Will too many comments from the same person affect your rankings?

1. 84

   dwelburnposted 10 years ago

   One of my hubs has a huge amount of comments (questions) from the same person, and I'm just wondering if this could cause my Google rankings to drop. The reason is that the name of this person is on there such a lot of times and Google may perceive that the article is more about Jack than anything else. Do you think it would be wise to delete some of these comments? Thanks.

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2. 60

   LindaSmith1posted 10 years ago

   I took a guess at which hub you are referring to.  It looks like you had two who turned the comment box into a chat room. I would delete the comments.  I also have my comments set where they have to meet approval or denial first.  Now what you might want to do is to copy the comments and set them aside in Word. Then go through them, with every comment really being a question, to see if you can take the questions and your answers, and create another hub from them.  I would delete my responses to this person as well.

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      Cardisaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Bad advice Linda, I hope he hasn't deleted those comments yet!

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3. 84

   dwelburnposted 10 years ago

   Thanks Linda. Yes it's the full body workout hub, and its ranking is way down to what it was. I also have my comments set to approve or deny, and I have got rid of a few, but most of these seemed to be valid questions, and I patiently answered them all. Still, I'll do as you say and delete them (or maybe leave a couple of them).

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4. 60

   LindaSmith1posted 10 years ago

   I tried to find the information again.  I had read somewhere that Google sees some of this as spam comments.  They serve no real purpose. If these people would have commented something like they followed your tips, and are doing well, that is one thing, but to turn comments into a lengthy conversation is rather ridiculous.

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5. 95

   Cardisaposted 10 years ago

   Absolutely no! DO NOT DELETE  those comments. If the hub in question is this "Why A Full Body Workout Routine Is The Best Way To Build Muscle", then the comments from the user, who is a visitor to your hub are valuable content. The fact that you have repeat readers means you have something of value that allows the reader to keep coming back.
   
   It doesn't matter that "Jack" has multiple comments or that two of your readers have engaged in a discussion, all the better for your hub. It only proves that your hub has what it takes to engage your readers and start a discussion.
   
   Comments are valuable contribution to any article. DO not delete unless the comments become irrelevant. In your case the comments are quite relevant and the questions you answer add more valuable information that the hub does not contain.

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6. 60

   LindaSmith1posted 10 years ago

   Cardisa: I can't find the information, but I got my information from Google somewhere when I was searching about deleting comments, which ones to get rid of, etc.

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      Cardisaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      The hub in question did not appear to have what Google terms as spam comments. Spam is usually determined by links, relevance to the topic or advertising of a service in the comments box. If the commentor leaves the same exact comment on several blogs across the internet, such as "Your blog is very nice" along with a backlink, the spam detector will detect that person as a spammer and block them.
      
      According to Kissmetrics: https://blog.kissmetrics.com/control-blog-comment-spam/
      According to Wikipedia: Comment spam is a term used by spam blacklist servers such as Project Honey Pot to refer to a broad category of spambot or spammer postings which abuse web-based forms to post unsolicited advertisements as comments on forums, blogs, wikis and online guestbooks.
      
      As far as I saw with the commentors in question (Daniel, Jack and Stephen), the discussion was centered around workout and building muscles. Based on what I saw, the questions were valid and to be expected if the commentor is serious about their workout routine. Those are the questions I used to answer when I was a fitness trainer.

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7. 78

   DzyMsLizzyposted 10 years ago

   The only comments I have ever either deleted, or denied approval to start with were either totally irrelevant to the hub (spam--with sales-site links), or where the person became querulous, and started to get nasty and name-calling because he did not agree with my point of view.  No need to broadcast an argument.
   
   It is one thing to politely state a disagreement of principle, but when you go about slamming the author, telling them that they "don't know what they are talking about,"  and other such things that simply sound defensive of an unsubstantiated opinion,  ..  those are not worth the light of day.

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8. 60

   LindaSmith1posted 10 years ago

   I will take your word for it Cardisa.  Maybe I read something by Mark Cutts.  I read one of his posts today that tells us not to worry about duplicate content. What can I say.  I know I deleted the nice hub or nice article, and of course the I read yours, now please read mine.  I have some conversation types that I think I left alone,  not being sure as to what to do with them.
   
   I have considered not allowing comments at all.
   
   I assume that you are saying, "the types of comments being referred to, help with Google ranking??

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   1. 95

      Cardisaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Linda the internet is a confusing place and Google is a big part of that confusion. But content and lots of it is what Google thrives on. Good/relevant comments especially conversations have always been great for content. Google crawls comments which are added to your article as a part of the content. The main thing is that we should be able to determine what is spam and then take it from there.
      
      I hope your weekend is going well my friend.

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      Cardisaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Linda, I didn't see the last question there, sorry.
      
      Based on what I saw on that hub, not sure if he deleted any comments before I had a chance to read, but all the comments I saw are relevant and do add value to the hub. So then, the answer would be yes. Articles/hubs which encourage questions and discussions does add value and will eventually assist Google in recognizing that. Whether or not Google wants to rank it highly is another matter. I've seen crap outrank quality content.

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9. 60

   LindaSmith1posted 10 years ago

   Thank you!  Have a good one! My week-end is early because I thought today was Thursday!

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      Cardisaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      LOL...haha, daydreaming are you? lol, joking. It happens to the best of us. I sometimes am so taken up with work that I get my days confused.

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10. 68

    Dressage Husbandposted 10 years ago

    I agree with Cardissa that the comments will not hurt you if they are relevant to the topic and do not contain links they will only add more content and show that you provoke good discussions, which is good.

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11. 84

    dwelburnposted 10 years ago

    Thanks for your help with this everyone. Unfortunately I took Linda's advice too quickly with this and deleted the comments from Jack (and my answers). I should have waited a while to see what other people said. It's a shame really as there was a lot of good information in the answers I gave him,  but I thought that having the name 'Jack' come up so often might be seen as a negative by Google, hence my question.
    
    I have asked Hubpages if they are able to restore the comments, but I doubt it. Never mind; maybe I'll make a hub from the information in the answers I deleted.

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    1. 95

       Cardisaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       Hello Dwelburn, that's too bad, but you do still have many comments. "Jack" is a common name so I doubt if Google would penalize you for that. One crawled Google and other search engines pick up your keywords and those are the terms they would use to determine if the questions and answers are related. The hub is a fitness hub, so anything to do with fitness including nutrition, supplements and workout routines would be valuable.

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12. 69

    Arachneaposted 10 years ago

    I too had this question at one point. The replies are helpful.

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