Rizwan Do backlinks from comments works fine? I can see one of my competitors is growing fast by making backlinks from comments on other sites like blogger too. Now he is on page 1st of Search Engine Result Page (SERP) from 1 week.
Ammon Johns π No. Firstly, Google say they can and do recognize and completely ignore those links. Now, obviously you are going to say "But he added them and now he ranks", but think about it – he's obviously spamming all the links he can get, anywhere and everywhere, if he's also resorting to the lowest, worst possible links of comment spam. The chances are that in all the hundreds of links he built lately, he built just ONE good one somewhere that has done all that work. Plus that heavy investment in link building is unlikely to be the ONLY investment in SEO generally. What you are seeing is a competitor trying very, very hard in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and doing some really bad and pointless crap, but also doing other stuff that works. Second, even if Google were lying (or just wrong) about their detection abilities, you found those links easily. It would take you just moments to report the spam. For many years, the biggest detection risk to be certain of is not Google, but the risk of competitors seeing the spam and reporting it. I guarantee you it is not worth it for anything but churn and burn (where you expect the website to be burned and useless within a month or so and are already building the next 5 replacements). Churn and burn may seem like a viable tactic, and it can be for a price, but it is always a terrible long-term solution. Its a tactic used in black hat affiliate stuff, where you don't care about the long term because the payment rates of the affiliate program might change anyway. Its a tactic for when money now is all that matters, and tomorrow you'll be working a completely different niche with a completely different set of sites and content. For anything you expect to still be working on in 6 months, always, always, go for brand. Build a site where the efforts of this month add to next month, and the month after, and keep adding up.
Kalin Β» Ammon Johns Not all comments are worthless spam. Most that are offered on some website and cost 5USD for 000s are, but not definitely not all. Ammon Johns π Β» Kalin Want to show me some good ones you think actually help rankings? Kalin Β» Ammon Johns We all know you can't rank with just comments, but they are instances they can help your effort even when it comes to building a brand, establishing authority, social signals. It all ads up. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is not black and white – 100 good comments and you jump 7 places. Ammon Johns π Β» Kalin I was asking if you could show an example of ANY comment link that you think would contribute in any way to jumping up even one place in rankings. Google is an engine. It uses an algorithm. They process hundreds of different signals. They could process thousands more but don't because the signals in question are noisy, not consistently a sign of good quality, or a signal of bad quality. In fact that's why bounce rates are NOT used to determine the ranking of any sites. Maybe the user only wanted to check a quick fact, or get a contact telephone number, or even check an address, and seconds later they leave satisfied. The stats will report that as a bounce. As a signal then, bounce rates are utterly useless to Google. As we both know, as does anyone in this group, most comments, by which I mean the vast majority, where a link is included, are just spam. If you were using Bayesian probability factoring of 'link in comment' as a signal, it would be a 90% probability of it being a spam signal. There is simply zero chance of Google using the links in comments as a positive ranking signal. None at all. In fact they outright ASK ALL webmasters to mark comments with NOFOLLOW, or the new variant of "User Generated Content (UGC)". Kalin Β» Ammon Johns Let's wrap this up. Comments spam is worthless. Getting involved with communities and commenting on relevant websites can help you website, brand, business etc. Nofollow links matter. Don't listen to everything Google is saying. Good day. Ammon Johns π Β» Kalin Commenting to build brand and connection with people, having no care whether it directly affects Google is very much a real thing, but sadly utterly irrelevant to the OP question of whether a sudden rush of links in comments led to a competitor suddenly jumping to the top of the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). Roger Comment spam is worthless. It's the easiest to find and ignore. The reason the competitor is succeeding is something else. Google has long ignored many kinds of links. NEVER assume that what you see is the reason for the rankings. People love to follow the leader in the mistaken belief that what they see is why they're ranking. Here's advice based on my experience killing competition across many niches: Take the extra step to do something different that nobody else is doing in that niche. Paul From my experience, over 99% of comments that include a link are worthless spam. Genuine commenters don't tend to add websites, in fact, most don't own a website or any online business they wish to promote.
Micha π Comment links are spam, and most comment links use the "rel='nofollow'" link attribute. So it's highly unlikely anyone is benefiting from them. I wouldn't try to emulate such behavior.
Paul Β» Micha Likely the person doing the SEO just wants to make some links on better looking websites to show to a client.
Neil We have a few comments on our website and I always check to see if the comment has a link and IF that link is to a site that is relevant to the post they are commenting on. Otherwise, the link just gets removed and the comment left. Rizwan βοΈ My content is 5 times better than my competitor but i don't know why he win my position in Search Engine Result Page (SERP).. His page is not older than my page.
Ammon Johns π Β» Rizwan Better in what way, and in which metrics? Because there are a ton of different ways to judge content. Sometimes simplicity is vital, and a low reading level requirement might be better than a technically more informative and well written piece with a higher reading level. Sometimes less is more because people may want a fast answer, not a 30 minute read. The further you push quality in one metric, the naturally you decrease the opposing metric. Rizwan βοΈ Ammon Johns my page has query answer in it, and my competitor's page doesn't provide answer to the query. His page is like category page.
