This is a guest post from Duncan who is an online marketing specialist and keen blogger representing an online vases retailer
There is a very common SEO technique for building links called “blog comment spamming”. This is very different from “blog commenting” and it is important that a distinction be made before we go any further. Blog commenting is taking a genuine interest in the blog post and leaving constructive feedback or questions in the comment section that ‘adds’ something to the post. Blog comment spamming on the other hand involves not evening reading the post in most cases and leaving some truly generic or mindless comment for the sole purpose of gaining a link. Most importantly, blog comment spamming often ‘takes’ something away from the post and in my opinion is not good for SEO for the following reasons.
1.) Power Falls Off Quickly
It would be very hard for me to preach about the flaws in blog comment spamming without having any experience of the technique. So, whilst I’m not particularly proud of the fact, and at the risk of sounding like a hypercritic, I have testing this technique properly. Initially I have seen gains in search engine rankings as a result of doing this, but in my experience there is very little longevity in the power given by such comment links. All the SEO techniques I use are aimed at providing sustainable results and comment spamming cannot provide this. If you are wanting to rank sites using comment spamming you are going to be stepping onto a treadmill that is very hard to get off, because if you stop running you and your site will fall flat on its face.
2.) Bad Public Relations
Despite how clever you think you’re being, spammy comment links stand out a mile and legitimate blog readers hate them as much as the blog owners themselves. You could probably get away with a few spammy links here and there, but once you start committing yourself to more regular spammy activity, you’re in real danger of hurting your credibility. Have a think about it…would your purchase the goods or services of a site that you have seen spamming blogs left, right and centre? Most people wouldn’t, so if you don’t want your brand damaged by cheap link building techniques, you should limit such activities.
Here is an example of blatent comment spam on one of the UK’s most powerful websites
3.) Google Knows
Lots of SEOs claim that Google (and other search engines) cannot tell the difference between spammy comment links and those links that are else ware on the page. I don’t believe this to be true, based largely on the evidence mentioned earlier about comment links losing their power relatively quickly. Additionally, Google is by no means stupid and can identify comment scripts very easily on most blogs. With this in mind, all it takes is for Google to decide they want to seriously de-value all comment links and wham! There goes all your “hard” work.
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Twitter: TechPatio
says:
“With this in mind, all it takes is for Google to decide they want to seriously de-value all comment links and wham! There goes all your “hard” work. ”
That’s a risk we have with most thing SEO-related, I’m afraid. If/when Google doesn’t like it anymore or wants to change something, everybody can be in danger. That’s the problem with Google being so big, they have the power to easily destroy businesses that relies on search engine rankings.
.-= Klaus @ TechPatio is hoping you stop by and read Comment Spam, She’s Back: Dr. Ann Voisin From Linda Christas College =-.
I agree that Google has more power than I am comfortable with, but we can still use more secure SEO techniques that stand a greater chance of counting in the algo further down the line
Twitter: DennisEdell
says:
Barring a Googler coming to work drunk, no one is going to smack down anything “white-hat”. Just do the right thing and you will survive pretty much anything.
.-= Dennis Edell is hoping you stop by and read UPDATED – $100 – 10 Winners – Comment Contest! ‘Till Months End… =-.
Twitter: ryanogs
says:
I do not mind spammers as long as they post a legtimate comment, if they put a link to their site along with this then I am more than happy to accept.
I’m more than happy to allow comments with a link if they add value like Duncan said. It’s the people that say “skfdkfsls” with a link to their site. That was my favorite one. I enjoy clicking the spam button with these fooooools.
Well people posting legitimate comments are no more spammers. But those like me who read topic, read comments and add something using the fact that they can add value to their company as well. I do not consider myself a spammer because all I am doing is the same as other users who post comments.
Regards
Twitter: Ileane
says:
I’m finding more and more spam everyday. I know that some of it is automated and Akismet is catching most of it, but it’s still a pain to look through, hoping to see one from a real blogger that got caught by mistake.
