Comments by Phentermine (or Atlanta Real Estate..) same difference
November 7, 2007
As if there wasn’t enough for a blogger (especially one that uses do follow) to worry about…There’s a new insidious form of blog comment spamming going on out there. The tough part is that a lot of really nice folks don’t even realize that they are doing it, so I thought I’d at least provide some history on why and how it works–and why you shouldn’t do it…
When leaving a blog comment, it is generally good form to leave a MEANINGFUL comment…not just “Nice post” or other such tripe. But the other convention is the “NAME” field…some folks have taken to naming themselves cool names like “Atlanta Real Estate” or “Keyword1 Keyword2″. Why do they do this? Anchor text….simple as that. They are spamming and they may not realize it (but probably do…)
Anchor text is becoming more important in search engine algorithms and so folks are stuffing keywords into the name section of their comments. Here’s a link to what one of the leading SEO practitioners in the country says about it:
Aaron Wall lists it as a SPAMMY way NOT to build links…I respect Aaron and his book…a must read.
Scroll down to #80 on his list…BTW-His ideas for good link building I’d agree with most all of them.
So how do fix this as do follow bloggers?
It takes a little bit of work. One way is to use Lucia’s Link Love plugin to limit the amount of characters that a person can use in their “Name” field to 14 or something like that. If they are over…it is no followed. But that is a little bit unfair to legit folks who actually DO have long names…(grin)
The best way IMO is to educate your blog readers. Feel free to link to this post and point out to them that what they are doing is out of line. Be kind. They probably do not know that they are doing it.
Final thought–if they do not cooperate. Delete their comments and ban them from making anymore. They are not a true part of your readership if they are there just to get link love back to their site. If you are serious about blogging and putting good content up, then you will need to stand up to those who arrogantly DEFACE your asset for their own personal gain. And make no mistake. That is what they are doing.
Thanks Eric! I try to put thoughtful comments on blogs but I have been guilty in the past of short comments as well as keyword signatures in my comments.
But no more! Wayne the spammer has been reformed.
I think your points are well made and I for one will not be the downfall of the do follow blogs.
I appreciate your pointing this out too, Eric. As a newbie to blog commenting, I have not yet been doing much of it. Knowing the proper guidelines will surely help. Sometimes it’s not knowing or understanding the little things that can get you into the most trouble.
Hey Ben (and Wayne);
Yeah…there was a great thread on it on Real Estate Webmasters a while back, but I couldn’t find it this morning..(I looked.) I am going to find it and include it in the post.
Why is it coming up now? Because I am seeing more and more of it two GREAT blogs I frequent and contribute to..Bloodhound Blog and Real Estate Blog lab…see right column.
Dave Smith and Greg Swann are two great guys and when people start using their sites for spam, it really bugs me. They spend TONS of time generating truly awesome blogs and don’t deserve that from the real estate community IMO.
Best
Eric
Eric,
You may have been looking for the blind leading the blind post I made at AR, not at REW – maybe not though. If so, here is the link – activerain.com/blogsview/171401/SEO-Tunnel-Vision-The
I was amazed to see so many people using “Area Real Estate” as their first name in their profile field, and that this was actually being taught be a respected web designer of that community. I mean the field is called “FIRST NAME” not “Enter keyword here”
One trend I have been seeing on the more pleasant side, is that members at REW Forums who originally signed up as “Alpharetta Real Estate Agent” are realizing that as they participate in the community, they are earning the respect of other members, and building their reputation – as such it is best practice to be transparent and allow people to get to know you as YOU not some keyword – Guys like Ryan Ward, Bob Crain etc are leading the way, and really seem to understand that what we do here in the social networking medium is way more about building relationships, than it is about back links.
@Morgan-
Great to have you post here! Exactly! We all learn and grow as we go here. REW is and has been the BEST place for web savvy or wanting to be web savvy real estate folks to learn and ask questions.
Tranparency is the only foundation that solid relationships are built on.
Speaking of relationships. I have learned a ton from you directly as well as at the forum. I haven’t said it lately–Thanks.
Hi Eric,
I think this is the first time I’ve posted a comment in a blog other than a REW blog. I may be wrong, but it is certainly one of only a few times at best. I saw Wayne’s REW thread and couldn’t resist a comment.
Anchor text issues aside, I’ve been leery (and will remain so) of blog comments as I see blog comments the next thing Google will come down on. Even though your intentions are pure, I can see even this blog being a target for Google if the same 20-30 folks are commenting. And of course, the same 20-30 folks are commenting on each other’s blogs.
In looking through a few of the comments left on past blog posts, I can see a pattern of the same visitors posting comments.
Anyway, just my thoughts. Not sure if a past Google penalty has me shell-shocked these days, but my thoughts are certainly worth a consideration here.
Hi Joe!
Great point. For the record, the reason only a few people have posted here is 100% because the blog just got started fairly recently. The only folks who knew about it were close friends. I consider you a friend as well and you have not commented here before (I assuming that you did not know about my blog as well.)
