Beware of comment spam on blogs
Bloggers love comments and we need not tell the reasons. And all bloggers hate comment spam: comments sent by people for the sake of advertising or link building or with some other motive.
Unfortunately, many bloggers welcome all types of comments either without realizing that many of the genuine looking comments are not really genuine, or in the hope that a large number of comments is a mark of their blog's high popularity. On the other hand, may bloggers get so pissed off with unwanted comments that they make it difficult for a genuine commenter to give his feedback.
Unscrupulous spammers comment on blogs with the misplaced hope that people will buy the product they shamelessly promote. At times, they are not the real sellers but an agency on their behalf; this agency convinces the seller about the usefulness of this type of commenting.
Spammers also flood blogs with comments to get backlinks (and so, more backlinks and then higher placement on search pages). They also get publicity when other visitors see these comments on the genuine blog.
Some spammers also are innocent bloggers who have been told by unethical SEO guys to put their blog's links on others' comment boxes to get backlinks.
These commenters get what they want, because most bloggers are not alert enough to prevent or remove useless/ harmful comments.
Sometimes the blogger takes the comments as genuine and starts engaging with the comment maker.
After Google and other search engines started identifying repeated or unrelated comments as spams, spammers have become smarter. Now in their comments they do not put rubbish or matter that would be automatically removed as spam by web filters. They write biggish comments and also place links as part of the comment. Smarter ones even put some text that makes it relevant to the content of the blog.
In the image here, we give examples of some real comments that we got on ITB. Look how sincere they look in the first glance!
You have many options:
Allowing comments only from those with proven identities is like telling others that you care a hoot for them. If you insist on allowing only the people with Google ID etc, consider making the list wide: stop only anonymous comments AND allow Disqus, OpenID, FB or Twitter apps.
Asking the commenter to register with you is tolerable if yours is a highly reputed website [e.g. a magazine, a newspaper, a reputed company] or if you operate in a niche in which you are an expert.
We have learnt with experience that moderating comments is the best way to ward off spammers and not irritate commenters.
Related resources:
What is captcha and whether to use it?
Whether to stop receiving comments?
Unfortunately, many bloggers welcome all types of comments either without realizing that many of the genuine looking comments are not really genuine, or in the hope that a large number of comments is a mark of their blog's high popularity. On the other hand, may bloggers get so pissed off with unwanted comments that they make it difficult for a genuine commenter to give his feedback.
What do they get by making irrelevant, irritating comments?
Unscrupulous spammers comment on blogs with the misplaced hope that people will buy the product they shamelessly promote. At times, they are not the real sellers but an agency on their behalf; this agency convinces the seller about the usefulness of this type of commenting.
Spammers also flood blogs with comments to get backlinks (and so, more backlinks and then higher placement on search pages). They also get publicity when other visitors see these comments on the genuine blog.
Some spammers also are innocent bloggers who have been told by unethical SEO guys to put their blog's links on others' comment boxes to get backlinks.
These commenters get what they want, because most bloggers are not alert enough to prevent or remove useless/ harmful comments.
Sometimes the blogger takes the comments as genuine and starts engaging with the comment maker.
After Google and other search engines started identifying repeated or unrelated comments as spams, spammers have become smarter. Now in their comments they do not put rubbish or matter that would be automatically removed as spam by web filters. They write biggish comments and also place links as part of the comment. Smarter ones even put some text that makes it relevant to the content of the blog.
In the image here, we give examples of some real comments that we got on ITB. Look how sincere they look in the first glance!
What is the right way to handle comments?
You have many options:
- Stop accepting comments. Or accept comments through a form that is not part of a post.
- Accept comments from people who register with you.
- Accept comments only from people with proven identities such as Google / Wordpress ID.
- Moderate comments. That is, comments are visible only when you approve them.
- Put a tough captcha - e.g. text mixed up with images - which the commenter must put before he can publish the comment.
- Use a mix of the above.
Allowing comments only from those with proven identities is like telling others that you care a hoot for them. If you insist on allowing only the people with Google ID etc, consider making the list wide: stop only anonymous comments AND allow Disqus, OpenID, FB or Twitter apps.
Asking the commenter to register with you is tolerable if yours is a highly reputed website [e.g. a magazine, a newspaper, a reputed company] or if you operate in a niche in which you are an expert.
We have learnt with experience that moderating comments is the best way to ward off spammers and not irritate commenters.
Related resources:
What is captcha and whether to use it?
Whether to stop receiving comments?
