I have thousands of visitors to my blog and they leave comments. However, they are not real visitors I’m afraid, there are an army of bots out there polluting all the blogs they infect. Just recently I noticed many new tricks being employed.
Why are they doing it? Mainly because the whole of the Internet lives under the tyranny of search engines, mainly of course, Google. Many web site owners out there are desperately trying back door (or black hat in Internet marketing parlance) of cheating this system to fight for survival. Of course I am not justifying these people’s action in any way, it’s a nuisance, but the system is there and creating an effect that waste’s years of people’s lives. They are of course looking for back links, a link to their site, because when Google, and the cacophony of other search engine robots come along, these links get counted. Though obviously not as simple as this, the more links they have the higher they appear in Google, with page 1 or even position 1 in the SERPs (search engine results pages) in their sites because that is the way that they will get noticed.
Here are a few examples of the kind of comments I have received.
We have the confused browser spam, acting like they don’t have a clue, this one in answer to a simple film plot post:
“live search routed me here.lol.but found this report useful hence thought to drop a line.very well done.i dont thoroughly agree with you but nonetheless a superb argument”
We have the again confused but busy spam, acting like they just found you by chance, this on in answer to a conference tweet archive post.
“i mistakenly came upon your webpage while hunting for something else.fascinating report.whilst i wasnt hunting for this..perfectly done.the idea you’re making is debatable but a powerful one nevertheless.”
We have the downright lying browser spam, of course no links to you.
“Your article seems interesting, i have noted it my digg and stumble account.The point you are making is easy to understand and effective.”
We have the cheeky checking blog spam, even leaving unique little keys in to check to see if their message got approved by you.
“Great article very important information i found here Q9f4Gd3bbQWR70”
We have the drivelling browser blog spam, some are so bad that it makes me feel quite sick. I wonder who ever falls for the following?
“This web site is exceptional! Most from the time when i visit blogs, I operate into terrible ads that give me nothing but this time I ran into your weblog and I used to be amazed. You might be providing out some amazing details. Please preserve it up!”
Well a quick check and right now 26 blogs appeared in the Google search with it in. It is horrible to think that anyone less aware of what is going on actually listens to any of this.
We have the same kind but who use content spinning programs. These programs will chance words and phrases around to fool the search engines and the blog owners.
“Hey – solid company, just looking all around some web, may seem a rather quality platform you are using. I am currently using WordPress for a handful of of my details but looking to alter one of them near to a platform related to yours staying trial work. Anything in specified you would recommend regarding it?”
Search for that in its entirety and you get no results. But take a look at the very similar ones that appear. Just with a phrase change here and there and you see what I mean.
We have the ‘guest posting’ trend browsers coming in now.
“I am happy I found this blog, I couldnt discover any info on this subject matter prior to. I also operate a website and if you would like to actually serious in just a little little bit of guest writing for me if feasible really feel free to let me know, i’m always appear for people to check out my site. Please stop by and leave a comment sometime!”
Lately I have seen the opposite tactic to drivelling, though not convincingly done.
“great good…this post deserves nothing 🙁 …hahaha simply joking 🙂 …nice post 🙂“
And what is this all about?
“Thanks for the informative post. My wife’s calling me for dinner So I need to run off without reading as much as I’d like. But I put your blog on my RSS feed to ensure that I can read a lot more.”
It makes me wonder at times whether blog spam is becoming some kind of art form in its own right.
It does however make you suspicious of anything of anyone that comments on your blog. It might finally get to the point where you switch off any commenting at all. Of course what is the difference often between a genuine post and one just for backlink? I have allowed one or two out of the hundreds I get through the filter because by accident or real effort of the sender the comment is either very apt or so far out that the result is really funny.
There are of course, the laziest and most desperate of all the comment spam you get on the blogs, a comment that entirely consists of many, many links to other sites. You can bet that viagra makes an often appearance here too.