Dealing with Spam in Your Comments

Spam used to be limited to your emails, but anyone that has a website or blog where comments can be left are dealing with spam. Many of the spammer’s comments are not directed to drive traffic to their site or blog as many people would think. Unfortunately, they are using the spam to increase their search engine rankings. By leaving comments on your site the spammer is increasing their search engine rankings.

The spammers are attempting to get around spam blockers and target the security of individual websites or blogs. Many of the spammers that leave comments are doing the process manually. However, some the most common process is electronically or with the use of spam bots or scripts. Unfortunately, many site or blog owners don’t focus on their websites as their day job which can make dealing with these spam bots difficult. However, it certainly is not impossible.

When you discover your site or blog is the victim of spam comments don’t take it personally. In almost all cases, spammers are simply selecting a site and not targeting the webmaster or blog master. Take a deep breath and dive into the process of getting rid of the spam and keeping your site at the quality level it deserves.

·         Word or character verification for comments

Having a word or character verification for leaving comments is a great way to discourage spam. This will usually help with the electronic version of spamming comments. When verification must be done it must be human intervention that confirms the verification.

·         Moderate all comments

This can sometimes be a hassle, depending on how many comments you receive. Though, it is a great way to separate the spammers from legitimate commenters. Not only can you catch spammers, but it may also help you circumvent other comments that shouldn’t be left on your site such as inappropriate comments that shouldn’t be left on your site which may be vulgar or offensive to some members of your audience.

Review my post on moderating comments

·         Don’t allow users to use JavaScript or HTML

There is no legitimate use for either of these when leaving comments.

If you allow users to include links, there are a number of ways by which you can code to accommodate this functionality and not leave your site open to attack. The most common way is to inform the user that all URLs will be converted to links automatically, and then convert any content to a link if needed

Spam will continually be a problem for website and blog owners. However, a well-designed blog or site can monitor comments and make certain you are receiving comments instead of spam.