot to keep in contact with your fan base and your readers. But how much is too much and when is the best time to post to get the best exposure?

In this post, we will take a look at some of the best times to make a post on the Facebook platform to do the most good. After all, advertising specialists and marketing experts alike will tell you it’s not how much you do but when you do it sometimes that makes a difference.

What is your goal for your posts?

First of all, you should ask yourself what you wish to accomplish with your post. Facebook is still one of the most popular used social media platforms in the world today. Over 2 billion users per day surf, shop, browse and talk to friends using this platform. They also often use the sharing feature to share interesting things with friends and co-workers.

This makes it a prime opportunity for small business owners to grab a bigger part of your target market on this prominent social media platform.

Facebook offers the potential to reach a huge market but when should you post? There’s an infographic available online that emphasizes when the optimal posting days and times are.

What do the statistics show?

Research on Facebook and social media behavior shows that the best posting days are Thursday and Friday in general. During this time, 71% of all internet users are on Facebook. The time of day is also important with 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. being the target range for general social media members.

More specifically, 1 to 3 p.m. weekdays is optimal for most users. 66% of men use the platform when using the internet on Facebook and 77% of women. Some other statistics indicated that most women who were on Facebook are over the age of 50 and live alone.

The age ranges vary, though given the different times of day and the days of the week. For example, you’ll find ages 18 to 29 of both genders being online about 87% of the time during the peak. While only 73% of persons age 30 to 49 online during that time. So this tells you that the younger people are probably online more on Thursday and Friday.

What does this mean to you? If you are trying to sell a product to younger people should you be on during this time? Perhaps, but chances are you will not get as many people who have more money to spend such as the older group of 32-49-year-olds. Sure some younger people have money from college or parents, but if you want to reach the age range that has more money to purchase with, you will want to target the slightly older shopper too.

All of these numbers can be confusing, and it takes more than a one-time look at the numbers to decide on when you should post. If you study the individual stats, though, you’ll start to see a pattern emerge of when you are most likely to be speaking to your target audience. The key to success with this is in carefully defining your target audience before you post and seeing them in your mind.

This also helps you shape the content of your post when you are thinking of your target audience in your mind as you create content. Likewise, the people reading the post will know it was intended for them because you are addressing their needs in a way that your competition is not doing.

Regarding the numbers, Mark Twain once said there are only two things in life: lies and “damned lies and statistics.” That’s not to say that the statistics can’t be trusted but let’s try to buckle down and look at the specifics of when you should probably post the most.

Getting More Specific

Some of the best general research shows that the best time to post is:

between 12 noon and 3 p.m. every Monday Wednesday Thursday and Friday
Between 1 to 3 p.m. on Thursday and Friday’s
From 12 noon to 1 p.m. during Saturday and Sunday (best for increasing engagements)
Between 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. during weekdays are the safest times to post

What are the worst times?

Before 8 a.m. and after 8 p.m. on Saturday and Sundays are considered the worst times to post since people are usually out and about doing other things during this time.

But what helps you make your our ROI and maximize posting time on Facebook? The answer: spending time with your target market. You need to get your information in front of the people who are most likely to purchase from you, not just anyone. So while we can speak in generalities and it might give you a framework of when you should generally post, you really should focus on the times that are most likely to bring you sales and engagements for your target audience.

When determining the best times to post you should consider the following factors:

Who is your target market
When are they usually online on Facebook and looking to connect with others
Picture of your target audience and think about what their interests are and what Lifestyles they lead
Think about their age range and gender
What type of products or Services could you offer that they would buy
What types of products and services would they want to share with others

Selling Internationally

You also need to consider the time zone differences if you have an international audience or people from other countries visit your site. You don’t want to miss out on a sale or inquiry by forgetting to keep the time zone differences in mind.

There is never a one-size-fits-all formula and no universal solution that fits everyone, so it is up to you to do your research and decide when the best time is to put up ads and when you will have them run.

It also should help you lay some guidelines on when you will make your posts and who you will be speaking to in those post. When writing original content, it is always important to picture your audience in your mind, so you know who you’re talking to.

Best Practice

The best idea to take the general statistics that we told you earlier from the infographic statistics and then combine that with your knowledge of your particular target market. Additionally, you may want to conduct experiments via Google Analytics or some of Facebook’s pixel tools so that you can get a true picture of who your audience is, when they are on Facebook, and when they are most likely to react to your ads and posts.

Ads vs. Posts

Finally, it’s also important to consider the difference between Facebook ads and posts. Ads are to advertise a particular service or product that you offer with your company or business, while posts could be just PR for your brand, and getting to know your posts. You may be wanting to invite newcomers to your site and any other kinds of things.

Importance of Media

Be sure to include media such as podcasts and videos as well as infographics or photos as this tends to bring a higher level of engagement no matter what time you post.

If you go back and reread this post, you should be able to get a general idea of when to start posting. Then gage your results by the interactions and engagements you get based on a Facebook ad campaign. Facebook does the statistical analysis for you, so this takes out the guesswork.

Have fun and remember, you are speaking to a specific audience. Don’t lose sight of the goal.

What You Need to Know About No Credit Check Cash Loans

Oct 7, 2020 | Online Marketing

Of the 220 million scorable folks in the U.S., 68 million have credit scores lower than 601. What’s more, a single point lower than 601 (as in 600) already classifies as a subprime score. According to the VantageScore scoring model, “subprime” scores range from 500 to 600.

There’s also the “deep subprime”, scores from 300 to 499. 21.2% of all scorable individuals fall under this category.

