How to Tell if Blog Comments are Spam

Blog Comment Spam Costs Plenty

Controlling and deleting spam on your blog can be tiresome and un-productive. It lowers ROI because it increases your costs, specifically time.

The other threat of comment spam is that it links to sites that may hurt your visitors if they click on a link. Those can result in programs being installed on your computer that may cause problems. (See below)

I was working with a client on managing blog comments and they asked…

How can I tell if blog comments are spam?

Here are some quick tips:

  1. Comments That Are Totally Off Topic.  My blog is about website development and how to increase your ROI, so when a comment is about something totally different, such as pharmaceuticals or headphones, then that is a great clue.  And in this example, the comment doesn’t even make sense.:


    “b beats by dre cord efore the,beats by dre dre beats earbuds cord Not regarding this night. The uv rays estranged his or her season unappealing fifth uninterruptedly and always been three discs underneath in cheap beats by dr dre g east leading boston…”

  2. Flimsy Comments. They want you to take them as a compliment and approve their comment (and link to their site.)  These are almost always very generic, like:

    “Heya i am for the first time here. I came across this board and I find It really useful & it helped me out a lot.”

    OR

    “Thanks , I’ve just been looking for info about this subject for a long time and yours is the greatest I’ve came upon till now.”

    One of the reasons they are usually generic is that they are using automated software to make these comments.

  3. The Comment Makes Absolutely No Sense. Similar to the example above, but sometimes you’ll see a mixture of languages, such as:

“louis vuitton outlet shop

Kucinsky Pawleys Island Katelyn N Current situation and global perspective Co administration de XTANDI avec des inhibiteurs du CYP2C8 forts devrait être évitée si possible199 Hence it follows that government, or the action of society in its corporate”

Sometimes, they’ll make the comment entirely non-English.  If it isn’t made in the language of your target audiences, it serves no useful purpose and is likely spam.  Why would they read it English and respond differently? Hmmm?

4. Notifying You of a Problem.  This approach tries to ingratiate them to you, with an opinion that your site is experiencing a problem:

“I do not know if it’s just me or if perhaps everyone else experiencing problems with your blog.
It appears as though some of the written text on your content are running off the screen.”

5. When There is a Void Between What They Comment On and What They Link to in Comment.  In the example below, the comment is a question about SEO, but his link is to a post promoting a build muscle product.

How can i tell if blog comments are spam?

Example of comment spam.

I concede that it could be someone running an affiliate website in the health and nutrition niche who is asking a legitimate question, but 99% of the time, it’s SPAM.

A Word of Caution

Clicking on a spam link can be dangerous.  NEVER click on suspicious links to see what they are! The sites may be designed to inject a harmful virus on your computer; one that might track what you type, like user names and passwords or they may download a program that will email everyone in your address book spam offers.

When in doubt, delete!

In an upcoming post, I will show you how to cut down on spammy links.

If you liked this article, I would appreciate a comment or question, but to get it approved, you’re going to have to say more than, “Very good pointers! Thanks!”

Grrr!

When to Call in a Professional

When is it time to call in a professional?

wp security lock experts

WordPress Security Experts Cindy Bidar, Michael Schultz & Regina Smola

I was a guest speaker on the SafeWP weekly webinar for members and the topic was setting up Google Webmaster Tools. Regina Smola shared some great information on the importance of GWT and site security.  I was asked to talk about using GWT to make informed decisions about SEO, analyzing traffic and evaluating related metrics.  In both cases, website owners have options when it comes to custom optimization.

Both are examples of why you should find someone with experience to help.

Regina and her team are WordPress security experts. [afflink] They each have specialties or experience that compliment each other.  It would take forever to gain the level of experience of anyone at WP Security Lock.  You can put their talents and full-time experience to work for a modest fee without the investment of time and money.  That’s real ROI.

And just as your wouldn’t want to do a root canal on your spouse, you can benefit from trained website development specialists, programmers and marketers who have experience in Webmaster Tools or any of the other applications needed to create a successful website.

I make that point in my Website Success Course, which teaches site owners and managers how to plan, manage and build successful websites, especially if you’re lacking design skills, marketing or business development experience.  I teach students that even if you fancy yourself as proficient in Photoshop, you will almost always get a more professional outcome by sub-contracting the job out to someone with greater skills and experience.

I can drive a nail and saw a board, but when it comes to installing windows or fixing some siding, I call in a professional, if for no other reason than to stay off a tall ladder!

