Comments with Links to Other Sites

I was wondering what you did about comments on your articles, which include links to other sites.  I've typically let them through, if the comment itself isn't just spam.  But deleted them if the main point of the comment is blatantly to direct everyone back to another site.

How about you?

Same

Same here.

Relevant comment with relevant link is always welcome. Others don't come through:)

Yes, I ditch the spammy ones, too.

I don't understand why anyone would leave a comment with a link.  Isn't it pretty much always to direct readers to their site?

I don't like it - am I thinking about this wrong?

Pam - you're pretty much spot-on. Most comment links are self-serving.

It's pretty rare that there's a useful comment with a useful link.

I delete them because they're trying to steal link juice from me.

"I delete them because they're trying to steal link juice from me." (chefkeem)

Talking about link juice...

Posts in comment section are built-in automatisation. If somebody mentions wordpress.com as a nice free blogging service, this is by default changed in a clickable link. Any chance to prevent that?

Response to Chefkeem comment:

If someone is willing to take time to make a relevant and interesting comment (that may contain content (keywords) that will add to the possibility that my article will show in alternate SERPs) then personally I am happy to include a link relevant to the comment (even if that diverts some link juice [unlikely]).

We offer the chance for comments to be made, without giving anything in return (other than the article content, which is available to all, whether they comment or not) other than an opportunity to have some traffic moving through the link.

There was another post about Nofollow and Dofollow. If the link is given a Nofollow tag then your link juice is safe. The only thing that happens is that traffic can pass from your article to the source for the link. This is to some extent GOOD, because your bounce rate is not increased (bounce rate measures how often the visitor returns to the SERPs that generated the visit).

IMHO your logic in deleting all comments with links is miscalculated.

I have never had an individual, or a person from a business build a repoire with me from any of my work. So there has never been any chance to engage in a work relationship in any way. Hence, I treat it as spam, it is deleted.

"There was another post about Nofollow and Dofollow. If the link is given a Nofollow tag then your link juice is safe." (humagaia)

Sorry, this is wrong.

Link pointing out of the page always dilutes PageRank (which many of aff. marketers believe is not important, but I think it still is and it is very easy to prove that).

If we have 5 links, every one takes one fifth of the authority, no matter if it is tagged with nofollow or not. Nofollow is related only on the other side - authority which is 'taken' from the starting page, is not transferred to the landing page.

If we add the sixth link (again, it doesn't matter nofollowed or not), every link will carry only one sixth of authority, so we can talk about dilution (as chefkem said), but with relevancy it is probably compensated (as humagaia said).

Thinking about safety of link juices with nofollow tagging is wrong from ancient times of PageRank sculpting which worked (I am not sure, give it or take it few months) about half of year until Google recognized they created another beast with nofollow tag and changed its working with the logic I presented above (authority is divided with number of ALL links).

There are two more interesting facts which probably are too much for this post:

1. Even the unclickable format as wwwDOTpageDOTcom (with dots instead of 'DOT' string) is very likely passing some sort of link juice (I have seen claims but not results from some people managed to rank their pages with this sort of links).

2. Even nofollow links carry SEO power and can be very useful for improvement of positions in SERP (I did few experiments myself and I am 100% sure this works although PR is not passed).

Commenting on posts is in my opinion very important part of Web presence for authors and visitors, so it is good to understand the subject as much as we can. And possibly improve what we can.

Chaz - I didn't say I delete ALL comments with links. I said, MOST of them are self-serving and don't contribute anything useful to my articles. I DO accept useful comments and links.  

Tolovaj - I would leave a useful comment, even with an "automated" link, and delete anything else.

If you're looking for a code change, please send a message with your suggestions to Simon.  

Some changes in comment section would probably not be a bad idea. I am thinking about that for some time, but this is probably not the place or time and certainly not related with JoHarrington's question.

I'll open new threat in few days. It is probably something where other users can offer a suggestion too:)

Chef - my bad!

Tolovaj: 05/18/2013 - 01:04 PM

I'll open new threat in few days. 

I do hope you meant 'thread'!

Thread! (I was under influence of 'low and thin content' threat on another site...)

;)

If it was someone offering a really useful link to a resource that complimented my work then I would happily add it to the list of helpful resources or articles on the page.

My general experience across multiple platforms and my own sites is that link leavers/droppers are only doing so to promote their own work.  They would be the first to call foul if I then reciprocated with a comment such as "Thanks so much for leaving the link to this valuable page on my page at ....... and I can see how our readers could each get value from our respective pages......"  I actually did that once as a test and the person contacted me to accuse me of being a spammer!

So now I very, very rarely allow through a comment with a link in it.