Thanks for the info. Nice to see you guest posting here.
.-= Ileane @Blogging is hoping you stop by and read Diigo Extension for Google Chrome Browser =-.
Twitter: DennisEdell
says:
I check SPAM at LEAST once per day, sometimes multiple times per day; whenever I’m in my blog. That way you should have a very manageable amount each time.
.-= Dennis Edell is hoping you stop by and read Must You Title Your Titles? =-.
Twitter: money_whisper
says:
I totally agree with you. Unfortunately some people get caught by Akismet even if they are not spammers and many blog owners don’t go through their spam messages.
Twitter: madhatter7zero
says:
I hope that a lot of spammers come to read your post here and I hope they learn a lesson from it. I myself never leave any comments on a blog post unless I find it interesting and can add something relevant to the post. I would never want my small business or comments I leave related to it to be seen as spam. That would be so embarrassing.
.-= David is hoping you stop by and read Mens 2X2 Ribbed Beanie Agean Stripes =-.
Twitter: danalingga
says:
Does Google really know? I think Google reduce the juice from commenting because they do not really know of it.
.-= Dana @ Blogging Update is hoping you stop by and read 4 Things That Slow Down My Blogging and The Solutions =-.
Twitter: ChrisGuthrie
says:
If you think that comments lose link equity so quickly then why do you think regular comments are a worth while tactic to build links?
.-= Chris Guthrie@Make Money on the Internet is hoping you stop by and read phpZon Pro Plugin Review and Contest Giveaway =-.
I never said it was a “worth while tactic”, all I said was it works, for a short time at least. Doing it regularly might get you some results, but as soon as you stop, out you drop. I personally feel more sustainable SEO is a better route to take
Twitter: DennisEdell
says:
Commenting shouldn’t even be used as a link building tactic; rather a relationship building tactic.
.-= Dennis Edell is hoping you stop by and read How Do You Cover SEO *Per Post*? =-.
Twitter: Ian__P
says:
Comment spam is one of those things about blogging that pisses me off (not as much as autoplay audio or video though). It is really idiotic on the part of the spammer, and as you say, it is bad public relations – if you spam me I’m not going to think “oh great, I’ll buy some of that”, but rather “f@#%ing dickhead, piss off and die”.
I will always delete comments if they are completely irrelevant to what they are supposedly commenting on, if I think they are relevant comments but still spammy, I keep the comment but delete the links.
.-= Ian is hoping you stop by and read Oh my god! My eyes, my eyes ….. there’s vaginas on the TV =-.
Twitter: DennisEdell
says:
Heh! That’s exactly what I do too, as long as the comment is half decent.
Don’t forget to delete the CommentLuv link also if you use the plugin.
.-= Dennis Edell is hoping you stop by and read Blog Feed Subscriptions – The Methods to My Madness – Part 1. =-.
I agree with Klaus. As annoying as it may be to have someone spamming away to get that link, I think MOST companies (even larger companies) are guilty of having done this. If Google does in the future decide to detect spammers, not only will it hurt those businesses (as it probably should), but it could also agitate everyone just enough to move to another search engine that doesn’t have spiders that detect spammers which in turn will hurt Google. What do you think?
when you say “agitate everyone”, what you really mean is agitate spammers and maybe some website owners. Seeing as these people make up a minuscule amount of the people who use Google, I don’t think Big G has to worry about that
Twitter: cks1988
says:
Yes, you are right! I think the blog comment spamming is really contributing to the bad relationship to the public especially in the blogosphere. Our name might be blacklisted in the world wide web system. If we really wish to keep our clean and good appearance in internet, we should not do the blog comment spamming.
.-= KS Chen is hoping you stop by and read Use Google Adwords Keyword Tool for Keyword Research =-.
Twitter: steve_wlw
says:
“Thanks for this great post:)”
Kidding, Kidding I hate generic spam comments like that and I see them way too often.
