What Are Negative Blog Comments?
Everyone likes to receive blog comments right? Is there such a thing as a negative blog comment? Unfortunately there is! Whilst it is great to have lots of comments, it is advisable to make sure you are only allowing good quality comments on your blog to ensure that those comments don’t hurt you!
By negative comments, I don’t mean comments that might disagree with what you are saying. Whilst those comments could initially be perceived as negative, they can actually draw more conversation and more traffic. By negative blog comments, I mean those comments that are not submitted with the purpose of adding value to your post content in any way.
Bloggers who leave comments are interested in not only engaging on that particular post, but have the potential for building an ongoing relationship with you. This could lead to guest posting or even business partnering in the future. Don’t therefore under estimate the importance of high quality blog comments.
Comments on your blog also help your SEO efforts and thus bring you more traffic.
Search engines pay attention to the comments you receive and it shows that readers are interested in the content you are sharing. We therefore all want to gain as many comments as we can on each of our blog posts.
As well as blog comments, all ‘likes’, ‘shares’ and ‘re-tweets’ all help you. Readers who undertake these actions not only assist to bring extra traffic your way, but it also helps tell the search engines that your blog has content that readers want to hear. The search engines are noticing the comments and other social media engagement and making a note that this is popular content. This is all great stuff!
Unfortunately however there are those negative blog comments that try and creep their way into your blog and try and spoil all the good work.
Negative blog comments can take traffic away from you!
Unfortunately not everyone who comments on your blog is doing so purely because they would like to share an opinion about the content. Some commenters are solely looking to direct traffic to their site or to leave links in their comments which takes traffic away from you.
Having backlinks in comments could cause problems if they are associated with spam websites. Think about whether you want to auto publish comments or whether you would like to moderate them first. If you choose to moderate them first, you can decide whether to approve those comments that contain inappropriate backlinks.
Moderate Comments To Keep Control
Your blog is YOUR site. You are the manager and you can run it as you please. You are therefore in charge of the rules you set for your blog, who you have publish content, what advertisements you place and also what comments you will allow.
As the owner of your site, you are perfectly within your rights to delete comments from people who you feel are causing trouble either for you or your readers on your site.
If you feel a link contains spam, or is trying to redirect your readers away from your content to content that is not desirable, then don’t be afraid to delete it! Remember that you are the boss on your site and what you say goes!
If your blog is failing to receive comments, you need to take a step back and examine why this could be. Comments are incredibly important on a blog, and a lack of engagement gives the impression to other readers that the content may not be worth hanging around for.
It is therefore wise to encourage as much activity as you can on both your site, but also your social media platforms. Lots of engagement means lots of interest, and this in turn brings new readers. Don’t however make the mistake of allowing every comment appear on your blog. Negative blog comments will do more harm than good and you are better off having no comments on a post rather than comments with no value.
If you would like to know more about blog commenting and how you can turn your blog into a successful online venture, then I recommend you join the learn how to blog program. The program will guide you through everything you need to know about blogging, giving you all the blogging tips you need available at your fingertips!
How do you react when you receive comments on your blog? Do you approve every comment or do you moderate them? Have you been aware that negative blog comments could in fact do harm to your site? Please leave your thoughts with us below.
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Written by Catherine Holt
Catherine Holt is the founder of Blogging Tips 101. She has been an internet marketer since 2012. Connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, Google and Pinterest.
Cath, great breakdown! I like the differentiation between positive and negative comments, and how most people do intend to build up instead of breakdown with comments. Mod them
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Thanks Ryan. Whilst we all love to get comments, it is wise to spend some time reviewing them to make sure they are going to benefit your post in some way
Great reminder Catherine.
Blog moderation can be a full-time job. There are some bloggers who gladly accept spam comments, desperately trying to make their blog “look good” based on multiple comments. Such a practice can get your site on the google blacklist with enough spam comments.
Absolutely Robyn. Whilst it does take extra time to approve all your comments, I think it pays off to avoid the spam. Spam comments on a blog never look good IMO, and a whole list of them would put me off from commenting on a blog. Plus, we really don’t want to be on Google’s blacklist do we! Thanks for your comment
Great tips! I just got into blogging not long ago and searching for ways to improve my blogging experience. Didn’t know that Google prioritize comments. Was constantly reading up on all the SEO stuffs. I do however understand what you meant by people trying to redirect traffic by leaving a link in their comment . Makes you wonder if that fella is a sincere reader or not. We don’t wanna spend our precious time writing for someone who just glances through it and advertise freely for himself by redirecting the traffic.
There are so many things that help SEO and whilst blog comments are a drop in the ocean, they are still drops! It’s great to comment on other’s blogs and whilst it is fine to have other bloggers links on your site, it needs not to be spammy. For instance I use Comment Luv which shows the last blog post that has been written by a commenter. This is a nice way to thank others for leaving a comment and helps them leave a link. It’s all about working out what will be of benefit and what will just drag your site down. I hope you enjoy your blogging experience
I personally moderate all my comments and get rid of spamy comments. As for negative comments Catherine I take the “All publicity is publicity approach”, At one point I would get so agitated when a reader said something totally off putting, so I simply listen and respond kindly and logically. They usually often either come around or look real stupid.
I think readers like to see a mix of opinions in the comments and the way you handle them. I had a reader leave a negative comment and I responded nicely and he later commented again that just for being cool I got a subscriber, guess he was testing my resolve.
I also Watch for those that leave a comment that proves they did not even read the article and simply seeking back links. Solid article your Blog is your brand and you should protect it and you reserve the right to delete any and all comments that do not fit your Blogs model.
Your absolutely right Ricardo. A seemingly “negative” comment can actually generate a lot of discussion on your article. More discussion = more traffic and interaction, so comments don’t always have to agree with what the post is talking about.
Controversial posts are especially great for gathering differing opinions and creating a conversation.
Thanks for your feedback
I typically set my blogs to moderate comments unless the person already has an approved comment, and that seems to cut down on spam comments being approved. As a blog grows you’re likely to get more spam comments, and it also gets harder to tell which comments are legit. Don’t be afraid to delete comments if they don’t add anything.
That sounds like you have a good system in place Marc. You will definitely get more spam comments the more successful your blog becomes. Even though we don’t like to see the spam, it is nice to see that the site is being noticed more
Hi Catherine.
Luckily, I’ve not had to deal with any bad blog comments so far, but my blog is only 6 months old and I imagine that the day will come as my audience gets bigger.
However, I do moderate all comments anyway because I like to know what is being published on my site.
I think the only time I would delete a comment is if the commenter inserted links in an attempt to get traffic and like you say they could cause problems if they are linked to spam sites.
I don’t mind readers disagreeing with me because we all have our own take on things and I appreciate that.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us on this topic.
Kerry
You have raised a great point here Kerry. If you don’t moderate your comments, then how do you know what is being published on your site! As your site grows you may receive comments on posts that are years old. You are certainly not going to check all your posts to see if any new comments have been made. Moderating them allows you to easily see when new comments have been placed.
I agree that readers disagreeing with you is not a reason not to publish a comment. These type of comments can actually be beneficial for your post as they generate discussion. It’s the spammy comments and those comments placed only for links that we need to look out for.
Thanks for your feedback
Comments are good for blog but negative comments are not good, as you explained why those comments are dangerous for our blog. This is something about which we should be careful.
It depends what is in the comment to make them negative Pankaj. I have no problem with comments that may oppose what has been written, but it is those comments with spammy links that are the problem ones. And yes…we do need to look out for them!