Lost all comments on our blog...will it hurt rankings?
-
We recently installed Facebook comments into our blog and now we lost all of our old comments. Does this have any affect on SEO? Will this hurt our rankings?
Thanks!
-
Thank you, Jane. It appears we are able to restore our comments, but it's good to know that it's not a negative factor.
-
Hi there,
I would say that comments, especially of a good length and with no duplication from elsewhere (so not just people stopping by to say "great post!") would be seen as a positive signal, but not nearly enough to qualify as a ranking factor. That is, having no comments would count as a lack of a signal, not necessarily a negative factor.
It's unfortunate that the site has lost all of its comments. Anecdotally, the same thing happened to a blog of mine four or five years ago. The site did not suffer a drop in traffic and remains successful.
-
It's possible, but I haven't seen any studies that are conclusive. However, having additional unique content on your site can help with rankings though, especially if it includes long tail variations of keywords that you didn't include in your article, which you can also rank for.
-
Thank you for your responses. In this instance, I don't think we had any "high authority" comments, mostly just reactions from our community. However, what do you all think about the quantity of comments? Does that have an impact? For example, the more comments, the higher you will rank... Any thoughts are appreciated.
-
A few weeks ago I heard some interesting talk about this. I go to a local SEO meetup and Jon Henshaw from Raven Tools attends sometimes. He actually had an interesting thought on comments. Apparently from his own personal tracking having a comment by a top influential commenter can drive a post up in the SERP's. I think he mentioned a post he had that was kind of lackluster, but a notable person commented on it, and it drove it up pretty high.
-
Like Takeshi said, it does affect with long tails, especially if you got a good deal of traffic from that before.
Aside from that, I wouldn't really mind too much. If it's a good site, it'll get some good comments again.
But yeah, disqus is a pretty good alternative but you probably have your reasons for going with Facebook only.
Good luck!
-
It can potentially affect your rankings for some keywords, especially long tail keywords. User comments generally the highest quality content, but they are content nonetheless and indexed by Google.
One solution might be to switch to a comment system such as Disqus. Disqus will still allow users to login with Facebook (as well as Twitter & Google+) and can be configured so that the comments are indexable.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Can horrific grammar and spelling in comments hurt the value of an otherwise great page?
I've got a website whose pages get lots of comments. Tons of activity, which I would think Google would like (and seems to like). However -- I just can't put this nicely -- most commenters are not very bright. Their grammar and spelling is horrific. These are not foreigners who lack English skills, they are just about all primarily English speakers and the site is 99% US traffic. It's a low-income segment of the population. So, I've been wondering recently if Google will mark down the value of the page due to the bad grammar and spelling in the comments, even if the page's content is otherwise very good and lengthy. I have read that they grammar and spelling into consideration when looking at the page, but would that include comments, or would they know they are comments and not judge a page on that? It would be a pain, but maybe I should I run all the comments at least through a spell checker? And manually fix their grammar? Problem is I get about 40 comments a day. And when I say bad grammar and spelling, I mean REALLY bad. Embarrassing.
On-Page Optimization | | bizzer0 -
Need help ranking my site
Hi, Can anyone help me out? I am trying to get this site ranked for "Villa General Belgrano". It was on the first page of Google and then it disappeared. Did I over optimize the anchor text? http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/anchors?site=www.lawebdelvalle.com.ar
On-Page Optimization | | Carla_Dawson0 -
Does a phone number in the title tag hurt your rankings in SERP?
Hi Mozzers, One of my client is a carpet cleaner and I was wondering if adding a phone number into the title tags would hurt our rankings . I am asking because the client has mentioned it and that we do have some space to add a phone number into the tag. Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | Ideas-Money-Art0 -
Can Rankings in Google differ so much from computer to computer.
I was telling my friend via facebook to go on my website, I told him to search 'nightlife forum' in google. To which, I believed it was 11th, top of second page. On his computer, its currently ranking at 1st place is it possible to have a difference of 10 places? even though he lives in the same city as me. Would be good to see what it ranks on your computers too google "nightlife forum" look for www.talknightlife.co.uk (don't get confused with the .COM one out there) Cheers Guys
On-Page Optimization | | Lukescotty0 -
Ranking for competitor brand terms
We're looking to rank for competitor brand terms and have created competitor brand pages for some of our main competitors. My question is where would be most effective to place these pages on our site? Also, would this be classed as grey hat?
On-Page Optimization | | Sayers1 -
Should I delete my old blog now that it has been transfered?
I just transfered my free wordpress.com blog to my main business site and I did not know if I should delete my old blog or is it a big issue to have the same content on both sites. I will be adding to my biz site from now on.
On-Page Optimization | | greenjoe0 -
Redirect a blog category page to the homepage?
Hi folks Following Penguin 1.1, I have a client site at number 5 for their primary keyword. (was creeping up page 2 with whitehat link building and tight on-site SEO.) However now the page ranking at No. 5 is for a blog category archive. What do people think the quickest / safest way to get this ranking directed back to the homepage is? Many thanks Simon
On-Page Optimization | | SCL-SEO0 -
What should I do with my blog...V2
Hello again! The other day I was asking about my blog which is on http://cheshireweddingphotographyblog.co.uk/ Based on the answer, I decided I wanted to move it within my website. So I emailed Photobiz saying I wanted it to become: http://www.celynnenphotography.co.uk/blog They want me to make it: blog.celynnenphotography.co.uk They say the benefits (re: SEO) would be the same but that there would be more downtime if I wanted it done my way. Are they right in saying the benefits would be the same for blog.celynnenphotography.co.uk as it would for http://www.celynnenphotography.co.uk/blog ? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | IoanSaid0