A lot of people, myself included, like to jump around various websites looking for places to drop comments so that our blogs develop some search engine authority. Without enough inbound links to your blog, Google really isn’t going to care what you say about anything. You aren’t going to get good rankings and you won’t be able to help other people get good rankings either. Google likes blogs that are very well connected in terms of links. They like to see lots of high quality inbound links.
While bouncing around dropping comments, you will encounter some decent blogs that actually pass a lot of this authority back to your website. You won’t necessarily know which ones it is coming from, but usually it is safe to assume that it is coming from the dofollow links that are on the more trusted blogs out there.
Trust is a big deal these days. In fact, trust is more important than pretty much anything in my opinion. If a website is careful about who it links out to, then it is definitely a better source of links for your site. So getting tons of links from places that approve every single comment regardless, isn’t really all that smart. You have to get links from people who are more selective.
This has lead to a scenario where some blog owners will use dofollow on some links and nofollow on others. It is fairly safe to assume that there is a 95% chance (maybe 99%) that a person who is trying to stuff a keyword into the name field on their comment is trying to do it for SEO on a splog or a MFA site. I don’t know about anyone else, but I hate the obvious pure MFA sites. I can live with the one large rectangle underneath the title. Obviously that person knows Adsense a little bit. That is one of the most profitable places to put an ad block in case you didn’t already know that.
If I hit a site that has a left skyscraper advertising block, a right skyscraper advertising block and the large rectangle under the title, I am going to be pissed. Knock that shit off. If I could, I would personally nuke the friggin site on the spot. That is ridiculous in my opinion. At least try a little bit to provide a slightly decent user experience. They are only interested in one thing on those sites. When Google finds that site, they are going to be tempted to nuke it, kill that person’s account or who knows what? Unless that site is really converting for advertisers, you can bet that Google will not be happy. Sorry, I am starting to drift off topic.
More about trust.
So basically you don’t want to vouch for any links that are going straight to one of those sites. Therefore one method that some people use is to add a nofollow tag to all of the Keywordluv comments and dofollow the ones that aren’t. If you check some of the places I have linked, you will see some blogs that do this.
Some people take it one step farther and nofollow all the links in the Commentluv plugin so that they don’t have to worry about checking every post they link to. Smart for them, but this sucks for us people who would never betray them.
As I have said before, I like helping people out. So I decided on a happy medium. I allow dofollow on my comments, but I refuse to accept comments that use keywords in the name field. This saves me from having to manually find the one in one hundred people who use the keyword for something other than and MFA or really bad affiliate site.
There are still plenty of people who try to stuff them in there. It is safe to assume that these people either
1) Cannot read
2) Can’t read English
3) They are bots
4) They are worthless pricks
5) They are ignorant internet marketers in need of some serious guidance
Think about it people. If you are still relying on keyword comments as your main source for SEO links, then you are either brand new at this or woefully inept at this business. Either way, I cannot risk linking to someone who doesn’t understand anything about trust.
The one possibility I do open myself up to is a bait and switcher. Some people will put up legit blogs that are easier to get links for. Then once the blog has enough inbound link juice, they kill the old blog and replace it with a splog. They 301 redirect all the internal links to their homepage and use that juice to rank for high paying keywords. Sneaky pricks!
Fortunately this is a rare occurrence. Most people aren’t that clever or are too lazy to do that much work. Thank god for small favors.
I equate these people to pickpockets. If I caught them, I would spray them with some mace or possibly some wasp spray in the face. (Pshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhht……….Pshhhhhhhhhhhhhht….. Take that you bastard!)
Related posts:
Kathy, Good tips and great rant on obvious spammy commenters. What’s worse than a generic comment with a keyword stuffed name that links to a non-english site filled with ads, popups, or worse…
Sadly, this is why a lot of sites are using nofollow now days, but if you have ways to regulate your site (user-driven flagging, and/or using multiple antispam plugins such as Akismet and Typepad Antispam on WP), you can safely turn on dofollow and help spread the love.
I agree about the links to non-English websites. If the website isn’t even in the same language as yours, why in the world would you want a link from it. They aren’t good for SEO in my experience. I have gotten what would appear to be really juicy links from foreign sites only to realize that they were useless for ranking mine. At least this was the case with Google. I never tested it with Yahoo or Bing.
