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Are all my blog comments spam?

by DavidO
20 replies
I started my blog a couple months ago and the comments started coming in from day one. Problem is they're all spam with unrelated links and throw-away comments. Of course I trash them.

Now I'm getting some from more closely related sites but the comments are still rubbish. In a way I consider these even worse because they're from competing sites in my niche.

So what's a common-sense policy for comments? On the one hand, it really takes comments to make a blog dynamic and interesting but I figure outgoing links, especially to sites in the same niche, are just leeching away my page rank.

Should I consider all comments with links to be spam? Is a comment that genuinely contributes to my blog - but with an outgoing link - ever worth giving away the link?

Wordpress does not appear to tag comments "nofollow". Can I add it manually and would this solve the dilemma?

Thanks for any tips on this.
#blog #comments #spam
  • Profile picture of the author Thomas Buckley
    Have you askimet Spam on you can configure that as the comments may be from the same IP
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  • Profile picture of the author thebitbotdotcom
    In addition to spam aversion scripts, I also add the following rules just above each comment box:

    Commenting Rules


    1. Use your real name as your author name.


    2. Fill out the form completely.


    3. Make thoughtful comments that are relevant to the topic.


    4. Add value to this page.


    5. Do NOT post irrelevant links in your comments.


    Note: Ignore 1-5, get blacklisted.


    You should see how long my list of black listed IPs is getting...

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    • Profile picture of the author Trapped
      Originally Posted by thebitbotdotcom View Post

      In addition to spam aversion scripts, I also add the following rules just above each comment box:

      Commenting Rules


      1. Use your real name as your author name.


      2. Fill out the form completely.


      3. Make thoughtful comments that are relevant to the topic.


      4. Add value to this page.


      5. Do NOT post irrelevant links in your comments.


      Note: Ignore 1-5, get blacklisted.


      You should see how long my list of black listed IPs is getting...
      Fun rules you mention there, especially after i checked your link profile

      However there are several solutions to stop spam, what I usually do is these next 2 steps:
      • Install Askimet and Configure
      • Instal reCaptcha plugin (and this one helps A LOT) and configure
      One third thing I do some times is black list a list of keywords that most of the spammers use and that are completely unrelated to my niche (i usually get medical/drug related keywords on seo site for example), this one helps as well and automatically blacklists those spammers.

      Hope this helps, cheers.
      Astrit
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      • Profile picture of the author hmigroupllc
        Originally Posted by Trapped View Post

        Fun rules you mention there, especially after i checked your link profile

        However there are several solutions to stop spam, what I usually do is these next 2 steps:
        • Install Askimet and Configure
        • Instal reCaptcha plugin (and this one helps A LOT) and configure
        One third thing I do some times is black list a list of keywords that most of the spammers use and that are completely unrelated to my niche (i usually get medical/drug related keywords on seo site for example), this one helps as well and automatically blacklists those spammers.

        Hope this helps, cheers.
        Astrit

        Adding reCaptcha was one of the most effective means of significantly reducing comment spam.

        Since Akismet DOES NOT delete spam, it only moves it to the spam folder, and it sometimes puts non-spam in the spam folder, you still have to review the spam.

        reCaptcha stops most of this except for the most determined spammers.

        reCaptcha is free. Good recommendation here.

        Stay Well

        Wayne Sharer
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  • Profile picture of the author thebitbotdotcom
    After a few months of blogging I have received about 1000 comment attempts.

    About 75% are blocked automatically.

    About 10% are trashed.

    And about 15% are legit and make it through.

    Just some stats.
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael R.
    If you want to publish comments on your site but don't want to have outgoing links, you can always change the way comments are displayed.

    Most of the time, wordpress themes display comments with the standard wordpress function "comments_template" which formats the author name and url.

    Here is the corresponding PHP-Code (file wp-includes/comment-template.php):



    In the line

    the link to the url with the author name as anchor text is 'created'.

    You may change this to whatever you want, e.g. if you want to display the authorname like this:
    author (website)
    without a link, you can change the line above to


    I didn't test it, but it should work .
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    • Profile picture of the author DavidO
      Thanks for some great tips!
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  • Profile picture of the author Sheryl Polomka
    David I agree with everyone else, use the askimet plugin and that will automatically discard a lot of them for you.

