How to protect your site from user-generated spam?
Are you aware of the fact that your site can be delisted temporarily due to user-generated spam? User-Generated Spam is nasty and tends to lower the rank of your site. Your site may even be hijacked or exploited by spammers and black hats.
The two of the largest user-generated spam are “Forum Spam” and “Comment Spam”. Forums are a great source of information and thus should not be suppressed by auto-generated keywords and links placed there by spammers. Otherwise, it will create issues on your site affecting your SEO.
Similarly, comment spam can be troublesome too. Users comment on sites and leave backlinks in a spammy manner. Such links created by them not only lower user experience but also impact the ranking and traffic negatively.
UGS affected websites often receive too many User-generated spam messages. There will be numerous malign UGS pages that search engines will remove from the index to protect users if such vulnerability is not taken into consideration. Bear in mind that your site can be penalized by Google for having too much user-generated spam.
The increasing amount of user-generated spam can be so frustrating. It can even impact your SEO.
This article explains various key methods that can help in terminating user-generated spam on your site. Furthermore, these methods will also help search engines to recognize your site as a spam-free site; hence increasing your rank and traffic.
Use Captcha
Captcha helps to confirm that the people using the site are not robots but are indeed genuine users. It prevents bot spam. Make sure to add a captcha to protect your site from damage.
Update your forum software
Keep on updating your software. Be thoughtful about security updates as spammers can exploit your site. Older versions of software and other content management systems may have security loops that are more prone to security issues.
Curtail doubtful behaviour
You can set time limits and locate plugins for tracking excessive traffic from an individual IP address. Countless forum platforms allow such configuration. And you may remove any suspicious behaviour on your site.
Review your forum’s top posters regularly
You should check the profiles of users daily who post frequently. This way you can assure that their posts and threads are not spammy.
Disable certain types of comments
You can close threads that are unlikely to get genuine replies or feedback. Monitor your forum, and disable commenting on such posts where users are no longer interacting. It can control your user’s behaviour and prevent spammers from abusing it.
Adopt moderation skills
Allow such features in moderation that needs users to have a certain reputation before links can be posted or comments require moderation. Change the settings and do not allow any anonymous to post. Also, there should be approval requests for new users before their posts are publicly visible. They can be reviewed and approved by moderators, friends, or any trusted users. Always keep records of your new users by observing their activities and posts on your site to manage spammy behaviour.
Consider blacklisting spammers
If any users post inappropriate and off-topic comments, do not hesitate to blacklist them. This way you can gain your audiences’ trust since it will help your users know that the comments displayed are from authentic sources. Also, there will be very little deceptive information. And the bonus is- that it won’t affect the interaction.
Plugins or built-in features can mark spam or delete such comments.
Employ the “no follow” attribute for links in the comment section
Many blogging sites have added this attribute that is applicable for any posted comments. It will discourage spammers from hampering your site. You can use the rel=nofollow tag. The other way is to use robots.txt to avoid spam.
Apply automated systems to guard your site
There are inclusive systems that have plugins with forum systems that are easy to install. They will protect your site from any spam.
Conclusion
Having too much User-generated spam can be harmful to your site that can even create a negative impact on your SEO and impede your leads. Following the above-mentioned tips and doing a timely SEO audit will protect your site from UGS and help you to expand your traffic incredibly. If you are wondering what should be your next step then you should go with hiring professionals to do the task for you as the efficiency of the task increases when a specialist does it.
Your website can enjoy the desired amount of traffic only when it is optimised and audited carefully. So, don’t waste any further minutes and start working on all the areas where there is some kind of error.
