Will Articles Rank Better With User Comments

[Planet13]

Hi everyone:

Will allowing users to comment on articles have a positive effect on SEO / traffic?

We will be adding more articles to our site. And while I prefer the ability to focus the flow of page rank with html pages, I would like to know your opinions on the influence of user comments on ranking and traffic.

Thanks in advance.

[goodroi]

that totally depends on the user comments.

if you have great users that will add very relevant text then your page will attract more long tail traffic and probably get a small ranking. the reason why i think only a small ranking boost is because on page content is just part of the algo. there are many other important factors being used by google.

if you have no users or bad users that post comments which link to spam sites then you are in for a very bad time.

UGC (user generated content) can be very powerful if you handle it properly. it can also turn into a waste of time and money if you get no quality content and pulled into defamation lawsuits.

[tedster]

One of the signals Google is looking for (and Bing too, by the way) can be called "market engagement" - signs that a real business exists and there is 2-way interaction. Given that, I'd also wonder if there is some chance that user comments may be one of the 200 plus signals that can help.

If it's real user interaction, then it might also lead to social sharing of various kinds - people love to link to their own stuff, or share things from others they respect. If you write the code so that people can link directly to a specific comment, that would facilitate this kind of sharing.

I'd love to hear a report of your results if you decide to add comments.

[Planet13]

@tedster

If it's real user interaction, then it might also lead to social sharing of various kinds - people love to link to their own stuff, or share things from others they respect.

I admit that increased social sharing to me is probably as important as the potential boost in SERPs that user comments might provide - so I am leaning toward allowing comments.

If anyone has any suggestions as to good article software, I would love to hear it. Wordpress seems like it has potential, but also has limitations. I would like to be able to add related links in the head content as well as custom fields.

[martinibuster]

To expand on goodroi's points, I would add that UGC's value can depend on the kind of content. For instance, user reviews as seen on Amazon can be helpful. That kind of UGC is targeted and useful.

Spirited discussion of issues raised by an article may not be helpful, particularly if left unmoderated because unmoderated discussions tend to spiral downwards in quality, as is seen in the comment sections of typical news sites. That kind of UGC is not targeted and is useless except to provide closeted-psychopaths a toilet to relieve themselves of their various anxieties, fears and rages.

[Planet13]

Thank you for the input, everybody.

I will see if there is a way to do it that helps to maintain the quality and integrity of the site.

[tangor]

Good comments, good results. Bad comments, bad results.

Only problem with opening a site up to UGC is allotting sufficient time and personnel (even if only yourself) to review all comments to make sure they are on target/valid for the site/comment.

User generated commentary (UGC) is one can of worms that needs to be managed 100% of the time. Do keep in mind that old adage of "one bad apple..."

[Planet13]

User generated commentary (UGC) is one can of worms that needs to be managed 100% of the time. Do keep in mind that old adage of "one bad apple..."

thank you, Tangor:

Right now, traffic is fairly light (about 13,000 visits a month), so I am not too concerned about being overwhelmed with user comments.

but since I probably will only get one or two user submitted comments a day, I think I can keep the quality in check.

I don't suppose that you know of a good program for article posting, do you? I'm running on an apach box with php and mysql

thanks in advance.

[tedster]

Drupal, Joomla, Wordpress, MoveableType - all of them need some SEO modification, but all can work. There area pile of others, but those four have significant developer communities and that can be an asset.

[Planet13]

Thank You, Tedster.

[Lexur]

You can use Talkback [scripts.oldguy.us ].
It comes with spam checking and captcha.
Altough I'm not associated in any way with these Old Guy, I'm a big fan (so, please, make a donation if you like it).

[Planet13]

You can use Talkback...

That is an interesting script, and I might use it on some pages, but one thing that worries me is when most of the example sites that they referenced are now 404s - either the domains are no longer in use or it looks like the abandoned the pages that they were using the script on.

I am thinking that wordpress might be the way to go, since there is a LOT of user support.

Thanks again.