Kathy, I don’t comment on blogs to get a link back and I hope that is not why you left a comment on mine as you’d be very disappointed. My blog comment section is nofollow.
Rose,
I found your website by clicking on a comment that you left at someone else’s website. I cannot remember which one it was.
I almost always leave a comment on another blog when I visit it as long as other people are commenting there. I always try to contribute to the post a little bit. It helps to establish connections and friendships.
Nofollow links are still beneficial even though they are not as beneficial as dofollow. Those links add to your domain authority and also might bring in trickle traffic.
Kathy, great to hear. Please visit anytime & I’m so glad you left a comment. ;-)
Kathy,
I bounce around commenting on blogs too. I found you on a comment that you left on another site. What you said in your comment resonated with me, so, I figured I’d check out your blog and see what else you have to say. So glad I did! I just read your “Link building strategy Maximizing the use of the Commentluv plugin” article and I’m definitely going to try out that strategy.
Quick question: How do I add a nofollow tag to Keywordluv comments while still allowing dofollow to Commentluv?
Sherryl,
Welcome to my blog. Come back often.
You can add a nofollow tag to the Keywordluv comments by using a plugin that allows you to follow or nofollow on a case by case basis. There are a couple out there that allow you to decide on every comment if you want to.
Search for one using Nofollow case by case. You will find some.
I didn’t know about the bait and switch sites. That is sneaky. I always check out the urls on comments that I think look legit so I can catch the ones that lead to a questionable content site or a link farm. The irritating necessity of blogging.
Yeah I know.
It stinks having to do the extra legwork, but you have to do it if you want to maintain your blog’s integrity and keep your comments dofollow.
That bait and switch is darn sneaky, but there are a million internet marketers out there who are completely selfish and could care less about you or me.
Hey Kathy,
I am running a Do-Follow blog since a year now and I have seen a lot of comments which sound good but are infact spam. So what I do is delete it so that your Good commentators do not start thinking that you accept cheap comments too…
That sounds like an effective technique. I for one do prefer to participate in blogs that do not have any obvious spam links for the reasons I mentioned above.
I had no idea you were so hilarious. :)
My entire blog (every outgoing link) was dofollow for several months. I just recently installed NoFollow Links, which is a great plugin that allows you to control which links become nofollow, although it doesn’t control the links in the CommentLuv plugin.
I will probably always keep my commenter’s links dofollow. But the outgoing links in my posts, which carry a lot of weight, will either be nofollow or dofollow on a case by case basis. As will the blogroll.
Really great post. I tweeted it. You are too funny.
Tia
Thanks Tia. I am glad you got a chuckle from me today. I love to know that I made someone smile.
Spammers and link droppers are making things harder for do-follow blogs these days. As someone who appreciates commenters and their time spent on the site, I install both commentluv and keywordluv, however many are trying to bypass the fact to network and provide value but stuff the blog with a bunch of unrelated comments and linkback to own site. sigh.. if only they’ll save the effort for a much better purpose – say REALLY spend the time to read through an article then comment accordingly. Even that is too much to ask these days.
@wchingya
Social/Blogging Tracker
I know what you mean. I am a realist though. I know that a lot of people who will visit this site are only interested in one thing (the link). Still, you have to be pretty new at this game to think that someone is going to approve your comment when you have said nothing of any significance. You can learn al lot from just glancing at the other comments that have already been approved. If there are only long and thoughtful comments, why would you expect someone to approve a comment that just says nice post. I’m glad when people like the post. That is my goal. But, I am not giving your lazy butt a link for saying that.
Hi.. 1st time comment here.. anyway, nice explanation.. That why sometime i’m see almost blog us nodofollow and dofollow..
Welcome Azuan.
I recommend keeping your comments strictly dofollow if you are reviewing every comment and visiting every site of every commentator.
Nice Post .. I’ll make sure to bookmark and come back!
( just kidding … I’m not a comment spammer)
I followed you over here from another blog. I just put the Do Follow on my blog. I hope I don’t start getting a bunch of spammers
Why are people always trying to game the system. It’s a Shame
Just makes it difficult for the honest people in the world
Jack
So you are one of those guys! (lol)
I doubt you will see that much more spam Jack. Just make sure you use a filter of some type. Even though Akismet isn’t perfect, I still use it.