Comments in your blog post should be more meaningful, each and every commenter should stay engaged with the topic. They can share their own views, respond to other views or make a suggestion regarding to that post; whatever it may be the comment should make sense for your readers. Are you a blogger using the Blogger platform? Then probably you will see more comments like this; “I know this is completely off topic, but I want to share it to someone”, “you really make it easy with your presentation”, “I really liked your blog and I have bookmarked it, keep posting” etc and you can see more spam comment samples online. Most bloggers especially beginners consider that such comments are legit and appealing and so they approve it, but they are not. In fact they are spam comments which mostly contain a link back to mortgage, casino, gaming or gambling websites. Here we will see how to identify and prevent spam comments on Blogger blog.
First of all spammers are never going to benefit by abusing your blog comments area because Blogger by default adds rel=”nofollow” attribute to all the links in your blog comments. So you don’t have to concern about passing any page rank or link juice, but anyhow comment spams are bad for your blog and you have to take several measures to eradicate it.
Spam comments, why they are bad? Spam comments will lower your blog quality. Google hates site that links to unrelated websites and that’s why spam comments will reduce your blogs performance in search engines. Visitors will stop trusting your blog, think of a visitor who has been taken to some other sensitive webpage or illegal content from your blog comments section.
Related: How to enable or disable comments on Blogger posts and pages
Like in wordpress you don’t have any plugins to combat spam comments or you don’t have .htaccess file to block any particular IP address that is sending out too many spam comments. So what’s the actual way to stop spam comments on Blogger? Blogger offers several build in features to deal with spam comments which we will discuss later in this article, before that we will see how to identify spam comments in your blog.
How to identify spam comments
Spam comments will give a negative user experience; it may contain dead links, links to odious websites or it may even contain inappropriate language. You must also note that not all spam comments will contain spam links in it. So how do you really identify that whether the comment is spam or legit. Here are some signs for you to confirm comment spam in your blog and it’s up to you to approve it or mark it as a spam.
- Check for the links in comments, if the comment contains more than 2 links then it is a sign for spam. But before you take action check if the link is pointing to some useful related website, if it is yes then move on to point number 2.
- Comment author name – Most spammers instead of using their real name they will use SEO keywords like “best web designing company”. If you found a comment with no real name then mark it as spam.
- Is the comment what you see is relating your blog topic, if not then it’s a spam. Some comments don’t actually look like spam and they don’t include any links. Anyhow always consider to approve comments only if the conversation is meaningful. For example comments like “wow, nice blog here”, “I have bookmarked it, keep posting”, “your site looks so appealing” etc are no use for your readers and so simply mark it as spam.
- Look for an inappropriate language. English is the most common language and if you find some other language that most don’t understand, mark it as spam.
Related: How to retrieve deleted comments on Blogger
How to prevent spam comments on Blogger blog
You cannot completely stop spam comments on Blogger blog, but by taking these measures you can greatly reduce it.
Step 1: Never allow anonymous peoples to post comments in your blog. Login to your blog dashboard and go to settings >> posts and comments. In there you will see an option called “who can comment?” instead of “anyone” choose “registered user” or “user with Google account” or “only members of this blog”.
Step 2: Turn on comment moderation. We know that moderating each comment manually will take time, but to maintain your blog quality you have to consider this step. Same in settings >> posts and comments you will see comment moderation option, just set it to always and enter email moderation request to. With this option enabled none of the comment goes live without your knowledge unless you approve it.
Step 3: Receive comment notification email – Go to settings >> Mobile and email, in there you will see a field for comment notification email. Enter your email IDs separated by comma not more than 10 and when done save your settings. This option will notify you each time when someone leaves a comment on your blog.
Also read: Google adsense earning for newbie
Also read: Google adsense earning for newbie
Step 4: Enable CAPTCHA – Most spam bots cannot surpass CAPTCHA verification, so to prevent spam enable this option. Learn more about enabling CAPTCHA in Blogger blog to minimize spam comments.
Don’t like the way Blogger handles comments, then simply switch to third party comment system like Disqus, Intense debate or Livefyre. You can check out the post that we have previously covered on integrating Disqus commenting system to Blogger. Usually these third party comment platforms will have spam protection and you don’t have to spend much time on eradicating spam.
Hope this post helped you to identify and prevent spam comments on Blogger blog. Is your blog receiving too many spam comments? What are the steps are you taking to prevent such comments? Please let us know in comments below and please do not spam here or elsewhere.
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