Comment spam occurs on websites that allow users to leave posts, comments, or reviews on something like a product, service, or article. Common examples of comment spam include the comment feeds after a news article that you might see on CNN. Another example would be a website like Yelp where users leave reviews based on their experiences with local businesses, or eCommerce websites that include product reviews. It’s really any webpage that allows users to type whatever they want into a field or multiple fields on a page.
Instead of users leaving real comments, spam bots will post bogus, irrelevant comments that have nothing to do with what’s listed on the page. It will often times look like gibberish or some kind of advertisement for someone else’s product and frequently contain links to other sites.
Here is an example of comment spam…
As you can see in the image above, the author and the comment sections are a bunch of gibberish and links. It has no relevance to what the website represents. Not all comments are the same though. Some might actually be relevant and contain links to competitor information or advertising for example.
What is the purpose of Comment Spam Bots?
Spammers will use comment spam bots for a variety of reasons. Most of the time it’s to advertise for their own or someone else’s product or website. This is done on a very massive scale, with thousands of posts happening all over the internet. It could be something as simple as leaving a link to a website, but often times the post will also be stuffed with keywords that rank well on search engines. So for example, if the keyword “kitchen cabinets” ranks well in Google, then the spammer will leave a post full of this keyword with a link included. It’s very quick, easy, and cheap advertising.