27
Mar
Google Showing Comment Count with Site links
I’ve just been reading an article on blogstorm giving evidence that Google is showing a comment count next to site links for some blogs.
This is very interesting for two reasons. 1) It suggests Google is tracking comment numbers on blogs. 2) It is likely that if they are tracking comment numbers that it may be or become part of their ranking system for blog posts.
I love the thought of this, because I have no problems getting comments on this blog. It might also explain why some of my posts rank rather well for some good terms despite not really optimising them much for the terms. An interesting thought anyway.
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Simon Ward
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Comments (72)
this is kinda interesting. I’ve just stared my blog so i’m not getting any visitors never mind comments but hopefully this will be relevant to me in the future
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do you think its worth making comments in a blog “dofolow” just to increase the number of comments you get? or do think comment numbers are more to do with the amount of traffic your getting?
Adsense Monkey
For SEO it’s only worth commenting on D-follow blogs…well as far as Google see it. Yahoo counts no-follow.
Very very interesting founding. It shows also that Google knows to identify blogs, and to separate them from normal sites, and then it goes even deeper by counting number of comments.
Hmm. If they are counting comments, then Google knows also to weigh the backlinks less, no?
BTW, do you know how to make Google link multiple post names? I don’t mean double linking, but something like “colorado lasik surgery”?
Zeffy I assume you are talking about site links…if you are you can play with whay Google shows as your site links using Google Webmaster tools.
For SEO it’s only worth commenting on D-follow blogs…well as far as Google see it. Yahoo counts no-follow.
It always saddens me to see publicity of some “new metric” for Google ranking…because it simply augurs for tons of new spam. If numbers of comments now contributes to higher rankings, you can BET that there will soon be an influx of “great post!” comments being approved by bloggers who would previously have deleted them. We all suffer…
This would make things interesting if they are using comments to consider rank. It would make sense that if lots of people are reading and talking about a subject than it should be more relevent.
Of course this may change the way many bloggers moderate their comments as well.
It seems if Google is doing this are they spying? Nah, I don’t think so, hope not!
Very very interesting founding. It shows also that Google knows to identify blogs, and to separate them from normal sites, and then it goes even deeper by counting number of comments.
So if google is keeping track of the number of comments per blog post and giving them rank accord does that mean more blog owners are going to start letting more and more spammy comments through in order for their blog to appear popular?
This could prove to be very interesting I’ll have to keep an eye on this.
More comments help with popularity it seems. People will be curious what all the buzz is about.
That is really interesting. My view points are kind of similar but not exactly the same. I wonder why you think in that fashion?
Very very interesting founding. It shows also that Google knows to identify blogs, and to separate them from normal sites, and then it goes even deeper by counting number of comments.
That’s a very insightful thought that Google could be using comment counts to influence ranking. However, that is something that can be easily manipulated.
Have noticed Google has been working on stuff like this for a while. They also quite often tell you how many posts there are on a thread. Again, that could alos be a useful way for them to influence ranking as forum threads do not tend to get links.
I noticed the other day though one of my sites that I frequently use when commenting showed up in their google webmaster tools for having too many comment links…(probably thousands since it was my first site & I unknowingly started out the social networking bandwagon on) – so they’re definitely watching comments from that angle…now I wonder if I am hurting or helping ppl by having keyword luv blogs!!
I agree with a number of the previous comments and the post. The idea that Google might be keeping track of the number of comments each blog post receives does seem to indicate that comment count might be relevant to determine ranking. Unfortunately, it’s a pretty easy enough item to game. All a person would need to do is come up with a number of fake comments, authored by himself. So maybe Google might not give this so much weight in the end.
Very interesting. Although it seems to give the larger blogs with huge audiences a bit of an unfair advantage. Thanks for the post.
i think it will be good for google.google search will be more accurate from it.but for SEO people it will be big problem.
Hmm, interesting. Any predictions as to how this will influence SEO ? Or maybe it has already ? I assume Google has been tracking comments for some time now, if only to test this new feature.
