If you’ve been running a blog for any amount of time, you probably know the benefits of having a stream of fresh comments on your blog posts. For a static website, there are more challenges to overcome for implementing a comment system, but there are some out there. Facebook comments, Disqus and Intense Debate are some just to name a few. However, they’re not all created equal.
Say Goodbye to the JavaScript Dilemma
Some of the commenting systems are easy to implement on both sites and blogs, but they run from JavaScript. JavaScript comments have traditionally been difficult for search engines to pick up on and actually read, which in turn means that comments will probably have no chance of offering any SEO benefit or showing up in search results.
However, there’s some good news. Matt Cutts tweeted about something that bloggers everywhere were happy about on November 1st… that is the fact that Google can now index some JavaScript comments and even those powered by AJAX.
That means all those comments being left on posts using the Facebook comment system can be picked up and indexed in Google. In fact, you can even search for bits of a comment and find it in the search results. Although I don’t really see a lot of people trying to find part of a comment they already know existed.
Benefits of Google Indexing Facebook Comments
The real benefit here is that one, the more relevant comments you get on your posts, the more relevant content you’ll have on your page that can be indexed by the search engine. Secondly, if you’re the one commenting on someone’s page it could give more weight to the link you’re probably connecting with your comment.
Downsides to Google Indexing Facebook Comments
On the other hand, since comments are able to be picked up by Google then you’ll need to make sure you’re monitoring the comments that go live on your site. The last thing you want is for a comment to slip through moderation that could be derogatory to your site – and it get picked up by Google (think non-family-friendly language and terms, etc…).
