malcolm coles

IntenseDebate used to have an SEO problem - with javascript off, comments didn't show so weren't visible to google. At the time, I gave IntenseDebate 0/10 for SEO (and remarked it was a pretty poor non-javascript implementation). They've partly solved it - but they still have a problem counting comments.

Partial solution

The wordpress plugin version of IntenseDebate has solved the problem. Partly.

It outputs the comments in a noscript tag - so that google (and anyone else surfing with javascript off) can see them.

Although Alex pointed out that this is only a solution if you're using the plugin (and he has a wider review of these comment systems) rather than the widget.

Still a problem: comment count is wrong.

However, the comment count is not the same when javascript is off as when it is on.

Take this post, for instance. With javascript on, there are 7 posts. With javascript off, there are only 5 - The ones from Louise and Danny disappear.

New SEO score for IntenseDebate: 7.1429

As it is outputting 5/7 of the comments, I guess its score should be 7.1429 (5/7 of 10, in case you wondered).

You might also like

1. Advanced comment systems are bad for SEO: IntenseDebate, Sezwho and Disqus
2. Wordpress comment pagination & duplicate content
3. Web page word counts: reading vs linking
4. 29 easy ways to fine tune your blog
5. Avoid duplicate content with paged comments in wordpress