When Blog Comments Go From Awesome to Blatant Spam

As a regular blogger on various websites including my Social Media Advisors page for my business, you become excited when you receive a comment on your blog posts.  You get this warm fuzzy feeling knowing that someone has not only taken the time to read your words of wisdom, but also taken the time to leave some sort of valuable response.  I am rather used to my posts receiving a few comments from working on my site now for almost two years.

However, from time to time I receive comments that just get me all fired up.  Not because the person leaving the comment is disagreeing with my point of view, or saying something mean or nasty. But because that person who left that comment is doing so for blatant keyword stuffed back links to their own site.  I understand the reasons why they are doing so since links back to your site is a valuable part of how your site will rank in the search engines.  I get it, but to go from simply leaving a comment to trying to drive my traffic away from my site & over to yours is crossing the line.

Here’s a recent comment that was left on a blog site of mine:

nice to see your post regarding real estate websites.I am so exited to see and normally i used to trust in myrtle beach sc real estate.

(link was changed to not give them another back link) I was totally flabbergasted that someone would be so blatant to not only come to a competing site inside their market place & comment, but then to try & leave a second link back to their site within the comment.

3 Ways to Get Flagged or Deleted Instantly

Want your comment flagged as spam or possibly deleted?  Then try doing one of these things on another persons blog:

1.  Leave a comment with a link to your post that’s better.  If you want to get flagged as spam, simply leave a comment to your site as a competitor of the writer.  Not too many will go for that & will mark you as spam.  Not to mention, this is just poor etiquette.

2.  Insult the writer-  Wanna get deleted faster than a speeding bullet?  Insult the writer of the post or owner of the blog.

3.  Put in a fake name-  I see this one a lot.  People call them self “Thesis paper, or Term Paper, or Rolex Watches.”  While it might be cool to have your first name be Rolex, it won’t get you far in the comment world.  It sends up instant warnings that the following comment is nothing but spam.

Tips To Good Commenting

Listen, when you go to a page & leave a comment, you are already getting some sort of link back to your site.  The minute you fill in your name, email, & website, it creates that link for you that helps your site be found & rank higher.  There is no need to go on trying to squeeze another link into the body of your comment.  Also, if it is the same link you will only receive credit for the first one anyways.

So when you are commenting here are a few simple tips to keep your comment from being marked as spam or deleted:

1.  Put thought into your comment.  It’s too easy to go leave a comment somewhere saying great post, keep it up.  But does that add anything of value to the conversation?

2.  Make your comment memorable.  When you finish writing a comment on a site that the writer does not know you are your comments something that is going to make the author notice you?  If you can instill something of value that makes the author recognize you then you have done well in your comment.  Getting the author to recognize you is a great way to grow your online sphere.

3.  Add value to the conversation.  You can do this in two ways.  Either by adding a point that has not yet been made by someone else, or by agreeing with someone else who commented and sharing why you agree.  This is a simple way to add value to the conversation & keep you from the spam pile.

So, before you leave your next comment (hopefully below) I hope you will take time to think about it before upsetting someone with spam.

Photo Credit: Mulad Creative Commons 2.o