    I also have a statement just above my comments box on one site that I use 'commentluv' saying that if the comment doesn't contribute to the conversation then it will not be approved.

    It's unfortunate that the majority of comments are just spam, but that's just the way it is I'm afraid.
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  • Profile picture of the author jazbo
    Putting rules on the page won't help. Most are scraped lists of relevant blogs with relevant comments posted automatically. So they are relevant, but automated. Depends how much you want comments.
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  • Profile picture of the author socialbookmark
    Your issue is very likely to be sapm. Both Askimet and Recaptcha can help you. Also make your comment nofollow. And one of the best ways is to ban the users you think are spammers by their IP address.
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  • Profile picture of the author simbat
    Whatever the Comment is, it is counted as traffic , if you put some restrictions you will lose them.Also it means site update on Google .
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    There's nothing dynamic and interesting about spam comments whether from your competitors (and why would you give a competitor a link?) or from the average general spammer. Get rid of them and make your content interesting enough that real people want to comment. Ask a question in your post to get people to answer it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rinz
    Find a sentence or two in the articles that you are agree with, then leave a positive comment about it and add some added value to your comment. Include the related keywords to your comments, the blog owners will think that you are helping him optimizing their targeted keywords.
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    • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
      Originally Posted by Rinz View Post

      Find a sentence or two in the articles that you are agree with, then leave a positive comment about it and add some added value to your comment. Include the related keywords to your comments, the blog owners will think that you are helping him optimizing their targeted keywords.
      Too bad you didn't read the OP and the thread... (can you read?)

      The thread is not about how to make spam comments but how to avoid them

      Do you really believe blog owners are that stupid to approve your spam, thinking you "are helping" them...?
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    • Profile picture of the author forfun_cash
      Originally Posted by Rinz View Post

      Find a sentence or two in the articles that you are agree with, then leave a positive comment about it and add some added value to your comment. Include the related keywords to your comments, the blog owners will think that you are helping him optimizing their targeted keywords.
      sounds like spam lol
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    • Profile picture of the author hmigroupllc
      Originally Posted by Rinz View Post

      Find a sentence or two in the articles that you are agree with, then leave a positive comment about it and add some added value to your comment. Include the related keywords to your comments, the blog owners will think that you are helping him optimizing their targeted keywords.

      I will actually select comments such as you suggest and highlight them to my readers as spam.

      This thread is how to prevent spam. Not how to do it.

      Nice job spamming the thread.

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    • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Rinz View Post

      Find a sentence or two in the articles that you are agree with, then leave a positive comment about it and add some added value to your comment. Include the related keywords to your comments, the blog owners will think that you are helping him optimizing their targeted keywords.

      Yeah right. You actually think we're that stupid that we can't weed out the spam like you mentioned above? I delete crap like that all the time.
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      • Profile picture of the author addice
        Haha, but seriously, it's also another tough job maintaining comments, isn't it?
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  • Profile picture of the author Ldimilo
    Just get rid of the ability to comment if you really have an issue with it. The only good comments are for the site is that adding comments may (or may not) get search bots returning to your site AND it gives the appearance that your website is active (or not, if you aren't getting comments). There is also the benefit of added content but usually this is negligible because frankly, even social comments from real people rarely add in themed keywords into their blurbs. (if you believe that keyword density plays a role in ranking, then a lot of comments can actually ruin your on page SEO)

    More beneficial these days are viral options....facebook likes, re-tweets...that kind of stuff. At least then you are getting more interaction with more potential benefit for your site.

    A comment about how much they like your page/website or how cool you are does absolutely nothing in terms of organic search. A social validation? Ego stroke? Perhaps.....get rid of them if your intention isn't to be social.
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  • Profile picture of the author abs007
    ahh askimet - how silly am i - I didnt even look into this one - I too always get the same spammy comments - your post is great ....etc with no real value and then a url to their site and anchor text as the name -

    Ive now disabled all comments on pages older then 14 days - but still not a good solution for blogs that get updated frequently - I will also see if i can add a captcha - hopefully this will stop alot of the spam
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