If you follow Harry Potter at all, you know that Voldemort is “He Who Must Not Be Named”. He is the evil villain, and speaking about him gives him power. That is how I feel about comment spam.
There are many in SEO who see this as a viable way to increase links to your site, and some very popular SEO blogs promote it, as well. This is upsetting for me on many counts – both my SEO and my blogging sensibilities are offended by this.
Does comment spam really help your search engine ranking?
While Google uses the nofollow tags, Yahoo! and MSN do not. This means that these are considered to be viable links in these search engines, and while these two search engines are not near as popular as Google, and sometimes the butt of jokes by people “in-the-know”, some still use them, especially people who are not “in-the-know”. And many blogs do not utilize the nofollow tags in their comments, and more so now since the U Comment – I Follow movement gains the support of bloggers. This, meant to promote commenting on their blog, can also make these blogs targets for this type of spamming. These links, then, become viable links in Google and help to increase the ranking of sites in Google, as well.
So comment spamming, no matter how offensive to me and to others I am sure, is in reality a quick and easy way to help your rankings in the search engines.
But what are the other consequences of comment spamming?
For one, you get a bad reputation. Bloggers will soon come to recognize you as a spammer, and even when you wish to leave a viable comment on their blog, they may not wish to approve your comment. Word travels fast on the interweb, so don’t expect to get away with it for long, especially if you are exceedingly prolific in your efforts.
As well, by entering into an SEO campaign by comment spamming, you are wasting valuable time that could be used to do actual off-site search engine optimization or creating valuable content for people to link to.
And, in truth, you end up losing the respect in the SEO community. There is a blog I know of, and that many people follow that promotes this form of SEO, and the only reason I read is to inform myself on what not to do.
Why must we not speak of it and why do I speak of it now?
By speaking of it, more people become aware of how to undertake a comment spam campaign, and more people think it is okay to do this. After all, if it is working for others, why can’t it work for you as well, and it is hard to stay “good” when everyone else is being “bad”.
So what makes me think it is okay for me to talk about it anyways? Well, for one, I am clearly not saying good things. I am saying something that “should be named”. And I hope that by writing this I might discourage people and make them see that though this may help your rankings, you will lose in the end to those who have undertaken real link building campaigns.
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