Bad SEO Practices #3: Comment, Trackback and Pingback Spam

Posted: 09 Jun 2014 05:34 AM PDT

One common (though misguided) SEO practice of the past was creating backlinks through spammy comments and through "pingbacks".

Today, this is worse than useless for SEO.

The vast majority of blogs have "no-follow" on links from comments, plus Google can penalise you for this sort of link-building.

Let's take a closer look, though, at why it's such a bad idea.

Spam Comments

You're probably already familiar with what comments are: most blogs allow them at the bottom of their posts.

Here's an example from Bad SEO Practices #1: Buying and Selling Links last week:

comments-example

Spam comments are ones that have nothing to do with the post (more crafty spammers may repeat words from the post or even an earlier comment). The name given alongside the comment will normally be a keyword phrase, and it links back to the spammer's site.

Many bloggers these days have Akismet or another anti-spam plugin installed; this catches comments before they ever get onto the blog. Most bloggers will also watch out for and delete any spam comments that accidentally make it through.

Even if a spam comment does get onto a blog, though, it's very little use to the spammer. A tiny number of people reading the comments might click on the link, but since the link itself is "no-follow", it won't help the spammer's Google ranking in any way.

Spam Trackbacks and Pingbacks

For the purposes of this, we can think of trackbacks and pingbacks as the same thing. (There is a difference, and if you're keen to dig into this, WPBeginner has a great article on the What, Why and How-To's of Trackbacks and Pingbacks in WordPress.)

Trackbacks and pingbacks are created when another blog links to one of your posts. They appear in your comments section (sometimes before or after the comments themselves) and look something like this:

trackbacks

In the past, spammers used to use these to their advantage, to create a link from your blog to theirs by first linking to you.

Google has cracked down on this since their Penguin update in 2012, and many spammers (and unethical SEO companies) have found that these links now harm their site.

If you're getting a lot of trackback/pingback spam and want to stop it, you can switch these off. The WP beginner article linked to above has instructions explaining how.

Bottom line: Commenting on blogs, and linking to other people's posts, are great ways to build up relationships within your niche. Always think quality not quantity here. If you're leaving dozens of "Great post!" type comments every day, no-one will benefit.

Wanna learn how to make more money with your website? Check the Online Profits training program!

ProBlogger: Theme Week Roundup: Which Tip Will You Put into Practise?

Theme Week Roundup: Which Tip Will You Put into Practise?

Posted: 08 Jun 2014 05:11 PM PDT

Last week we delved in deep to the things you can do with your post once you hit “publish”. Some people feel as though that’s the end of the road, and others feel as though it’s only the beginning!

There are plenty of things you can do to keep your post current on social media, ensuring it is optimised for SEO, how to repurpose it for different channels, how to keep readers on your blog once your post is published, and how to extend your ideas for the future. It was a week packed with information, and plenty of takeaways for you at home. Let’s have a look at what we covered, and we’d love to hear your feedback on the ones you think you might like to try (or ones you feel as though didn’t quite work in your situation).

How to Socialize Your Posts For Maximum Effect:

Darren wrote extensively about where you can post your posts on social media to be in the right information stream for your readers. He broke down the choice of social media to what kind of time you have to spend, where the majority of your readers are, what suits your content best, and where your competitors might be. He explained how a rhythm to sharing is important, and outlined how to do this for maximum return. He gave great tips for sharing on Twitter and G+, and the kinds of resharing he does after the initial push. Which tip resonated with you?

Publish Your Blog Post Without SEO, and 1000s of Readers Will Be Forever Lost:

Rand Fishkin reminded us all that content can stay current after its inital social media push by optimizing it for search. He explained how fast your post can die if not supported in the first instance with good SEO, by paying attention to keyword research, the best way to go about finding a title and what kind of information to include in body content, and the best ways of reaching out to your network to get your content seen by the right people. I loved the presentation he included called “How To Earn Traffic Without Selling Your Soul” – something to think about if you feel as though optimising and keywords take away from the beauty of writing from the heart to connect with your readers. Did it have an impact on your thoughts about it?

How To Repurpose Your Content and Why You Should Do It:

Repurposing content isn’t just re-promoting your posts on social media, as Darren explains. It’s about changing up your content for different media streams, and for the different interests for your readers. It heightens your search result rankings, and readers can also connect with your work more deeply. Of course, there are risks present, and Darren outlines those, and he also gives his best advice for how to repurpose your content for the best results. There are some solid tips and concrete examples – which ones do you think you’ll try?

You’ve Got Readers To Your Blog: This is How You Keep Them There:

Day four was all about keeping readers excited and wanting to engage after you’ve optimised your post for SEO, published it to all the right channels, and even repurposed it for different reader needs. I broke it down into site design, reader comments and how to interact with them for the best results, and what you can do off your blog to drive traffic back to your posts. Everything from responding to as many of your readers as you can, being useful, sparking conversations between readers, to having a clear design, making commenting a breeze, and returning the favour of a comment on someone else’s blog. I’m sure at least one of those tips would be successful if you used them today – which one will it be?

Extend Your Ideas With Future Blog Posts:

Darren explains the problem he is seeing with current sites focusing on curated content, and how sensationalist headlines will only get you so far. He outlines the best tips to make you stand out from the crowd – how to go deeper with information, and how to provide genuine, interesting, useful content. He tells us how to find future post ideas in the post you’re currently writing, and how to extend previous posts you’ve written for a new readership. What is something you can adopt in your daily writing practise to help your information go further?

We’d love to hear your thoughts!

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

Theme Week Roundup: Which Tip Will You Put into Practise?

Pages

USAHA BERSAMA

Ads 468x60px