Be careful as to what readers' write in your comments.This is my reason for saying this.
As I've written previously I like to experiment with different blogs and try various things out. In doing so, a while back, I started a basic blog about a British television presenter Konnie Huq.
It never really took off as she wasn't in the news very much. The blog averaged only about 125 visitors a day. These mostly arrived from the Google search engine as the blog was always on the front page for keywords "Konnie Huq" and various other combinations.
Everything ticked over okay and I only updated the posts once in a while.
Then 10 days ago the blog had over 4000 visitors in 24 hours.
"Great," you might think but a strange thing happened. The blog no longer appeared on the Google search engine's first page, or the second, or the third. In fact I couldn't find it on the search engine.
To my own satisfaction I believe I have discovered as to why this was. These 4000+ visitors left over 80 comments and most of them were from China.
They were upset because Konnie Huq was chosen to carry the Olympic torch in London but spoke out about 'human rights' in China and the Tibet issue.
Most of the Chinese were furious at what she had said and the comments they left were racist, threatening and generally awful.
And I believe this is why the blog was no longer on the Google search first page.
I left the comments initially thinking that these said more about the writers than anything I could have said myself. And I don't really believe in censorship (within certain parameters).
However, seeing my problem with Google I eventually removed the offending comments.
Guess what?
The blog is now back on the Google first page in 8th position!
Okay it was previously higher but the removal of the comments did the trick. And that's why I said, at the beginning of this post, to be careful as to what is written within comments on your blog. There are forms of censorship and control all around us!
Good luck,
Mike.
