Now that I have a blog, I’m seeing the whole issue of comments from a different perspective. So as the internet marketing big shots say lately, let’s pull back the velvet curtain and see what’s really going on back there.
What’s going on is lots of spam.
So let me fill you in on what it looks like and what that means for those of us who care about blogging.
What spam looks like
Some spam is easy to spot. A jumble of keywords that you’d recognize from the rest of your spam. Or long strings of related terms about shoes, replica watches or whatever.
This spam comes from domain names that make no sense or are about topics that do not relate to the blog in any way.
Some spam is difficult to detect. At first glance it appears to endorse your content and compliment the blog owner. But as you read more slowly, you see that it doesn’t quite fit. It talks about how much they enjoy what you write or how valuable your ideas are, but they don’t quite mesh with the post in question or the overall intent of the blog. They’re sufficiently generic to be used on any number of blogs. And they probably are!
Why would anyone do this?
I’d guess it’s to create “Google love” by creating backlinks that tell Google that my website likes their website by posting a link to it.
The solution is in the hands of those of us who comment on the blogs of others. We have to post comments that are sufficiently specific and relevant that they are clearly written for that one blog.
This doesn’t mean that comments have to be long. The blogging culture welcomes posts of all lengths. Succinct is fine.
Here’s something else that’s important:
Some bloggers post lots of blog comments to create backlinks to their own websites. But ironically, many blogs create no backlinks at all even though their owners may think they allow for functioning backlinks.
This was true for my blog for awhile. It did not allow backlinks and I didn’t know it. Then I learned about SEObook and installed its Firefox toolbar. Now when I am reading someone else’s blog, I click on a certain icon and “nofollow” links are highlighted in red. This means that comments posted on the blog are not recognized by Google. (SEObook provides other info too.)
Good to know.
Diana,
I agree. For a long time spam was easy to spot because they all had multiple links. It was easy to get rid of because I set my blog to hold any comments containing more than one link.
Now spam commenters are getting smarter. But they’re still randomly posting comments rather than actually becoming part of the conversation.
I “love” it when someone posts the exact same comment on 5 of my posts, at the same time. Do I look that stupid?
Commenting on blogs is like every other social media tool. There really is no shortcut. You have to actually read what someone else says and then make an appropriate comment.
Thanks for writing about a topic that has been bugging me for a while.
Akismet catches almost all of my spam and I have to approve the first comment. I created a comment policy that says no keywords in name, you have to use your name and your comment has to be relevant. I like your blog or post doesn’t cut it.
I like the comments about making money blogging. If it is so wonderful, why do you spend your day spamming blogs?
I use DoFollow to allow backlinks. WordPress doesn’t allow backlinks by default. I use DoNoFollow to see if a blog backlinks. SEObook looks pretty good. I had not heard of that. Great information!
George, I agree, Akismet is a must. It catches everything and then some. I hadn’t really checked my spam comments folder until I received a tweet in response to a blog post, saying they enjoyed it and had left a comment. I hadn’t seen it and there it was, among all the “Great content, I love your blog, the best I’ve ever read, stuff”.
I wholeheartedly recommend Akismet.