Way To Allow Comments On A Website? (Isn't A Blog)

The Shoutboxes I know of use either Javascript or Flash. I haven't looked into them in great depth, but I'm pretty sure that's right.

with that being the case I would not see Search Engines reading from it seeing as they do not really look into flash files, nor do the search engine spiders execute Javascript.

The best thing for your site would be to create a php comment system. It can be really easy to setup. All you need it a mySQL database, a couple of fields (a unique key, username, e-mail, website, comments) and a basic submit php script.

When the page is generated (the data/comments are pulled from the database), the search engine spiders will read it and it will add towards your page content.

Please remember though to add validation to prevent hacking attempts etc of the database. I'm pretty sure that there will be ready-made/open source php comment scripts available out there that you can easily install if you do not have the required programming knowlege.

I hope this helps

 

I think shoutbox is javascript based and so it wont benefit seo because search engines cant see it...

Am looking for a site with one so I can check for you...

 

Hi bad_bob00, thanks for starting this thread. I've also been searching for a script to do this on my sites. The main thing I'm worried about is spam control and as someone else mentioned the risk of hacking.

I'm going to look at shoutbox first, but if you find it doesn't work for you, try rent a coder. I've had scripts written for me really cheap there, rather than hiring a full time php person.

 

The shoutbox that I'm using is in an iframe - is there any way of knowing if search engines will pick up this content?

Thanks

 

They don't...

 

Search Engine Spiders don't read content within an iframe. I think it has something to do with the fact that they could get caught in an infinite loop. The same reason why they try to keep away from dynamic URLs.

 

I created a new website 1 month ago, and created my own comments system very quickly (1 day). It's a basic system coded in php (without DB for the moment as my host has some restrictions on mysql). The site still has low traffic and very very few comments for now (www.yourmacgames.com). I plan on adding a way to moderate comments easily when/if I'll get too much spam.
Just to conclude, I think the best solution is to create your own comment system in php+MySQL.

 

I've got an example of the kind of thing I want on my site - if you click the link below and scroll down it is on the left.

http://madeleinemccann.blogspot.com/

Would this not get picked up by the search engines either?


Thanks

 

Hey there..

have a look at your source...

  <div class='widget-content'>
    A place for friends to chat, share information and support one another.  Please no offensive remarks.  Thankyou!<p></p>
<iframe scrolling="no" style="BORDER-RIGHT: #000000 0px solid; BORDER-TOP: #000000 0px solid; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 0px solid; BORDER-BOTTOM: #000000 0px solid" frameborder="0" width="222" src="http://www.planetminibox.com/box/chat/?c5a10617b4c449773c0689a8594d8bb0f1929dad" height="345">Sorry, your browser does not support iframes required to view <a href="http://www.planetminibox.com/" title="MiniBox - The Free, advanced AJAX Shoutbox">MiniBox Advanced Tagboard with Tabbed Private Messaging</a></iframe>
  </div>

Code (markup):

This is the shoutbox code... And this is all Search Engines would see....

 

Ahh okay, thanks - reps given.

So the only way around this would be by creating a PHP program?

 

It would seem that way.

If your site is http://madeleinemccann.blogspot.com/ , would you not consider a wordpress site where the comments will then be visible to search engines?

 

p.s. thanks for rep , would you believe i thought an iTrader was a rep .... oh well!

 

That isn't my site, I just wanted to use the Shoutbox as an example - but even if you had a wordpress site, you wouldn't be able to get comments to appear like that on the left hand side of the page in a column, would you?

Thanks for the help, and no problem about the reps

 

I would suggest the CBox (also known as the Shoutbox). It allows any visitor (registered or unregistered) to post comments on the site. Alternatively, you could use a visitor's form. However, the CBox does look more suave in relation to the rest of the page, so I vote for that.

 

I have used the CBox/Shoutbox but it doesn't get picked up by the search engines - so I was hoping to find another alternative.

 

A buddy of mine started this site - http://www.instantsitecomments.com . Might be something you want to try.

 

That's true - Shoutboxes are not scanned by SEs.

@Voasi - Thanks for the link.

 

I've discovered that my hosting has PHP but no mysql databases - would there be a way of just using php? Or do I need mysql as well?

Thanks for any help

 

If you coded it yourself you may be able to use .txt files on your server...

 

I have seen the website irc-galleria.net which gives comments but its not a blog