When to Call in a Professional

  1. When the outcome will clearly be better than if you did it yourself.
  2. When the ROI is higher, which means their contribution will increase revenue or decrease costs.
  3. When you don’t have the time to properly devote to the project or learning how to accomplish it.
  4. When you or your staff would be better off focusing on your areas of expertise.
  5. When there is potential liability as a result of the project.

Sometimes the benefit is just having an outside, objective opinion!

I bet you’ve seen similar incidents in your line of work – where someone took on a project that was clearly above their pay grade.

That’s when it’s time to call in a professional!

Do you agree?

 

 

Website Trends for 2014 – What’s Working

2014 Website Trends Favor Simple Site Management, Simple Design and Mobile

Website owners and managers need to keep up with the latest trends and best practices to stay competitive and maximize sales and profits.  What has worked well in the past can be old hat today and staying ahead of the curve gives you a competitive advantage.

Interestingly, some of the website trends for 2014 and beyond are simpler and easier to manage, while cheaper to execute! With lower costs being a key component to maximizing ROI, the following trends and best practices may very well contribute to your bottom line!

1) WordPress

WordPress is mostly known as a blogging platform, but it makes managing a website very easy, from selecting a design and layout to creating functionality that has often involved hiring a programmer.  Adding ecommerce, social media engagement, email opt-ins, membership management, site security and a bunch of automated widgets has never been easier! WordPress is fully supported by WordPress and thousands of free videos on YouTube and even Fortune 500 companies, like General Motors and Best Buy to news organizations like CNN and New York Times and even NASA use WordPress.

2) Content Marketing

A number of outlets identify content marketing as a strong trend for 2014.  There are several reasons for this:

  1. Google has done everything in its power to keep webmasters as honest as possible – they want to serve the people searching on Google as accurately as possible.  They updated their algorithm significantly throughout 2013 to minimize some of the gray-area tactics that have been used to juice the numbers.
  2. Companies have learned that they can build authority and establish trust with clients and prospects by providing useful information in the form of blog posts, videos, infographics, case studies and newsletters.  Some attract attention by providing entertainment, but that can be difficult to pull off.
  3. New ways of sharing information, such as on Instagram or Pinterest are becoming more effective than traditional forms of advertising like print publications and Radio/TV.  These new media are taking share away from traditional marketing platforms and also provide more opportunities to target specific audiences or create a viral buzz.

It can be very effective to create great content and then promote it relentlessly via social media.

3) Mobile

The use of connected devices, such as Smartphones and tablets is exploding!  Mobile recently surpassed 50% of online share of traffic and Forbes estimates that by 2015, 87% of online sales will come from phones and tablets.

This is especially important when you consider that approximately 20% of all Internet queries are searches for goods and services, but that 80% of mobile queries are searches for goods and services.

In the past, companies created mobile versions of their website and servers would serve the correct content based on the device being used to access the site.  Today, responsive sites are being built that serve both types of access seamlessly.  There are many responsive options for sites built on the WordPress platform.

4) Simplicity

Complex designs are on their way out and are being replaced with typography, replacing images, except for sites that are created with full-width images.  Sites with simple color schemes are becoming more popular, as well.

Full-width image sites are quickly replacing sites featuring Flash animations or sliders.  Flash has been waning since Apple devices will not render Flash.  Video has been on a huge growth spurt, in part because of the popularity of the world’s 2nd largest search engine: YouTube.

Sidebars have been included for some time as a means of offering more options while you have the attention of the visitor, but they’re on the decline.  Developers are focusing more on the job of the page and not overwhelming our Attention-Deficit society.

Fonts are becoming more creative too. (This isn’t your Dad’s New Times Roman!)

Simplicity is hardly new, Apple has been a long-time trendsetter and we’re seeing their influence in “flat” web designs.

5) Long Form Content

Long sales pages – you either love them or you hate them – but studies have shown that they work.  Dan Kennedy has promoted the use of them for many years.  They’re remained strong in info-marketing niches and now they’re making a comeback on mainstream sites.  I think the use of mobile devices, which require a fair amount of scrolling, may be responsible for the uptrend.  People are learning to accept the need to scroll through web content.

The key to making long-form content work is organizing the content to lead the reader to the final conclusion.  Case studies, info-graphics, pinnable images, etc, presented in a simple design are making visitors more receptive to your offer!

I teach these new trends and best practices in my new Website Success Course, a 7-month program for website owners and managers.  Find out more.

What trends have you noticed?  What’s working? What’s not?  Please leave a comment below.