With all of this information at hand, it’s a marketers dream come true! This is definitely the case for any affiliate marketers or finance sites looking to push credit repair offers to their audience.

In addition to worrying about finances on a daily basis, individuals with poor or bad credit, are likely having difficulties securing a loan. After all, that’s one of the major consequences of having a credit score lower than 601.

The good news is that there are now more resources than ever before to help those in need of credit repair, or at least finding such information on how to do so. There are also many other alternatives out there for securing personal and business loans as well — without having to go into a local bank and pleading your case.

I’ve personally been a big fan of sites and programs like Paypal Working Capital or Kabbage, as they allow you to instantly get access to cash within minutes. This is the ideal scenario for any business owners or affiliates/bloggers that use online payments to pay for advertising or accepting online payments.

However, as we first started this article off… the majority of people in the country right now don’t have a business of their own, nor do they have a high enough credit score to get approved for most loans.

To help with this process, and to provide as a valuable resource for those already searching around for how to get their hands on money when they are in need — today we will be talking about no credit check cash loans.

While the concept of getting a loan without a credit check sounds amazing… it does come with its associated costs. No credit check loans are one of the few types of loans that even people with less-than-fair credit scores can still qualify for.

How exactly does it work though? What makes it a good option for you?

This post will cover all these and more. I also threw in a few bonus loan application tips, and credit cards that I like to use for running my own business, so keep reading!

The Lowdown on No Credit Check Cash Loans

No credit check loans are what exactly the name suggests. They’re loans that don’t have the need for credit checks.

How so?

It’s because lenders base their decision on a borrower’s repayment ability. In fact, that’s one of the few, if not the only qualifying factor they consider.

In other words, you don’t have to have a good or fair credit to secure one of these loans. You can have a subprime credit and still qualify for that loan you need.

Keep in mind that traditional loans always require formal credit checks. These loans are those that you can get from banks and credit unions. Formal credit checks are the hard checks lenders conduct to determine your creditworthiness.

In essence, these checks tell lenders you have a less-than-stellar credit score. As such, when they find out about your bad or poor score, they’re likely to reject your loan application.

As if that’s not enough, numerous hard checks on your credit can bring your score even lower. So, the more you apply for these conventional loans, the more at risk your credit score becomes.

The Same Day Loan Advantage

Let’s say a bank will still consider approving your application even with your bad credit score.

Granted, it may be not as long as the 30- to 60-day processing of mortgage loans. But the fact remains that it still takes weeks. What’s more, you’re not 100% sure that you’ll get the loan at all.

The good news is, you’ll find same day loan no credit check financing. These loans can help you get out of a financial pinch, such as if you’re facing an emergency expense.

For example, you (or someone in your household) get into an accident and end up in an emergency room. ER visits are quite common, with ERs receiving 136.9 million patients every year. They’re also expensive, with a single visit now at an average cost of $1,917! (photo below is from the CNN article)

In any case, that’s some serious money you may have no means of paying right away. Especially if you’re one of the 55 million individuals who don’t have any emergency savings.

If you find yourself in such a situation, then a no credit check, same day loan may be a good option. To be sure, look for bad credit loans with guaranteed approval. These programs give you the highest likelihood of securing that loan you need ASAP.

What You Need to Qualify for Advanced Cash or Quick Loans

Of course, there are still requirements you need to meet to qualify. However, they’re basic to minimal at most. They’re so much easier to meet than traditional loan requirements.

For starters, you need to be at least 18 years old.
You need to have proof of repayment ability (AKA your monthly income).
Your bank account should also be with a U.S.-based bank.

Having a current personal loan may restrict your qualifications though. That’s because an outstanding loan reduces your ability to repay for another loan. You may still qualify for a no credit check loan, but only for a smaller amount.

Friendly Reminders before Applying for These No Credit Check Financing Programs

It’s true that most people apply for a hardship loan for bad credit because they’re in a financial dilemma. However, before you do the same, it’s important to ensure you can indeed pay back what you’ll owe.

Keep in mind that most online loans have a higher interest rate than traditional loans. That said, make sure you explore and compare all your loan options. Also, if your financial need is more for your startup, be sure to check out your business credit card choices. I’ve had American Express cards for almost 20 years now — as they are great for entrepreneur and business needs, but are also usually catered towards those with higher credit scores.

Even as great as American Express might be, I wouldn’t want to be in their debt and have to pay those hefty late fees and annual interest rates!

Making repayments on time is a must for all loans, but even more so for these “special” loans. They can come with higher missed payment penalties and surcharges. As such, it’s vital you always make the payments on time or you can face expensive but unnecessary fees.

Last but not least, be a responsible borrower! Only apply for a loan amount that you have dire need for. As helpful as these loans are, they’re best for short-term financial needs. Even if you apply and are offered $10k in loans, but you only need $3k… just take what you need, and then pay it off as fast as possible.

Get the Financial Help You Need Now

No credit check cash loans exist for the millions of people out there with poor or bad credit. They’re designed to aid borrowers who otherwise won’t qualify for traditional loans. They also come with the bonus of not further affecting credit scores.

So, if a sudden emergency expense arises, consider applying for this loan. It’s also a good idea in case you’re having trouble making ends meet. But be sure that you can pay it with ease, and always on time. If not, you could end up with a lot more than just late payments and an even worse credit score! 🙁

While we’re on the subject of finances, you may also want to look through a few different ways on how to make money online with little investment. Check out that resource page to know more about your potential online sources of income!