I think they are not tracking the number of comments. When I check on the sitelinks, the numbers doesn’t correspond to the the post on the left but another post. What I think is that the comment number shows that the page is important because of the traffic it gains. It happens that they took the number of posts as the title.
I think it’s a really good idea because it shows which posts are popular and which are not. This is good for people browsing the search engines and also good for blog owners to gauge how popular their blog is compared to other blogs.
So does that mean, we will see more and more blogs enabling dofollow comments as bloggers try to increase user participation, that is the number of comments?
Well if thats true, I will say its a win-win. Commentators get their backlinks and bloggers score up the google ranking system.
Nice find and I appreciate this from Google.
All the best,
Jonas
Do you know what happens if you have posts that don’t accept comments? Does Google see that the same as a post with zero comments or is that post somehow outside the comment system?
Thanks.
It’s great that Google showing comment as sitelinks.
I have heard about this just recently as well and am beginning to get a little worried because the vast majority of the comments I get on my blogs is spam.
One of the biggest questions I want to know is, if the comments I do get really need to be keyword optimized. I mean, is google still going to favor me due to comments if they don’t use the same keywords as on the blog post page?
This is really a good move from Google if that’s true. If they are counting the number of comments on blogs it sounds like they are monitoring the blogs and comments allowed. I wonder how this is going to turn out.
Nice one. I didn’t know about it before. I agree with you that number of comments might have become one constraint of their algorithm and Google might be valuing otherwise they wouldn’t have taken the pains to put it into their search.
Good news, very interesting. It shows also that Google knows to identify blogs,then it goes even deeper by counting number of comments. wonderful information.thanks.
I just started blogging and didn’t realize comments were so important. Some people send me private email responses to my posts. I guess I should ask if they’d be willing to post them on the blog instead?
Well I’m surprised google didn’t take the number of comments into the account earlier. I mean it perfectly shows the popularity of the site.
3) Google could be able to consider that links on signatures from comments, even without nofollow, are not “natural links”, just as i.e. links in the blogroll are.
Bad news I guess…
That is new to me. But actually Google and other search engines should consider the amount of comments to be important. After all having a lot of comments on an article should tell something about its popularity.
Bloggers might approve a lot of spammy comments if the big G is looking into the number of comments to boost their comment count. But as far as ranking goes, I think Google can see which comments add content to the post and what does not. If the majority of the comments are just “great, thanks” comments, i don’t think the post will rank well.
@Monkey: I belive that it’s worth it. Even if some people will just come to your site for comments they might stay for more. Plus remember that dofollow comments mean being featured on at least couple lists of dofollow blogs (free backlinks).
This great news, even for Seo indeed, i think blog admins will now allow more spam comments, but dont think thats a good thing tho. will see how it develops
Interesting! Another thing to think about. Im going to have to boost my comment count if it is going to help you rank better.
Wow! Very interesting indeed. Reason that you get lots of comments is because you publish great content. Keywordluv also makes it fully with the effort. Keep it up!
Andy
I hope Google only counts real comments and doesn’t count the spammy comments, I think it is possible for the smart Google guys. If not, this will certainly hurt the bloggers for the next coming spams.
This is indeed interesting and I wonder whether this will have a good or bad result.
I would imagine your blog here gets tons of spammy comments and without tight moderation ( which you obviously o) things can get out of control.
Some blogs must have loads of comments but how many are valuable?
I didn’t know about it before. I agree with you that number of comments might have become one constraint of their algorithm and Google might be valuing otherwise they wouldn’t have taken the pains to put it into their search.Commentators get their back links and bloggers score up the Google ranking system.
the number of comments can determine the popularity of a site. the problem is that the number of comments is under the site owners control. you can easily make a script that automatically comments on your blog so google will think you blog is more popular than it is. google tries not to allow the site owner directly determine the popularity of thier own site. google is probably doing this for the user and not for serps
How does google decide which site will have comments and which ones will not?
This is very interesting and I’m not sure which they will treat better. Low comments counts could mean low interest or real, well run site. While high comments could be lots of spam comments or great content with high traffic.
Wow! Very interesting finding. A good move from Google especially for seo!
