At what point to stop comments on a blog? Do too many comments hurt the page?
-
I have a page that's ranking pretty well, and driving sales. That page is starting to get 10+ comments per day and is starting to get quite long. I was wondering if there is a point where I should disable the comments? My gut tells me that people interacting with the page, and Google seeing responses with the users SHOULD be a good thing not bad. But, then I think that a majority of the content of the page is no longer the article, but the comments.
All the comments are good, non spammy and directly related to the topic. People just asking questions, etc. Good engagement, I should be happy right?
-
The only reason why I'd ever disable comments if I'm way to tired of getting them and having to approve them or I decided to stop replying to comments. I'll tell you why.
Your page is ranking well for many reasons. One of the reason is likely due to that its a great piece of content. If it still continues to rank well and drive sales, then the 10+ comments per day obviously aren't harming its ability to do that, so why change the process of accepting comments? In addition, if it is a great piece of content, people are more likely to share it and you'll get more visits. I've seen many blogs where they closed comments because it was already a year or two old and it just seems they don't want to bother with the comments anymore and I really want to provide additional insight and yadda yadda; my comments are not going to hurt your post especially if it adds more unique and fresh content to that page only to help it stay fresh in Google's eyes, right?
Unless you switch the position of your content and the comments around, the comments will have little effect on your page's rank and conversion rate.
If you're happy with the way things are, let the comments keep coming. Use your spam filter, make sure you have "external nofollows" on comment URLs and if you really want to keep the value of your content strong, only approve the really good comments, not just the five word comments like, "wow, what a great post".
Good engagement, you are correct. Fresh & unique content, Google likes. More social signals; a good thing.
-
Yup! That sounds like a good interaction and a lively page that will keep presenting fresh, meaningful content each time it's updated. The only comments I'd worry about are spam (which you've screened) and really off-topic comments, but neither of those seem to be a problem. Since people are commenting under the same topic(s) as the article, it just adds to the page as a whole.
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
-
Starting a brand new blog today - Is it still Wordpress?
Hi I started a blog in 2006 on Blogspot, then everyone moved onto Tumblr and Wordpress, but in August (just) 2013, what should I be starting my brand new blog on? I dont want to have to migrate in a matter on months.
Content Development | | xoffie0 -
Will a comment section on my site help with seo
I have never been a fan of comment pages such as the sun http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/4783642/bruce-willis-appears-on-the-one-show-in-awkward-interview.html but i was told the other day that not only is it good for the reader but it is also good for seo and increase the number of times that google would visit the page and i would like to know if that is true. if you have added a comment section to your articles i would like to know if you have noticed any change.
Content Development | | ClaireH-1848860 -
New Link Tracker from My Blog Guest
Hi, Just come across this and thought I would share it, looks good from the outside but not yet signed up, going to though in the next hour or so. Anyway looks good - http://tracker.myblogguest.com/
Content Development | | activitysuper1 -
Google Blogger Vs. Sub Domain Blog - Authority building.
We are looking into offering blogs for our customers on their current sites that we have built & host for them. My developers have given me 2 options. 1. Sub domain with a hosted blog. 2. A Google Blogger blog with our customers sub-domain pointed to it. In my opinion I feel that a blog hosted on the sub domain is a better option as it is more authority then a Google Blogger blog. What does everyone think? Having a blog hosted on the subdomain would help with authority building vs. a Google Blogger site? Thanks for any help!
Content Development | | DCochrane0 -
Best Blog Engine
We currently are using blogengine.net 1.6 and it's proving to be an SEO nightmare, with link loops causing infinite "duplicate content". I am trying to find the best blog solution as far as ease of use, clean content and good SEO. What do you use? What do you suggest? Thanks!
Content Development | | QuickLearnTraining0 -
Evergreen content: Dedicated section or blog posts?
As part of our content strategy we are creating an ongoing series of articles to help both our potential buyers and our users learn about our product and improve their knowledge of industry best practices in general. Internally, we've had some debate as to where we should host this content within our site. We've identified two approaches: Series of blog posts Dedicated knowledge section of the website If we go with the first approach, we would created a dedicated section that indexed all the blog posts. If we went with the second, we'd create blog posts for each of the articles announcing their addition. Is there any difference, SEO wise with the two approaches? What would you recommend? Thanks, Darren.
Content Development | | dgibbons0 -
How to Integrate a Wordpress Blog into my Website
We are looking at integrating a blog into our website. Unfortunately, our content management system is very clunky and not set up to quickly publish blog style content. I'd like to use Wordpress and set up the blog as a subdomain of my company website. Our URL is www.blockandcompany.com so the blog URL would be www.blog.blockandcompany.com. Is it correct to say that if the blog is set up this way, the search engines will see the regular website and the Wordpress hosted blog as one big site? I want to use the blog to write keyword-rich content, but I don't want to divide my SEO "equity" between two separate sites. Any advice?
Content Development | | Blockinc1 -
New blog not TopDomainName, do I wast my time?
My eCommerce site is: http://www.furnacefilterscanada.com to provide informations a create links for SEO, i launch http://www.furnacefilterscanada.info/ over WordPress. After ready the new SEOmoz book, I realize .info is not a TopDomainName and it might be see has spam. What do you thing? Should I keep the domain spend time on this blog or should I go a buy a new domain? Since I learn it this, my blog was lauch, but i didn't post on it, I'm affraid I will loos time. Thank you for your advice and recommendations, Jean Nichols
Content Development | | BigBlaze2050