Do comment links on blogs help the blog itself rank?
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Hi
I have a blog - Carzilla.co.uk - and it keeps getting what are pretty obviously spam comments with links to unconnected websites of various quality.
The blog is quite new and not ranking highly in SERPs for anything in particular yet.
So my question is, is it better to let some of these comments through so google can see activity on the site?
Or do spammy comments with links make the site look like a link farm?
Any advice on what my policy should be - purely from a Google serps perspective - would be great.
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In the eyes of Google, your website is no better than the destinations of your links. So, if you have lots of links to spam then Google will think that you are a spammer. Linking to manipulative sites puts you squarely within their web.
So, if you want to be trusted by Google you need to be liking to great sites. I link out a lot and only link to site that are clearly superior to my own. I have no problem with sending a visitor to a website that has better information about a topic than I have - because that is why my visitor would want and that is what Google is looking for too.
Those links to better website make my site a richer information source.
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Spammy comments look like spam. Spam is bad. Bad is not good
Get rid. Not sure if carzilla supports comment moderation, but if it does activate it.
Also, try connecting with your target audience via social sites like facebook and twitter and engage them in conversation, tell them of articles and cool stuff on your blog, then you may get some natural comments.
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