Member Avatar for MktgRob

I was just reading a blog that talked about one website that had its ranking affected by the fact that there were spam messages in the comment section of the website. Not only did the spam messages not pertain to the business but they were porn related. As many websites allow for comments to made, is this the threat to rankings that is alluded to in the blog I read?

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Dani AI

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Short answer: yes — unchecked comment spam can damage perceived site quality and, in some cases, your visibility in Google Search. Google treats deceptive or low‑quality user‑generated content as spam and uses both automated systems and human review to demote or remove offending pages. (developers.google.com)

Practical approach: treat this like any other site‑quality problem and use layered defenses. Automate bulk filtering (Akismet or similar) as a first line, hold any comment that contains links for moderation, require an account or minimal reputation before comments are indexed, add simple challenge tests (CAPTCHA or a honeypot), rate‑limit signups, and close comments on old posts. Where feasible, mark links in untrusted content so they don’t pass endorsement (see next paragraph) and consider noindexing comment pages from brand‑new/untrusted accounts. (akismet.com)

If the requirement is "allow the comment but block the URL", you have good technical options: strip or neutralize URLs on submission, render URLs as plain text (no anchor), or automatically add a UGC/noindex/no‑follow marker for links. Example (WordPress) — run a server‑side filter to replace outbound URLs before saving:

add_filter('pre_comment_content', 'dw_strip_comment_urls');
function dw_strip_comment_urls($content) {
  return preg_replace('#https?://[^\s"]+#i', '[link removed]', $content);
}

For links you do allow, signal them as user content rather than editorial endorsements:

<a href="https://example.com" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">example</a>

Google documents the ugc/sponsored/nofollow link hints and recommends treating untrusted links accordingly. (developers.google.com)

Cleanup and monitoring: remove existing spam, ban repeat offenders by IP/email, and use Search Console to inspect incoming links and (if needed) use removals/noindex to limit damage while you clean pages. If a client refuses any user interaction, a moderated or closed comments model is a reasonable policy tradeoff — but moderation plus automation usually gives the best balance between community value and risk. (developers.google.com)

Notes: combine automated tools (as suggested) with selective moderation (as and do). Test filtering on a staging copy first and keep a review step so genuine comments are not lost.

Recommended Answers

All 17 Replies

Member Avatar for phoenix06007

IMO yes.. and i always delete spam comments in my blog, especially the non relevant one

Member Avatar for bobchrist

Use anti spam tools like akismat/spam karma 2, this will automatically kill most of the spams.

Member Avatar for m42

Yes. Spam comments can hurt you. In addition to the negative impacts to your site quality, Google recently announced that even no-follow links bleed PR.

Member Avatar for MktgRob

Use anti spam tools like akismat/spam karma 2, this will automatically kill most of the spams.

It is funny that you mention akismat because in the original piece I read they talked about the spammers, especially the porn spammers, were becoming more sophisticated and had found some ways around the anti spam tools and they references akismat by name.

The problem I am running into now, and unfortunately no technical fix will help, is that my client is not keen on the idea of allowing visters to their blogs and website leave comments as they want total control over anything negative (instead of addressing each issue as it comes) and the thought that spammers can affect their sites will push them over the edge. I guess along with managing expectations some of us have to also managed fear and anxiety.

Member Avatar for InsightsDigital

I have an option in one of my blogs where I hae to authorize every single comment. Some of legits but the majority are spam. I never authorize them. It is time consuming but it helps.

Member Avatar for snapshot

Well, after launching your blog and enabling the commenting option, a constant moderating and maintenance is going to be needed because many of the links people add to their posts might be pointing at low quality sites which need to be edited sometimes.

Member Avatar for Flower

Spam commenting is definitely affect your website's ranking so check them and remove irrelevant comments.

Member Avatar for bettsnirvana

yes, i believe that spam comments can hurt your site, if google or any search engine seen your site with a lot of irrelevant link, they will delete it.

Member Avatar for pooja84

Avoid spamming. It will really have a negative effect on your site.

commented: worthless irrelevant post +0
Member Avatar for Hsekhar

I don't allow them posted in the first place. I use Wordpress with Akismet enabled with a couple of options like "New comments or comments with links should be sent to moderation queue before they appear on the blog.

So, No chance to spammers at all!

BTW, I don't know if they affect your site rankings since I haven't experienced such kind of situation. May be that's another unproven SEO theory.

Member Avatar for canadafred

When discussing link building strategies in SEO, Google has started using language like: "These are typically useless exercises that don't affect your ranking in the results of the major search engines -- at least, not in a way you would likely consider to be positive.".

In this same way, I would think that blog pages that are improperly maintained (harboring link spam in the form of comments) are subject to some form of damper penalty or at least non-rewarded.

Member Avatar for nerdy tech

Yes some spam can have harmful attachment when you open them open and can spread into your harddrive.

Member Avatar for Hafsoh

Spam comments can discourage your reader, but in some cases, they "may" affect search engine rankings.

Member Avatar for AliceDenis

Have moderation of the comments and post them only if you like and/or remove the links(or other spam content) and publish what part you like =))

Member Avatar for shubh09

Yes, spamming over the site hurts in many ways, it affects the quality of the site, visitors never turn again over it. I prefer to filter the comments manually instead of using akismat/spam karma 2 like software.

Member Avatar for MktgRob

A new wrinkle to the original questions is what about the type of spam that I see around DaniWeb occaisionally. This would be the post is helpful and informative but the poster also throws a link in promoting their business. DaniWeb is clear about this type of posting activity, as I am sure many other sites are, but still it is done and the moderators have to go in and edit. Does anyone know of a utility that can be used that would block the placing of URLs in comments or at the very least allow the comment and block any url?

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