What Does It Mean When a Site Has Lots of Ads and No Contact Page?

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When auditing backlink profiles and website quality, certain on-page spam signals jump out immediately. Two classic red flags I spot daily in Ahrefs Site Explorer are the missing contact page and a site that displays more than 5 ads above the fold or scattered throughout the content. Coupled with a backlink profile inflated by thousands of spam domains—like the 3,192 spam domains example I will break down—you quickly realize something is off.

In this post, I’ll cover what these signals actually mean, why spam backlinks can artificially inflate Ahrefs metrics, and how to use Ahrefs Best links with a custom exclusion list to cut through the noise. I’ll also explain how to save default views in Site Explorer to streamline your audits, plus the crucial difference between filtering backlinks and disavowing them.

Why a Missing Contact Page Speaks Volumes About a Site’s Quality

Contact pages aren’t just a courtesy or legal requirement; they are a trust signal. When a site lacks a contact page, it raises these issues:

No transparency: Legitimate businesses and trustworthy websites want users and clients to reach out easily. Avoidance of accountability: Sites with shady motives often hide ways to contact them to avoid complaints or follow-ups. Potential PBN or spam setup: Private Blog Networks (PBNs) and spammy link sellers avoid contact info to keep anonymity.

Combined with other on-page spam signals, this is a huge red flag.

More Than 5 Ads: When Monetization Turns Into Spammy Overload

Ads are everywhere, but sites that jam their pages with more than 5 ads—especially aggressive popups, banner farms, and auto-play videos—show a clear pattern of prioritizing short-term monetization over user experience. Why does this matter for SEO?

Poor user signals: Excessive ads drive bounce rates up and lower dwell time, both of which negatively affect rankings. Quality assessment: Google’s algorithms detect “ad heavy” layouts as low-quality or spammy, impacting the site’s trustworthiness. Correlation with spam backlinks: These sites often rely on masses of low-quality or spammy backlinks to boost rankings artificially.

Case Study: 3,192 Spam Domains Inflating Ahrefs Metrics

Imagine get more info you run a backlink profile through Ahrefs Site Explorer and see this:

Metric Value Referring domains 4,500 Spam domains (identified via audit + blocklist) 3,192 Referring IPs 1,800 Domain Rating (DR) 62 (inflated) URL Rating (UR) 40 (inflated)

At first glance, this looks like a strong backlink profile: thousands of referring domains, solid DR and UR. But the catch is the 3,192 spam domains—this massive chunk is a link farm of low-quality, often automated or PBN-sourced backlinks inflating metrics without real quality or authority.

This is why raw Ahrefs metrics without context can mislead SEOs into thinking a site is authoritative when it's really propped up by spam.

Understanding How Spam Backlinks Inflate Ahrefs Metrics

Ahrefs metrics like Domain Rating and URL Rating https://stateofseo.com/how-do-i-know-if-a-domain-is-a-pbn-network-site/ are powerful but depend on backlink quality and quantity algorithms. A big ball of spammy backlinks can:

Artificially increase DR and UR scores Skew organic traffic estimates Hide underlying quality issues that affect rankings

Without cleaning or excluding spam domains, your Best links feature results in Ahrefs Site Explorer will be too noisy. That’s why I always recommend building and applying a custom exclusion list when analyzing backlink profiles.

Using Ahrefs “Best Links” Feature with a Custom Exclusion List

The “Best links” report in Site Explorer helps you uncover highest-quality backlinks quickly, highlighting:

Links from top DR/DA domains Links with high traffic potential Fresh and relevant links boosting profile authority

However, if you don't apply a custom spam domain exclusion list, the results often show thousands of bad backlinks buried in the results, making it hard to spot genuine link opportunities or threats.

Create your personal blocklist of known spam domains—this should include repetitive offenders you've seen across audits (for me, that's over 250 domains). Filter out domains with missing contact page or more than 5 ads on their sites, identified by snapshot or downloaded data. Apply your blocklist in Ahrefs to exclude these from “Best links” view. Save this filtered view as your default to save hours on future audits.

This process removes the noise and surfaces real backlinks that matter for trust and SEO value.

How to Save a Default View in Site Explorer for Efficient Auditing

Once you have your filters and exclusions set up in Ahrefs, don’t forget to save your default view. Doing this ensures:

You never waste time reapplying custom filters every audit All team members use consistent criteria when evaluating link profiles Cleaner, more accurate backlink data at a glance

To save a default view:

Set your custom filters and exclusions in Site Explorer’s “Backlinks” or “Best links” tab. Click the “Save view” or bookmark the URL with filters applied. Optionally, export the filtered report as CSV or PDF if you want saved historical snapshots.

Filter vs Disavow: Why It Matters for Link Profile Management

Many confuse filtering for analysis with actual disavowing to clean a profile from Google’s viewpoint. Here’s the difference:

Action Description Effect When to Use Filtering Temporary exclusions in tools like Ahrefs to focus on quality links No effect on Google indexing or ranking During audits to analyze and report link profile health Disavowing Submitting spam/my malicious links to Google via disavow tool Google ignores disavowed backlinks when calculating site authority When manual action penalties or real harmful backlinks are confirmed

Tools like Ahrefs don’t actually disavow links for you. They help identify which links to disavow. Many SEOs incorrectly call filters a “spam score” or “disavow score” — don’t fall for that jargon. Always separate analysis from action.

Summary: What Lots of Ads and No Contact Page Really Indicates

A missing contact page is a serious on-page spam signal showing possible low trust or PBN smoke More than 5 ads indicates a potentially annoying or low-quality user experience, another spam marker 3,192 spam backlinks (or similar scale) can mask a poor backlink profile behind inflated Ahrefs DR/UR metrics Applying a custom exclusion list in Ahrefs Best Links cleans your view and helps pinpoint valuable backlinks Saving your filtered views in Site Explorer speeds up your ongoing audits and collaboration Filtering is for analysis; disavowing is for action with Google’s disavow tool — don’t confuse the two

Next time you see a site with lots of ads and no contact page, plus a crazy backlink count, don’t just marvel at the raw metrics. Dig deeper with Ahrefs tools and your own blocklists to separate quality links from spam—and save yourself clicks and hours.

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