My WordPress Tutorial

Posts Tagged ‘comment spam’

Some of the best ideas for tutorials come from questions I get. A prime example is the following question:

What to do about comments I get (how do I know its not a competitor leaving a comment)?

This is an interesting question with several distinct parts. First I want to let you know how to access your comments. Remember all the magic happens from your Dashboard so be sure you are logged into your Dashboard. Once you are on your Dashboard locate the Comments header about halfway down the column on the left hand side (See the image to the right). Click on this header to open up your Edit Comments page.

The image below is an example of how your Edit Comments page will look (CLICK THE IMAGE TO SEE A LARGER SIZE). You will notice that there is a lot of information on this page. In the image below you can see information about the comment’s Author (RED ARROW). This information includes their name, URL, email, and IP address. To the right of that information you can read the author’s Comment (BLUE ARROW). When hovering over the comment you will see six options (GREEN ARROW) appear under the comment. These options allow you to

1. Approve the comment as it is written.
2. Spam the comment; marking it as spam will help the spam filter to recognize a comment from the same author in the future.
3. Delete the comment will simply delete it from your post entirely while allowing the author to leave comments in the future.
4. Edit the comment allows you to alter the comment. This is a very controversial action as many view it as censorship and/or changing a comment to such an extent that it no longer reflects the commentors original intent. IF YOU PLAN ON USING THIS FEATURE, LET ME CAUTION YOU TO USE IT VERY CAREFULLY; YOUR COMMENTOR MAY BECOME VERY INCENSED BY YOUR EDITING OF THEIR COMMENT AND WRITE NEGATIVELY ABOUT YOU OR YOUR BUSINESS ON THEIR SITE AS A RESULT! WITH THIS IN MIND, IT IS YOUR SITE AND YOU HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO DISALLOW COMMENTS YOU FEEL ARE INAPPROPRIATE!
5. Quick Edit – SEE ABOVE.
6. Reply to the comment allows you to respond to comments on your post.

Please excuse the “Wall of Words” but here are a couple of tips on separating the good comments from the spammy comments. Generic comments (i.e. “nice post”, “some good information”, or any blatant advertisement) that do not address anything in your post, especially when they have a link (called a backlink) to their URL can generally be regarded as spam comments.There are actually people who make their living by leaving thousands of these backlinking spam comments everyday; once they successfully leave one, they will then bombard you with MANY MORE. As you are given several options for each comment you can decide what you want to do with the comments you receive. You can always follow the link to see where it leads especially if you are more concerned about competitor comments rather than spam comments. Keep in mind that just because a competitor leaves a comment does not mean that they have malicious intent. I would be more concerned if a visitor left the same comment repeatedly or if their page does not have any type of system in place for you to comment on their posts. A perfect example of a spam comment that is merely trying to get a bit of a Google juice boost from your site can be seen in the graphic above. First, that particular author has left the same comment at least 3 times. Second if you visit the URL you can clearly see that this is a simple 4 page site with some basic contact information and no place for public commenting. As an FYI, I actually called and spoke with someone at the number listed and was informed that there was nobody by the name of William (name left in the comment) employed there. What I make of this is that the site owner, a web developer, or an SEO “expert” is using the services of a comment spamming operation to create backlinks. These types of tactics are considered “black hat” and will get the sites who use them penalized by the search engines regardless of whether the actual person whose business is being promoted by these tactics knows what is happening. Comment spam is a huge annoyance that is probably here to stay. You can combat it by marking these as spam. As an aside, the definition of exactly what comment spam is is very fluid. What I mean by this is that many site owners have their own idea of what spam is. Some site owners do not allow for any URL linking at all (click HERE to read why this is a bad idea) while others allow the spammers to have free reign over their comment section. Whether any links left in the comment section ever see the light of day is left up to you, the site owner. My general rule of thumb is that if a link in my comment section adds direct value to the topic of my post then I will generally allow it.