New Fresh Look @Comments Area!
Have you all noticed the cool fresh new look at features at the comments area? .
It does seem like a lot of thought and effort has gone into that part of WA where it seems to encourage a more specific type of engagement when recieving comments.
This really ought to improve the quality of the comments that we recieve, better engagement, more relevance to the actual content which could lead us to more conversions and better rankings (Vs Generic comments).
Kudos Kyle and Carson on that.
Sadly the change comes as I am opting NOT to use comments on my site.
Recent Comments
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Hi Derek - I'm working through Level 4 which is all about social engagement.
Can I ask why you are not using Comments?
Ian
It sure is :-)
So are you not using any social engagement to promote your site?
I'm not a fan of social media but it seems to be a good way to get traffic so I'm gonna give it a try. Do you think it's not worthwhile or are there bette/easier methods?
Ian
Personally love the look of it! And I am already at Certified Commenter Status... lol... I use it a lot and always encouraged others to use it.
I have noticed that when I requested comments for my newest post that I just wrote (before it got indexed and ranked), that I was ranked much better from the get-go than for others that I had not requested comments for.
It may not work that way, but that's my experience with the comments at least.
For one of my posts, I got indexed and ranked lightning fast, and was at position 10 on Page 1 of Google. As soon as I had requested comments on it, it shot straight to Position 1 the next day.
Not sure how, but I love COMMENTS! Definitely been working for me.
It certainly something that should be carried over from our high approval rate (talking 98% over 3 year period myself here!).
You still have one from 2 weeks back pending approval from me..but that is intentional. The date is removed from my comments and it is outstanding (as in amazing!) and I'd love to link it to a 6000 word detailed post that is relevant to your comment - just waiting to publish it (set as per my editorial calendar).
I haven't seen it yet but I can imagine it must be great I can't wait to see it and use it.
Mary
Looks great! Can't wait for an official word on the whole matter. Makes me want to right more comments though!
WOW! They certainly did change it! It looks a lot different and I hope this has all been done for the better. I'm sure Carson is getting ready send out an official blog about the revamped comments section of WA. Can't wait to here about all the new features for getting and receiving comments.
Pretty sure KC & the gang are preparing a well written detailed post or training detailing the changes as we speak.
Just adding - have you checked out the new features when it comes to requesting comments - for sure more targeted engagement and the site owner can request the type of comment he is seeking.
much better!
Targeting specific types of engagement is something that will continue to evolve as we get feedback on the new platform.
Hi Derek,
Interesting that you've chosen not to use comments on your site - could you let me know your reasoning behind that?
I've been questioning the value of comments - I have one site where comments are turned off and one where they're turned on and I cannot see any difference in the search engine traffic I'm getting..!
A lot of famous blogs don't use comments - Seth Godin's is one of the better known ones, Zen Habits was another. Copyblogger turned comments off for a couple of years but then turned them back on again.
I'm very much in two minds over this...
Cheers,
Martin.
I am also interested in the reasoning for not using comments.
From my understanding the comments are suppose to just help with ranking initially but becomes irrelevant if your site is already ranking high and have a lot of traffic.
I also question the real value and relevance of comments myself even though I have a few thousand of them. I don't think they actually add any value SEO wise or traffic generation.
but,
a fair bit of human psychology involved when it comes the benefit of them. A site/article with a lot of comments is deemed to be good or of value.
I am moving towards asking for the email at the end Vs comments as the CTA. I have seen some very famous sites asking to continue the convo on the social media thread (twitter) which gives both a tweet and a quick comment..social interaction on two levels..
Comments and engagement on an publication online has, and continues to be one of the most important elements with regards to SEO, and user perception.
A blog post with zero comments achieves much less "trust" from a new visitor to the website. Many folks will not take a publication seriously if there is no engagement, and the more social the Internet becomes, the more that people look for interaction, discussion, debate, and rebuttals within the content. It also provides the author an opportunity to elaborate on points they have forgotten, or answer questions the audience has.
This of corse, leads to MUCH MUCH better rankings in the search engines. A post with evolving content in the form of comments will remain fresh in the eyes of the Search Engines and can positively impact your domain's reputation with them.
Comments are critical - however a publication can still rank well without comments if it's well written and through...and of course it depends on competition what search terms (keywords) it actually ranks for. Comments are not the ONLY factor in ranking well in the SERPS, but it's a BIG one.
I think getting an opt in at the end of articles is probably better value than getting comments, because getting opt ins will at least build a list..!
All the arguments I've read in favour of scrapping comments talk about the amount of spam and value-free comments they get (anywhere from 90% to 98% depending on who you read), along with the time it takes to moderate them - their message is 'it's just not worth it'.
Copyblogger's rationale when they turned comments off was that they reached a wider audience and had more meaningful discussions on social media than they would by sticking with comments.
Thanks for the clarification Carson. I was actually asking and questioning the validity of comments on a site yesterday.
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Hi Derek,
As you mentioned in one of your comments here, we are preparing an Official post on the new platform. Comment Boost, Certified Commenter Status, and the new look will be explained in the coming day or so. We always like to get a large platform released and give it 24 hours or so before publishing our introduction post. This project was a big project with a lot of infrastructure changes - we're excited about taking this platform to the next level with SiteComments 2.0!
Carson
Thank you for your hard work and dedication!
Thanks for the input Carson and for the much-needed improvements
I can some early positive effects in regards to the hardwork that you guys have done.