Reputation

How the wider web vouches for you — blocklists, breach databases, certificates and history.

0.11 of the composite score

Why does this matter — for rankings, traffic and trust?

Reputation is scored by parties who never visit your site. Inbox providers check DNS blocklists before accepting your mail; browsers and antivirus vendors bundle blocklist feeds; enterprise procurement runs breach-database checks on vendors. A listing you did not know about can silently end your email deliverability and your enterprise deals at the same time.

Several reputation signals are structural rather than behavioral: domain age and web-archive history (a domain with five years of honest history is trusted more than a week-old registration, whatever the content), certificate-issuance patterns, and presence in breach dumps. These favor consistency — the same owner, the same story, accumulated over time — which is why reputation repairs are slow and reputation protection is cheap.

For marketing, this axis is the "will the safe answer cite us" axis. AI assistants and comparison sites prefer sources without trust anomalies; a blocklisted or breach-associated domain rarely survives a trust review, no matter how good the content is.

Every signal in this division — exactly what the engine checks

DNS blocklistsw8Find and fix the listing cause (spam or malware), then request delisting at each blocklist.

data breachesw8Rotate credentials exposed in the listed breaches and notify affected users.

domain agew4A young domain earns less trust — publish verifiable identity (about page, org details, Organization schema).

domain expiryw4Keep registration ≥ 1 year out; enable auto-renew.

popularity (Tranco)w3

certificate volumew3An unusual volume of CT-logged certs can indicate shared or abused infrastructure.

web-archive historyw2Trigger an archive.org Save-Page-Now snapshot to start building public history.

carbon efficiencyw2Lighter pages emit less: compress images, trim JS, choose a green host.

How to fix it

What commonly causes failures here

A blocklisted IP or domain — often inherited from a previous owner or a shared mail host.
Aggressive sending patterns (sudden volume, spam-trap hits) tripping Spamhaus/Barracuda/SpamCop.
Credentials at your domain appearing in a public breach dump (staff reusing passwords).
A brand-new domain with zero archive history carrying commercial claims.
Unusual certificate volume — many unrelated certs issued for the domain (shared or abused infrastructure).

Check and repair, from a terminal

Reputation problems are found by looking, and fixed by procedure: check the lists, delist where flagged, then keep the hygiene that prevents relisting.

Query the blocklists that matter (DNSBL)

# Spamhaus (zone is zen.spamhaus.org; 127.255.255.x answers mean query errors)
dig +short A 10.113.0.203.zen.spamhaus.org

# Barracuda
dig +short A 10.113.0.203.b.barracudacentral.org

# SpamCop
dig +short A 10.113.0.203.bl.spamcop.net
# (reverse the octets of your mail server IP; empty answer = not listed)

Check breach exposure and certificate history

# Have I Been Pwned — has the domain appeared in any breach?
curl -s "https://haveibeenpwned.com/api/v3/breaches?domain=example.com" | jq '.[].Name'

# Certificate log — who issued what for your name?
curl -s "https://crt.sh/?q=example.com&output=json" | jq '.[0:5] | .[].issuer_name'

If you ARE listed — the delisting procedure

1. Find WHICH list: the query above (or mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx).
2. Fix the CAUSE before requesting removal:
   - open relay / compromised script / infected workstation → close it
   - spam-trap hits → prune dead addresses, re-confirm opt-ins
3. Request removal at the list's own form (Spamhaus: check.spamhaus.org).
4. Keep authentication green (SPF/DKIM/DMARC — see Foundations) so
   reputation and deliverability recover together.

Building history the honest way

# Consistency compounds — a checklist, not a command:
- one continuous registration (no drops/re-registers)
- accurate, stable WHOIS/RDAP data
- real content from day one (not parked, not cloned)
- mail sent only with authentication, warming volume gradually
- the Wayback Machine will start vouching for you within months

Continue with the other divisions

DiscoverabilityCan search engines — and AI systems — find, crawl and understand your …AI-ReadinessCan AI assistants ingest, trust, and cite your content when they answe…SpeedHow fast your pages load and respond — on the phone first, then the de…FoundationsThe infrastructure under the name: DNS, registry health, and whether y…SecurityThe connection, the content and the headers that protect both — and th…

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