As for what Google will devalue next…it is what it is. My point here, as I have tried to make with scoial media like Squidoo and Active Rain (which you do a fair amount of if memory serves..)is that quality posts, comments and LESS spam make it a great way for conversations to happen and authority to truly be built online.
Squidoo had an issue, cleaned it up (in some measure–people still spam them, but there are more reasonable controls IMO and Google’s apparently) and they have been rewarded.
My goal is to keep conversation methods online open and free of as much spam as possible. Whether they be forums, social networking sites, blogs, swickis or whatever..isn’t it all the same thing?
BTW-Wonderful to have you drop by…PLEASE feel free to comment whenever you find something interesting here…there are a lot of people who could learn a ton about SEO from your experience. I know I have.
Best
Eric
Cheering along with the rest of the respondees:
Great points as usual, Eric.
Taking it just a step further, persons that may be uncomfortable using their real names on the internet (for spam, stalkers, or whatever), should adopt a “handle” – and ideally, something that is NOT keyword related.
This allows them to remain a degree of privacy (albeit very small), and still communicate with others without having the appearance of being a spam-machine.
And as the relationships develop, you can then be more open as to who/what/where you are etc, as you become more comfortable with the others you are speaking with.
Lydia has the same problem with comment posters on her blog. We go back and edit the comments to use the poster’s real name (if we know it or can figure it out from the link).
Sometimes though you just can’t figure out who the person is. Then comes the hard part: do you delete a legitimate comment just because it may be ‘spammy’? At this time we have been leaving them up there because they are still providing content to the blog.
I think most people would agree that links from blog comments are pretty low value anyway. As soon as the word gets out, maybe people will stop spamming blogs with comments and great dialog will ensue. Or at least we hope so!
Eric – I think you are brave to open your blog to the do-follow movement. The biggest drawback for me has been looking at the askimet module’s number of spam postings and thinking – what a major job it would be to manage all the spam links coming in.
I am not negative on the idea, just careful.
Glenn–
I don’t know you (at least I don’t think I do.grin.), but I am pleased to meet you. Being a do follow blog does not require bravery. It requires effort. I no follow anyone that I think is commenting on my blog just to get links.
I like the idea of the plugin that Dax modded for Greg Boser for individually routing out spam. I downloaded it the other day to try it out (haven’t yet), but for now, I just edit ‘em by hand but I applaud the effort.
In short, it requires more effort to do this…if it becomes too much of a pain in the butt, I will just no follow them all and say to heck with it, much like Matt Cutts did (at least apparently…) a few months ago. I can do it lose / lose or win /win. And I reserve the right to revise my thoughts at a moment’s notice and without cause (grin–saying that was fun!). If the search engines start to view do follows as a bad thing, then off they go as well.
I think that is a real possibility with the current popularity of blog commenting (grin).
In general, this blog is about SEO here in the LOCAL Southern Indiana and Louisville area, yet because of my friendship with many in the real estate community, I find a lot of real estate related folks commenting on what I have said and joining the conversation. I am pleased to have them all here and holding a conversation at “my place”. As long as the conversation is actually a conversation and not a spam fest…I am fine with it…if I think someone is just adding to a post in order to get links–no follows WILL follow. Spamming is the one thing that would kill the do follow movement.
I also will kill it off if I think there are organised efforts to chatter back and forth between parties just to run up links.
I hope that gives you a sense of where I am at.
I genuinely want to be friendly to everyone who wants to be friendly to me.
Pleased to meet you, by the way! Hope things are good in Florida.
Best;
Eric
Good morning Eric,
When I saw the update to this post, I noticed your name and it did ring a bell with me. I think we might know of each other since you are on REW. BTW – are you on Famous Agents as well?
Dax’s plug-in should be good. Dax has had some very good plug-in’s before. Like the third level domain plug-in. Forget what he called it and I do not have the knowledge to implement it within a blog.
Are you using the Askimet plug-in to controll some of the spam? I have seen some bloggers using the mathematical calculation to block the bots from posting. Do you plan to use that feature to assist you? Could you explain the why’s and why not’s?
I did like your wording on reserving your right tto discontinue do follow.
Maybe we might meet in Vegas for PubCon,if you are attending.
Hope you don’t mind me dropping in from time to time and adding questions or comments. I plead ignorance when it comes to SEO, but want to advance in my knowledge.
Hope you and your family have a Happy Thanksgiving holiday.
Hey Glenn;
@ Thanksgiving–thanks much. My family and I will be here in Southern Indiana. I hope you have a great one as well.
@ PubCon-yes, I will be there. I will post my cell phone # right before I go. I’d love to hang out and compare notes. Give me a ring!
@ Dax-I like his objection redirection plugin and have used that in the past as well…never met him, but that would be fun at some point.
@ Akismet–There are a number of good spam comment stoppers, including Akismet. I use that for now, but I keep evaluating and changing with the times, but I like it so far.
About the Can you Add? I like that one..but I moderate every first time poster. That is easier for me.
Best
Eric
Hi Eric,
It is SEO tunnal vision as some like to call it. Fortunatly for me I am exiting the tunnel.
Keep up the great work,
Jim
I think we all have to spend a certain amount of time in the tunnel.