So You Think Wordpress Comment Spam Works?

by jack on December 3, 2009

One of the terrible problems trying to learn how to run an online business is the thousands of voices out there telling you what to do, all contradicting everyone else.  Take one example, putting comments on someone else’s wordpress blog.

Sounds good, because wordpress by default let’s you put in your name and your website address, and then hyperlinks to your site with your name.

The trouble came when some crafty marketers came along and started telling everyone to not put their name in the name field, but to put the keywords you want to rank for.  What happened next was a whole lot of crazy commenting from people with names that sounded a whole lot like the latest pharmaceutical discoveries.

Is this something you dabble in?

If so, you will want to pay close attention to a recent statement from google.  As expected, they know all about this craziness, and not only devalue spammy wordpresss comment links, but they also devalue the power of the entire blog, and they give it a justification of saying if the blog is unattended, and spammers have control, then the site loses credibility.

Google’s comment spam remarks are waking up the industry and the webmasters that run blogs, alerting them to this problem, and helping both sides understand why all that effort to develop a site might be going down the toilet.

They are super nice folks, and provide step by step instructions on what to do if your blog is overrun with spam, or if you have actively been spamming blogs to get backlinks to your site.

It might take some time to get things fixed, but it looks like you can recover, so be sure to read google’s latest guidance and follow the instructions if this problem applies to you.

It underscores why creating high quality original content and keeping your site organized is still the best way to creating a viable online business.

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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

@nbconsulting December 3, 2009 at 6:55 pm

@jackSinclair Do you have any good #spamjokes ?

Eric December 4, 2009 at 6:31 pm

Hmmm, the thing is that most blogs use nofollow links in the comments. So, google should not be adding any value (positive or negative) to any nofollow links right? Or does your post just apply to blogs with dofollow links?

However, I could definitely see google devaluing a blog that is over-run with spam. That makes sense to me.

jack December 7, 2009 at 9:30 am

Eric,

Even with most blogs set to use “nofollow”, there is still a lot of evidence that providing relevent quality feedback in a comment on a blog, with a link to your site, is a great way to build your site’s authority.

Google even said recently they do not really ignore nofollow links.

Peter December 9, 2009 at 2:24 pm

I get tons of attempted comments now from the spammers but the Askimet does filter them out quite well.

Question – does Google pick up on these if the comments are not approved and filtered into spam?

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