Being rather new to the Blogosphere, I was amazed at the flood of comments presented for my approval on the most insignificant postings.   Before I started my blog, I thought that, of the millions of blogs out there, it would just disappear into cyberspace, only to be seen by a few faithful friends, and then only when prompted.  But, there they were, in my inbox, “Comment waiting approval…”

But wait, the comments are too generic–“This is a great blog”–or, just plain inappropriate–“Short and to the point,” when mine tend to be wordy and drift off-topic.  And, they each come with a URL of the poster that leads back to a strange and disjointed blog.  Hmm, I see a pattern here.   A bit more research shows that these blogs seem to be a  list of keywords or keyword-rich cut and paste from dozens of other blogs and websites.

I’ve been studying Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques lately, for a project I’m working on, and these chaotic blogs seem to be exactly what the SEO experts say not to do if you want to get search ratings.  They are attempts by the owners to get high search engine rankings for the keywords, so as to draw traffic to one or more links on the page.  I suspect these trash blogs might be the handiwork of the many fly-by-night SPAM factories that promise to get you good search ratings.  My advice is, don’t approve comments of this type–they can only damage your own search ratings.   One comment URL I reviewed led back to a website that, on the surface, appeared to be a directory for academic papers on specific topics.  But, scrolling further down the page revealed a rather large pornography index.  Delete!  Linking this sort of thing could not only destroy your ratings, but get your website blocked by association.

My advice is, if a comment to your blog appears to be flattering, but generic, just trash it.  And never, never respond to SPAM offers for SEO for your website.  If you want to get better ratings, be careful of who you link to.