Comments on: Why I do not allow keywords in blog comments

By: Marilyn

Marilyn — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 20:43:48 +0000

This does make sense. I hope that including my blog name next to my real name in another comment wasn’t problematic. Oops! It’s what I have automatically set-up in blogger to help the other blog moms keep me straight from other Marilyn bloggers. I wasn’t trying to spam ya or anything. Thanks for this explanation, also. I’m learning a lot from your site.

By: Adam Keynes

Adam Keynes — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 10:54:21 +0000

I also allow dofollow on my blog, and although I’d prefer people not to use keyword rich names, if their comment is valuable and interesting it doesn’t really bother me. At the end of the day everyone is involved in the same Google scramble.

By: Smiley

Smiley — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:44:46 +0000

Such a shame people are disrespecting the clearly polite request to NOT use keywords in their username

The blog is linklove enabled, the advice given here is sound and if it wasn’t for this blog my site would be nothing! Probably have died off months ago. You’d think people would appreciate the free service provided here a tad more.

By: Nicole Price

Nicole Price — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 07:56:00 +0000

Martin i actually disagree with you when you say that keyword users very rarely add value to a discussion, because my experience has been otherwise. Besides a lot of people would simply read and leave not leaving a comment unless you make it worth their while to make the effort to comment.

By: Eva White

Eva White — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 07:28:57 +0000

I agree with your decision to not allow keywords in the name slot. Even if one is browsing the comments one likes to read names of people not products.

By: kouji

kouji — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:13:15 +0000

i do agree with your decision, and i appreciate your taking the time to communicate it this way to your readers.

admittedly, i’m one of those persons who came across your site, and keep on coming back to it, partly because it has the ‘no follow’ attribute disabled. but at the same time, as a fellow blog owner, i can appreciate the anguish at having a comments section stuffed full of keywords.

i think you found a good balance here. i’ve been thinking about disabling the ‘no follow’ attribute in my blogs as well actually, though i haven’t yet taken the plunge.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:07:24 +0000

Your policy sounds reasonable to me. Allowing keywords just encourages spam and thoughtless comments. I hope you continue to get engaging comments.

By: Henry

Henry — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:11:57 +0000

Whatever you do, spammers will beat you.
Its just something you have to expect. But doesnt disallowing keywords hurt your blog?

By: AZ

AZ — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 11:35:59 +0000

I am confused. Ok its a plus if you get Keyword as anchor. if you dont and link is do-follow it is stil good for improving PR- so still attractive for spammer.
Confusion is, does keyword in anchor text may harm more than nick name?

By: Danelle Ice

Danelle Ice — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 07:49:40 +0000

I do agree with you, and my site is also a dofollow (in the comments only, however). I have had to crack down on keyword spammers myself, but I must admit that it surprises me the most when it comes from websites I know! It’s not so much strangers doing the keyword spamming comments, but bloggers that I am acquainted with and have participated in their sites’ communities. I have concluded that perhaps participation in their sites make them feel overly comfortable and ready to throw comment etiquette out the window! It seems counterintuitive, to say the least.

I actually just wrote an article this week about guidelines and rules for comments on my site. I’ve seen more and more of these popping up on sites everywhere, so it seems that we are not alone in our comment dilemmas. I’m keeping the dofollow on my comments section for now, but that doesn’t mean I’ll always feel that way. I guess only time will tell if it just causes more work and headaches!