Comments on: Harder Facts About Comment Spam

By: Andy Beard

Andy Beard — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:55:19 +0000

There should be a penalty, not sure who you are agreeing with – if you have comments you should respect your users enough to moderate them if there are links.

By: John

John — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:44:18 +0000

Very interesting! I would have to agree that there shouldn’t be a penalty made to the site/blog owner because of the comments on their blog. It’s all part of SEO and many search marketing experts use the SEO tactic of blog comments to drive traffic. However, if the comment is relevant to the blog/article, then what will really be considered in this change?

By: Mathdelane

Mathdelane — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 23:30:51 +0000

This is definitely alarming to think that an innocent blogger could get penalized by Google for housing comment spam. Good thing is that I’ve noticed something like paid commentators using several keywords (back in the days when I was still using KeywordLuv) while pointing to the same site. I immediately deleted and unlink some of them, created and strictly implemented a comment policy up to know.

One thing I’ve noticed though, there was one keyword (actually a website URL but not hyperlinked) left in the comments in one of my posts that appears on Google Webmasters tools happened to appear on the searches and this only means that comments are now being indexed by Google too.

Having said that, it tries to imply that bloggers/webmasters must be vigilant in safeguarding their sites otherwise ignorance is not an excuse.

By: Andy Beard

Andy Beard — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 09:24:57 +0000

This is the blog you linked to
http://www.hearing-aid-comparisons.com

You are running an Amazon thin affiliate blog with slightly reworded descriptions and scraped comments for a product range that is clearly B2C without any form of clear disclosure about your material connection/affiliate status.

There isn’t really much added value or transparency is there?

By: Darrin

Darrin — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 01:38:03 +0000

What really bothers me the most is how Google dictates so much of the online world. I really have come to dislike them and having to work around them. Although I may agree with some of the things you referenced from Google I still feel like they have way too much control.

By: Christina

Christina — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 05:51:15 +0000

Thanks for sharing the links…actually I got a bit confused but when I read the links you provided..well I guess, it’s good news. Most of the time I read blogs to learn some, earn some and to share some, and if they are going to penalize those that allow spammy comments posted on their site, the better. It’s more of respecting your readers just like you said.

By: FTC: “No Intention To Sue Bloggers…”

FTC: “No Intention To Sue Bloggers…” — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 19:40:02 +0000

[...] tend to react emotionally whenever word “blogger” and “lawsuit” are mentioned in the same sentence. [...]

By: Andy Beard

Andy Beard — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:47:48 +0000

Google used to use similar language about trust with paid links

If your comments are full of very obvious spam, Google can certain see that, maybe also switch your site to safe search only if they feel things are not under control, even if you have nofollowed links.
They can tell if you are linking to sites hosting malware, even with nofollow.

Here is a fun topic…

Are you Dean Saliba still posting comments pointing to a blog network you supposedly sold to “Steven Richardson?”
or
Are you “Steven Richardson” pretending to still be Dean?

Using the Backtype trick it is clear that Dean Saliba was the owner of the linked domain, sold at the beginning of November.

By: paik

paik — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:24:03 +0000

I too have often post on Google Webmaster and receive spam. But as well as the previous comment might be a little clearer? I do not understand how google can penalize the owner of a blog.
Thanks

By: Andy Beard

Andy Beard — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:08:57 +0000

Certainly a product or service owner seems to have some obligations to train anyone who might be in some way affiliated, and to monitor the blogosphere.

I am not sure where this fits in with site owners – if a site is intended to be a consumer reviews site I owuld expect some kind of unbiased moderation, but I am not sure how that should be handled in extreme cases.