HTML comments: bad for SEO? good for SEO? no difference?

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by cri8bat, Oct 9, 2009.

  1. #1
    hi all,

    I was just wondering if we use alot of html comments
    <!-- comment -->

    will be get penelize?

    will it help to get keywords?

    will the SE ignore all the tags and make no difference?
     
    cri8bat, Oct 9, 2009 IP
  2. noam6767

    noam6767 Peon

    Messages:
    77
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #2
    Not sure why it might hurt. Did you read anything about it?
     
    noam6767, Oct 9, 2009 IP
  3. Dan Schulz

    Dan Schulz Peon

    Messages:
    6,032
    Likes Received:
    437
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #3
    For the most part they won't hurt you unless you're doing some crazy stupid BS like this:

    
    <!--
    	stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword, stuffed keyword
    -->
    
    Code (markup):
     
    Dan Schulz, Oct 9, 2009 IP
  4. willybfriendly

    willybfriendly Peon

    Messages:
    700
    Likes Received:
    17
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #4
    Comments are ignored.

    They are to be used for commenting the code, e.g. <!-- Begin main menu -->

    There really is no purpose for comments on a working site. The only eat bandwidth and slow things down.
     
    willybfriendly, Oct 9, 2009 IP
  5. Dan Schulz

    Dan Schulz Peon

    Messages:
    6,032
    Likes Received:
    437
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #5
    Actually you can use them to target AdSense content blocks.
     
    Dan Schulz, Oct 9, 2009 IP
  6. willybfriendly

    willybfriendly Peon

    Messages:
    700
    Likes Received:
    17
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #6
    True enough, but completely off topic...
     
    willybfriendly, Oct 9, 2009 IP
  7. cri8bat

    cri8bat Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    1,459
    Likes Received:
    12
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    160
    #7
    true and not completely off topic,

    think about it, adsense is from Google and Google is a SE, so if adsense get effected with comments tags, shouldnt the it also effect SEO? in terms of keywords?
     
    cri8bat, Oct 9, 2009 IP
  8. Dan Schulz

    Dan Schulz Peon

    Messages:
    6,032
    Likes Received:
    437
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #8
    No, because AdSense has almost nothing to do with SEO, other than what keywords you're targeting. And with Google moving towards personalized search, what little AdSense had to do with SEO is being even further marginalized.
     
    Dan Schulz, Oct 9, 2009 IP
  9. webdev007

    webdev007 Active Member

    Messages:
    1,037
    Likes Received:
    13
    Best Answers:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    88
    #9
    HTML Comment tags are ignored by major SEs
     
    webdev007, Oct 9, 2009 IP
  10. cri8bat

    cri8bat Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    1,459
    Likes Received:
    12
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    160
    #10
    adsense has nothing to do with SEO

    but adsense is able to get targeted ads based on the keywords suggested on the comment area.

    and by able to do this it means that it is not being ignored ;)

    so why Google SE will ignore the comments?
     
    cri8bat, Oct 9, 2009 IP
  11. Dan Schulz

    Dan Schulz Peon

    Messages:
    6,032
    Likes Received:
    437
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #11
    Because they add nothing of value to the end user.
     
    Dan Schulz, Oct 9, 2009 IP
  12. Canonical

    Canonical Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    2,223
    Likes Received:
    141
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    110
    #12
    They would ignore comments for the same reason they've ignored the meta keywords element for years... because 1) it's text that the user never sees on the page and 2) because it's spammable by any idiot with notepad.

    Just because something is good for adsense (like privacy policies) doesn't mean it's going to help you rank in the organic SERPs.

    I'll see what Matt has to say about it when I see him at Pubcon in 4 wks. But I'm pretty darn sure that I already know the answer.
     
    Canonical, Oct 9, 2009 IP
  13. cri8bat

    cri8bat Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    1,459
    Likes Received:
    12
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    160
    #13
    I agree, comments are menth to be ignored.

    they do not add any value to the user, so as the meta tags.
    SE do not ignore it! they simple value less then the paragraph tags, if the website does not have enouf content then the meta tags will take place :)
    that what is was for use in flash websites

    so what about link farms and hide text (text with same color as the background.

    the users can not read but is give you blackate boost.

    but makes sence comments being ignored by SE, but what makes me think is that they dont is becuse if you go to the source code you can still see the comments codes, and what SE read is the source code.

    althought they should be programmed to iganore code between <!-- --> tags like any other program.

    but SE are different then compilers, they are the search engines. they find the content based on the keywords.

    and why would adsense be able to get quality ads based on comment tags? instead of meta tags?
     
    cri8bat, Oct 10, 2009 IP
  14. willybfriendly

    willybfriendly Peon

    Messages:
    700
    Likes Received:
    17
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #14
    There is no big trick to writing wee little regular expression that grabs and/or excludes content between
    any tags of your choosing.

    Why would a SE even want to look at comments?

    Of course, if you want to bloat your code for no reason, feel free.
     
    willybfriendly, Oct 10, 2009 IP
  15. Canonical

    Canonical Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    2,223
    Likes Received:
    141
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    110
    #15
    If you "really" think that comments in your code are considered by the search engines when ranking your page, then have at it. Spam away... And while you're at it throw in a few URLs between the opening and closing comments tags because if they consider comments like actual text on the page then surely they would consider URLs within the comments as hyperlinks that appear on the page.

    PS: It's a no brainer for search engine indexers to ignore comments EXACTLY like a compiler does. Compilers read source code and ignore comments just like search engines read HMTL and ignore comments.
     
    Canonical, Oct 10, 2009 IP