Have you ever left a comment on a blog and wondered why it was not published?
There are many reasons why this can happen, including:
- Your comment included links, words or phrases that triggered the blog’s software to block it. Like most wordpress blogs, this blog uses a trackback / comment spam plugin. The one I use is called Akismet.
- The blogger deleted your comment for some reason.
- Your ip address, website or email address is somehow listed in the popular comment spam databases.
- Your comment was too short. This is the one I want to focus on here.
Comments too short?
Yep! Legitimate comments like yours, can get trapped in blog spam filters, simply because they are too short. Blog comments like; “I totally agree” or “This is a great blog”, are regularly used by some SEO’s, as a way to build backlinks for their clients sites. They simply paste the same generic phrase into thousands of well ranked blogs, hoping they will find some, which do not have comment-spam / trackback spam plugins installed. Whilst these brief comments are pretty harmless (in my opinion), some bloggers really don’t like them and as a result, filters now try and stop them appearing.
Here’s an example of how a genuine comment can get lost. I just found a legitimate comment in my filter, which contains only 5 words; “what’s your bookmark plugin Jim?” This was instantly filtered it as spam and it would have been missed, had I not spent 20 minutes reading through the last 12 hours worth of comment spam, for this post.
By the way: 99% of the spam I get is NOT from SEO’s! The SEO comments I see are largely benign and tend to point to regular sites. No, the vast majority of the comment spam I see (and don’t want published) is sent via zombie computers and links to everything from porn sites to drug sites and malware.
So, if you want the best chance of seeing your comment published on a blog, use more than 3 or 4 words if you want to avoid the blogger’s filter. This also helps you add to the conversation and adds value to your input.
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