I still don’t see the benefit in spending so much time and effort in leaving spammy comments that will just get deleted anyway.
On my weight loss site the akismet plugin has stopped 59,198 spam comments to date and they just keep on coming. Seems like a waste to me.
Steve
.-= Steve@ Weight Loss is hoping you stop by and read Running with Nike Plus =-.
Twitter: moonheart85
says:
Google is going more smarter than before, google can easily caught the commen t spam, so google now recommend not to put the link where already lots of comment spam.
.-= chandan@work at home jobs is hoping you stop by and read Few quality link can help you for get rank on search engine =-.
Twitter: geniusgeeks
says:
I always prefer to be on secure side. Google is smart enough to catch anyone on the internet. Apart from that I hate links in the comment section as it might misguide my valuable commenter. It is all about morality.
.-= Ricky is hoping you stop by and read Simplegant 1.1 WordPress Theme Is Coming Soon-Need Beta Testers =-.
Twitter: DennisEdell
says:
1. If the blogger is doing his/her moderation correctly, assuming Akismet missed it, there shouldn’t be ANY visible SPAM….definitely not the automated link type.
2. #2 is the most important. As I replied to another commenter above, commenting shouldn’t even be used as a link building tactic; rather a relationship building tactic.
.-= Dennis Edell is hoping you stop by and read UPDATED – $100 – 10 Winners – Comment Contest! ‘Till Months End… =-.
Twitter: pctutor
says:
I love seeing more information about how spam is bad marketing. I don’t think it will ever be eliminated completely because there will always be stupid people in the world, but every little bit helps.
I recently caught a spammer, and now he’s crying like a baby with a 3-week old rash. Full story: http://tinyurl.com/yzmakqc
Keep up the great work!
.-= Scott is hoping you stop by and read Reading websites that are hard to read =-.
I think what is more worrying is the fact that Google knows there is no viable way to get links to ones site, other than things like “commenting on blogs.” Nobody cares to give you a link these days, unless you have a big wallet. So Google should understand this, and give all the Mom and Pop bloggers much more space and not squeeze them out.
I do agree that those blatant comment spammers are really shameless and cross all boundaries. Normally, they are outsourced commentators, so they don’t give a sh*t about their “link building.” The problem lies in the growing industry of “buy 1000 blog comments for $50″ racket going on….
I totally agree. In order to compete with spammers, smaller businesses have to generate backlinks some how. Blogging and commenting on forums is the most cost effective way. I don’t have thousands of dollars to buy links from people. I also agree with the outsourcing comment. A lot of “businesses” selling link building services are just out there for a quick buck. I guess the best way is to do it the right way and let GoogleKarma work out for you.
Twitter: tnsblog
says:
I’m finding more and more spam everyday……….lol.:)
Twitter: BlazingMinds
says:
Little buggers get everywhere
Twitter: selurus
says:
I guess these comment spammers are using programs to post their spammy comments. I’ve installed conditional captcha, on the recommendation from a reader recently, hopefully that’ll help.
I think since the show Lost is coming to an end…we could ship all the automated spammers out to the island & let the smoke monster eat them. Otherwise, we just have to keep blacklisting & deleting.
Many people try to tell others that comment spam is bad but, the real PITA guys don’t care.
My fav spammers are the ones for SEO companies that their site tells you they will build you quality links. ROFLOL!
.-= Sheryl@Blogging Crap is hoping you stop by and read No More Free NING Sites =-.
i think add backlinklink to “website” section is OK as long as we dont put it on “Comment” section…:)
CMIIW
I think spamming is bad especially if you happen to put spamming with blog commenting on the same picture. But on manual blog commenting, although taxing will give good results.
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I sure hope Google doesn’t devalue genuine comments. I use GASP which requires that a commenter at least be a human. When a comment is obvious spam (didn’t read the article, inserts links, etc.) I delete it. But comments are one of the few ways we humans can compete with automated systems.
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