Link love? Do I look like a cheap date?

Every few years for some unknown nostalgic reason I think I like spam, and I buy some. It gets cooked with Don Ho singing Tiny Bubbles with his ukulele in the background. But like that extruded McRib thing that appears every now and then. I'm always disappointed. I too can get sucked into that "An ounce of image exceeds a pound of performance thing." But for sure I don't like the taste of comment spam.

In the beginning I just put up with it. My email tells me I have a comment. I look at it, and if it's comment spam I just dump it, until one day I saw this on the Rant.

Thesis Writing Great blog very nice information i really like your post. Your article its so amazing. After reading your blog i am very helpful & i really thanks full your. Keep blogging.

The link in red, now disabled here takes you to a company that sells essays. Now that's quite an ad for writing services they left on my site. Was English the third, or forth language of the writer? In a fit of pique, and bemusement I left it there and followed up with some snide remarks. In later times, I have changed my mind, and the Rant is now providing a public service.

How most of this works is someone, somewhere in the world signs up for a free Google account to make some sort of income leaving comment spam. Local website companies sell the "I can make your website appear at the top of Google's search results, for only this amount of money. Trust us, we know how Google works, we are SEO (Search Engine Optimization) experts." They go overseas and contract with these people to leave comment spam links on websites.

In the old buggy whip days of the internet, the more links your site had, the better your search result rankings were but no more, sort of. Website links still play a role in rankings, but not all links are created equal. In sum dumping links to your website, onto lots of other websites doesn't raise a websites page rank. In the case of comment spam links, it doesn't work at all on most websites.

My little public service started with a comment spam posting for a maritime attorney. This was a big law firm. I looked at their site, and it was one of the worst websites I had ever seen, and certainly lacked the gravitas I would expect from a successful law firm. As if that wasn't bad enough, there was a horrifically written fake blog on it, that I hoped wasn't written by an real attorney, followed by made up comments glorifying the posts using their less than erudite writing skills. Ay caramba! This firm can't know their site looks like this can they? And they didn't. An outside contractor was doing it for them. They got my first email. This is an example of a more current one to give you a feel for them.

Why are you paying a company to spam my website?

Most likely you don't know this is happening, and why you are receiving this. You are likely and inadvertently, I hope, paying someone to leave comment spam my website. There is also another scenario where website developers pay to have this done, so they can say, "look at all the links to your site, and my what a good job I have done in promoting the website I created for you." In either case this is bad for you, and wastes my time to remove it.

Here is your spam comment on my site:

Harry Roads has left a new comment on your post.

We have one on our cabin; we decide on it because it’s suitable as a cooling system due to its portability and efficiency. Moreover, it is cheap and needs no hassle for installation. It’s perfectly convenient and perfect for a cool getaway.

Harry Roads (This is the link back to their website disguised as a name)

On my site Google, and most others automatically add this statement in the sites HTML code to comments left behind. Here is yours from my website:

href="http://Bobsheatingandcooling.com"; rel="nofollow">Harry Roads</a>

The "rel="nofollow" part of this tells Google's web crawlers not to index your link. So placing it there does not improve your web (SEO) ranking at all, so why are you paying for it? 

And while I'm the subject have you actually read your fake blog? Seriously? Really? Try your Tankless Hot water Heater blog entry on the first page. "Tankles how water heater break down easy or are un reliably.  You should be embarrassed. This crap hurts you more than it helps you. Lose this blog ASAP, and your web support company at the same time. Real professionals know this stuff doesn't work. I've been thinking about doing a story about comment spam, you don't want to be the example. This public service has been provided by The Marine Installers Rant. Questions? Call me 555-555-5555

I know these aren't pretty emails. They are meant to be a wake up call, and have the owners really look closely at their websites, and providers. I only send them if I think the site owner isn't aware of what's happening, and I have been on the money every time.  Links to buy gold dust from India and the ilk just go bye bye. I have been have been told over a dozen SEO/website service companies have been fired for doing it. It took the attorney only two hours to fire their website firm, and hire a new one. They have a very nice site now.

Real professionals can improve a sites page ranking, but like all things in life it takes work. Nothing beats good content that is regularly updated, and good reciprocal links. Yeah, I know I've been a bit off topic lately, but lots of things are in the hopper being finished. Fusion kit update, flying boats, playing with PuTTy, Actisense savior, I think, and more.