One thing I noticed for my dutch science news website (www.wetenschap-nieuws.nl) is that I get hits from google from people searching for 'incest porn' and that kind of searches.

Apparently I didn't delete all the spam on the website, and now my site pops up #1 in google.nl for the search for these kind of keywords...

This brought me to the idea that maybe you could somehow make use of the spam in your comments for SEO purposes..

what do ya think?

I would be careful about this. I once ranked for the term "non nude" and got banned from libraries and schoosl. Some kind of black list picked me up and put me on an evil porn list, even though everything was work friendly, just fully clothed non nude people.

Do you really want to rank for search terms that are off topic to your site?

I rank for comments on my site all the time and it is very useful traffic generator, but it only works for me if it's on topic. Where it's off topic as soon as you get a click through they disapear as it's not what they are looking for.

If you're site is a low grade splog this may work. Maybe this needs a test blog setting up as a honey pot to all the comment spammers and see where it goes.

Originally Posted by lyndoman

I would be careful about this. I once ranked for the term "non nude" and got banned from libraries and schoosl. Some kind of black list picked me up and put me on an evil porn list, even though everything was work friendly, just fully clothed non nude people.

Do you really want to rank for search terms that are off topic to your site?

I rank for comments on my site all the time and it is very useful traffic generator, but it only works for me if it's on topic. Where it's off topic as soon as you get a click through they disapear as it's not what they are looking for.

If you're site is a low grade splog this may work. Maybe this needs a test blog setting up as a honey pot to all the comment spammers and see where it goes.

the thing is that I don't think people clicking away from your site is a bad thing (at least it doesn't have to be). If they click away via your ads that's money in the pocket right?

but I agree about not wanting to be ranked for porn stuff etc. But there are other kinds of spam out there, for instance for ringtones etc. Wouldnt be bad to rank for those terms via your comments right?

Apparently Google spiders do scan the comments sections too, hence people post their links in comments it just serves as another backlink as well as a source of traffic. Rather then spamming though most of the clever guys post some constructive criticism on blogs that are relevant to there subject and then add their name and link below.

There's my first contribution. :yes:

Solid

Originally Posted by Solid

Apparently Google spiders do scan the comments sections too, hence people post their links in comments it just serves as another backlink as well as a source of traffic. Rather then spamming though most of the clever guys post some constructive criticism on blogs that are relevant to there subject and then add their name and link below.

There's my first contribution. :yes:

Solid

I wan't talking about posting comments for SEO (won't work in most places because of the nofollow tag), but about NOT deleting comment spam on your own site for SEO purposes

lol, I don't really think its worth detracting from your website to allow spam to rank for irrelevant keywords...

Heh, I think I am going to make some fake comments now....

Hahaha a vertical housing listing website of mine once started to rank for the name of a female adult film star because one of the properties listed was on a street that had the same name as her.

Comment spam is actually a big part of how those much-publicized 5 billion spam pages made their way into google. Go go gadget nofollow!

...nofollow and all its theories suck, but thats for another thread another time.

As far as comment spam, do you really want the search engines to think of your domain as a spam house? Keep it up, you'll notice drops on all the big four search engines.

Everybody is disliking the nofollow tags used by many...

Well IMO the blog comments really do get followed up.. As I tested it for one of my site and the site went all the way to from nowhere 0 to pr4 mind you that i have no links from anywhere except the blog "SPAM"...actually it wasnt "SPAM"... the thing I did was found something about there genre and commented on it with my name and site with "anchor text"... whenever i get time i still do it for the site thinking that I may get a high pr and then will sell them...:devil:

So the best way is to find something to comment on and make it natural...

Manish

I wouldnt engage in spam of any kind

the thing is that I don't think people clicking away from your site is a bad thing (at least it doesn't have to be). If they click away via your ads that's money in the pocket right?

Absolutely agree with you. But, the ads displayed may not be the ones you want, if the comments skew your adsense to lower paying keywords = bad if they introduce higher paying = good.

It's about branding also, comment spam may be bad for your brand, or it may not really matter. Personally I delete all comment spam straight away.

It annoys me up when respected companies like BMW spam their little Bavarian hearts out and get away with it whilst webmasters operating on no budget stick rigidly to the rules and struggle. The rich and the powerful seem to be playing with a different rule book. Sorry, going a bit off topic.

Originally Posted by lyndoman

Absolutely agree with you. But, the ads displayed may not be the ones you want, if the comments skew your adsense to lower paying keywords = bad if they introduce higher paying = good.

It's about branding also, comment spam may be bad for your brand, or it may not really matter. Personally I delete all comment spam straight away.

It annoys me up when respected companies like BMW spam their little Bavarian hearts out and get away with it whilst webmasters operating on no budget stick rigidly to the rules and struggle. The rich and the powerful seem to be playing with a different rule book. Sorry, going a bit off topic.

you can avoid this by using AdSense Section Targeting ; you can tell AdSense to look at your content and ignore the comments...