Vestal Media.com » Website Stuff

Deleting Link Spam

admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:05:53 +0000

I thought we’d take a look at the latest and only tactic it seems….fawning before the site owner and engaging in ridiculous flattery to get that post comment approved. And – guess what? – it’s hard to resist! Your own vanity can do you in. Some people say it’s hard to discern what is link spam and what is a general positive comment. Uh, it’s ALL spam. No one takes the time to comment on your post unless they WANT something. Here’s a sampling of this week’s fulsome commentary….

Submitted on 2010/03/02 at 7:01am
Nice post! These are vital things to stay in mind, it’s usually easy to forget about the easy things after you get consumed by a project.

Submitted on 2010/03/02 at 5:54am
It’s been a while since I browse a really glorious blog post. Not only well written but relevant. Congratulations.

Submitted on 2010/02/28 at 7:30pm
Your blog is very interested. I am to find for website how your site, and it is good.

Submitted on 2010/02/28 at 12:26pm
Great Blog! I have a similar site, and get a lot of spam. Do you face such problems? Can you please recommend some steps I take to combat spam. Thanks.

Submitted on 2010/02/25 at 3:59pm
Your blog is very interested. I am to find for website how your site, and it is good. (they came back for another crack)

Moderating Spam Comments from Link Seekers

admin — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:42:06 +0000

So your absolutely brilliant post on boll weevils has garnered all this attention! Who knew you were that good? Or that you had such penetration on the internet?

Alas, you are probably up against the dreaded link spammer. Not that your piece wasn’t great, it’s just that they prey on sites with comment moderators who are asleep at the wheel. The commentary will go something like this: “Wow, I am awed by your masterful post on the weavil (sic)! Did you know that you can make ten billion dollars in the forex market? Thanks for your genius post!” There’s either a link embedded in the post or the name is hyperlinked or you’ve got a field where they can drop their URL. There are different ways they play it. An appeal to your vanity: “Saw your post on Reddit. Great link.” Or perhaps something is wrong with your site and their guise is one of helpfulness. “Your site isn’t displaying properly in my (insert name) browser. You may want to look into that.”

While tempting to jack up your comments on a lonesome post, don’t fall for it. Why? Because it can hurt you. Approving spam comments willy nilly will mean your site can have an overload of outbound links to bad neighborhoods: known spam or phishing sites, banned servers, farms, etc. Don’t think Google doesn’t know because Big Daddy knows all. This will tarnish your own sterling reputation within the Google algorithm. You may see rankings impacted if you cross a certain threshold.

Moral of the story: Link out to quality sites and don’t let the spammers overrun the kingdom.

Why Ugly Sites are Successful

admin — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 01:34:30 +0000

Have you ever noticed that Ma & Pa Kettle websites that were done on geocities during the bicentennial still rank? Have you ever bought something from a really hideous website with terrible graphics that looked like a school project by a 10 year old? The site was so primitive surely thieves ran it. Maybe you were slightly nervous about using it, but you still did. Why?

Welcome to the bizarre conundrum of the ugly site. Eye and click tracking studies find people make instantaneous judgments about the quality or trustworthiness of a site in fractions of a second. For some people, it seems that ugly = trustworthy. Making a site too slick (in some instances) may interfere with a positive first impression because the user perceives sophistication as a negative.

Maybe people suspect a slick site of trying to manipulate them, or screw them. Maybe the mentality is, that’s a big corporation and I’m going to stay on guard. Maybe they are too intimidated to ask for more information because they think their business is too small for the site to be interested.

I have seen a downright fugly site just trounce a nationwide brand selling the same thing. Why?? Generally speculating….because this is much of what SEO is about, spawning ridiculous theories and then testing them….it might be that the user feels a connection to the humanness that is implied by an ugly site.

The interesting question from there is, what percentage of people might be subject to this effect….and might it be large enough to skew results toward the ugly versus glossy? If 95% of visitors don’t care, but 5% do, then measuring the preference would allow you to eke out a higher conversion rate. What if more than 5% care? Would you consider building a hideous site? If you say no, is it vanity over…sanity?

I have one very ugly site that ranks incredibly well. It’s hard to make an ugly site on purpose but it can be done with the right talent. The objective is to make it seem too homely to be untrustworthy, too pitiful to deny it a much needed sale, too openly honest with its pleadingly terrible graphics. Did you know that the number one tactic of psychopaths is an appeal to….your pity? You’re far more likely to be conned if you first feel sorry and superior to, the person doing the conning. It’s a matter of allaying fears. I believe the same principle may be operating with ugly sites. Not that they are purposely conning you. In probably 99% of transactions all is well. But phishing sites can also look homemade, the one real downside that I can see to the ugly vibe.

Most ugly sites are naturally ugly, versus intentionally so. Still I did once work on a site where our objective was to seem very bush league and fly under the radar. We had a blast sitting around coming up with ways to make it look handmade. But handmade as IF it was striving to be good. Making the graphics off kilter, mocking up old banners that invite you to hit a moving animal with a mallet, speed up your computer links, a color palette that didn’t match. And a series of other tricks I won’t go into. It was really fun.

Ugly sites work really well for ecommerce that’s niche, as well as niche information (such as conspiracy sites). A brazenly template-looking ecommerce store solution with its simple grid format and in the box fonts would be something to consider. The French have a saying, jolie-laide, meaning beautiful ugly. That about covers it.