Hey,
Nice resource!
I have found this post to be very interesting and educational as well as the comments posted by users.
I imagine this can be quite a little gizmo for all bloggers..
Thanks!
Warm wishes,
John
Really wonderful piece of information and I appreciate it that you share something so useful with the readers of this blog.
As soon as you said that first part, I could already predict the second part; that the comments would be part of the ranking system. I’m fairly confident that commenting would play a role, because it means that people think your post is valuable, and Google is all about value.
So this is now going to affect rankings. What do you think should be done by those who don’t get much comments?
Do I need to make comments on my blog DOFOLLOW or what?
And don’t you think that now webmasters will think at least thrice before deleting a spammy comment?
This would make things interesting if they are using comments to consider rank. It would make sense that if lots of people are reading and talking about a subject than it should be more relevent.
Of course this may change the way many bloggers moderate their comments as well.
Hi,Very nice informative post.
Thanks for the sharing the information.
It’s another google’s rule. The blog with a lot of comment will be good in ranking. Sound good for bloggers.
I never thought Google would be that interested in the number of comments. I suppose it shows that a page is popular and relevant to people. Its good news if they do and that they will continue to support blogs and reward them with good SERPS.
It may be a good news for the bloggers.But I think Google would pay more attention to the content of the blogs,not just the comment number.
If in that way,there maybe many spammer comments happened.
Hi,
Blogger might approve a lot of spammed comments if the big G is looking into the number of comments to boost their comment count.
Well its really wonderful piece of information.I appreciate it that you share something so useful with the readers of this blog.
Thanks.
You can comment on no follow blogs also. You can get some traffic from them if they are related to topic and links look more natural if you have some instead of only do follow links.
I seen this before but did not undertsnad why they show comments. I now think it is some way they show that site is popular and maybe give it some rank for more comments now. It will be interesting to see how this works out in results pages.
Sounds like google gives weight to post with more comments now.That would be good for sites using comment luv or keyword luv. I have to see how this works out and if you get more traffic from it.
Now you see, this would be brilliant for webmasters, as more comments usually results from comment/keywordluv/dofollow, and this of course means more backlinks. Now, google usually hates methods like this, so I’ll be watching very carefully to see what comes of this. I hope google lends more weight to more comments as it might encourage people to bring back dofollow to their blogs.
Interesting, maybe you uncovered a new Google optimization technique.
we all know that comments create backlinks and backlinks pass link juice to our website, helping us to have a much higher Page rank and also SERP’s, but google might likely to change these because of thousands of spammers… automated spams are now stopped because of comment platforms and captcha systems but the new trend in spam was people who works to create spam..
I think Google looks at everything, including comments, when determining page rank. It is trying to find the most useful pages to point people too, and comments are one of the indicators.
Well, that sounds like a good news. What if Google ignore those people who blog commenting for backlinks? I’m not sure about this but nothing is impossible. Because I had read an article about blog commenting using the same keyword over and over again is more likely to be ignore in their search engine. I don’t know for sure. Just read it somewhere.
I think interesting Google do it, but i don’t think they are tracking the number of comments.
Sounds really interesting. Because lately I’m fond of commenting with other real estate related blogs. Visiting and commenting on other blogs increases the exposure of your own blog/ site as well. But what will happen if the comments you get are all spam? Does it really affect your rankings if you don’t have any comments on your blog?
very interesting info.. I am very happy to hear it.. thanks for the info
Yes, I agree with the opinion of others. Currently we can offer a comment on my site traffic. Because when we post comments in a blog, we usually add a url.They will come backlink to our site, because google will also indexes the number of links a site that we have in circulation on the site to others. He will assume our site visited by many people, thus will be able to improve ranking on Google search
This is really interesting! We can play fair and square in here… hehehe… If Google really does track the number of comments on a blog, we can play on this idea to rank on Search Engines.
I think it is not only about the number of the comments. Maybe checking the quality too, or I don’t know
I just know this Google methology. Many thanks for the info.
I have read that comments is one of Google algoritm for its search but I am still looking for the official statement.