My Domain Has 28% Spam Score & Not Ranking

Hi everyone,


I need some expert advice. I’ve been working on my website for the past 3 months. I bought the domain about 90 days ago, but honestly, I didn’t check its previous history before purchasing — I just saw it was available and assumed it was new.


After around a month, I checked the domain metrics and found it had a 28% spam score, which really surprised me. I’ve only been building quality backlinks from relevant websites, so I couldn’t understand how this happened.


When I analyzed it on SEMrush, I noticed there were a lot of spammy backlinks already pointing to my domain from before. I reported and disavowed those links, but even after another month, the spam score hasn’t dropped — it’s still at 28%.


Now my concern is that my website isn’t ranking anywhere in the top 100 results, even though I’ve optimized the content and backlinks properly. I’m starting to think maybe the domain is penalized or flagged by Google because of its past reputation.


Everything looks fine in Google Search Console, but I’m worried the domain might already be marked as spam.


Can anyone guide me on what to do next?

• Should I keep working on this domain and wait longer for results?
• Or should I start fresh with a new domain?

Spam score doesn't have anything to do with ranking.

What you need is local backlinks for your business. And do a thorough competitor analysis for your niche and see what gaps you can fill to improve your ranking in Google Maps and search.

Keep building quality content and links—if there’s no manual action in GSC, stay patient, disavow bad backlinks regularly, and focus on earning natural mentions to lower spam score over time.

The spam score can take time to drop, even after disavowing bad links. Since there’s no manual penalty in Search Console, I’d stick with the domain for now. You can naturally building high-quality backlinks and fresh informative content. It might take a few more months to recover fully, but starting fresh could just mean more work down the line. Don't be panic bro, patience and consistency are key.

Happens a lot when domains have bad history. Keep disavowing build fresh high quality links and give it more time before switching. Rankings usually recover slowly but steadily.

If the domain has a spammy backlink history and hasn’t improved after disavows or months of clean work, it’s often faster and safer to start fresh with a new domain — especially since it’s only 3 months old and not yet ranking. However, if Google Search Console shows no manual penalty, you can keep the current one for a bit longer and continue building clean, high-quality signals.


Rule of thumb:

• No manual action + good content + patience → wait another 2–3 months.
• If traffic and indexing don’t improve → migrate to a clean, new domain.

Forget it. You've been working on it for 3 months, cleaned up the bad site connections you found, and it's still carrying that heavy baggage. If it's not moving after all that effort, it's likely a dead horse.

28% isn’t that bad. Moz just loves to scare people with numbers.
Clean up any garbage links, build some solid niche ones, and keep dropping fresh content.
If the site’s good, rankings will catch up — just give it some time.

Thunder Digitals said:

Spam score doesn't have anything to do with ranking.

What you need is local backlinks for your business. And do a thorough competitor analysis for your niche and see what gaps you can fill to improve your ranking in Google Maps and search.

Click to expand...

You mean even if the old domain has any penalty, and someone builds a new site on it , there would be no bad effect. I doubt this.

learnandearnwithseo said:

You mean even if the old domain has any penalty, and someone builds a new site on it , there would be no bad effect. I doubt this.

Click to expand...

Having a high spam score doesn't mean you have a penalty. If you think you got a penalty, you need to check it with your GSC. See if there's a manual penalty there or there's an algorithm penalty there.

I often hear people say that spam backlinks don’t affect rankings, but in my experience, that’s not completely true.


For the past three months, my website was facing serious ranking issues. Traffic dropped, and none of my main keywords were improving despite regular SEO work. After doing a detailed backlink audit, I found many spammy and low-quality links pointing to my domain.


I decided to remove and disavow those harmful links, and after some time, I started noticing a small but clear improvement in rankings. One of my important pages related to https://satyamhairtransplant.com/ has slowly begun to move up in search results again.


So from my personal experience, spam backlinks can definitely impact performance, and cleaning them can help recovery. You can even check now — the spam score has reduced compared to before.