Blog Commenting - Yes, No, Maybe?

[derekjay]

I have a lot of people asking me about the effectiveness of blog commenting as a link building / SEO technique, so I’d like to express my opinion on the topic. I personally believe in blog commenting, and have enjoyed great SE results from this technique, but, and this is a big but, it must be done correctly. Here’s how:



Contribute, Don’t Spam

If you think you’re gonna get easy links by just writing a really generic message, and posting it to hundreds of blogs using something like Comment Kahuna (or anything similar), you’re wrong. Most blogs will simply flag you as spam (assuming you get past the Captcha code), and the ones that do accept you will most likely by poorly maintained blogs that carry very little SEO value in any case.

If you want to get that link, you have to work for it. And its really not that hard. Simply read through the article, and draft a short, worthy response, that adds value to the blog. You can even ask a question you might have on the topic as this too adds value. Now I’m not saying that you’ll always get a link this way (because there are some nasty moderators out there), but this strategy is a lot more likely to win you some link juice.

Forget About NoFollow

The “nofollow conspiracy” as I call it is highly overated. Don’t waste your time looking purely for blogs that implement a “dofollow” comment policy. Rather mix it up and comment where its most appropriate. Looking for only the best, high PageRank, “dofollow” blogs is going to waste so much time that you could have used building links or otherwise marketing your business.

Get A Gravatar

This one’s more an opinion than anything else, but as a moderator, I always look for comments that have Gravatars (avatars) to add to my blog posts. Not only are they more colourful and exciting, but chances are that someone who’s taken the time to set up an avatar is less likely to be a spammer.

Link To Something Useful

Don’t always just use your root domain – if the blog post is about something that you have more info about on your site, link to that page instead. This adds more value to your comment, and also diversifies your backlinks, ensuring a “natural look”.

Spread It Out

Getting backlinks from the same blogs over and over again isn’t really that useful. Aim to get a few links from many different blogs, and diversify your linking domains.

Be Consistent

Last but not least is the one that trips us all up. Be consistent - its no use commenting a whole lot this month and forgetting about it next month. Rather commit to doing a few comments each week, and you’ll enjoy a much higher rate of SEO success.

[Dave A]

Contribute, Don’t Spam

As a moderator myself...

It's the first question I ask when I look at a post in moderation. On topic/relevant goes a long way.

And honesty too.

The first post goes - "I saw this on the internet, what do you think?"
I think "this is the first thing you want to tell us about and you don't have a personal interest? Yeah right!" *Delete as spam*

A guy makes a first post asking for SEO advice for a website or page that is clearly optimised and with a horde of backlinks already... *Delete as spam*

[OnlineMarketing]

Good post Derek. Blog commenting is certainly a way of targeting better PR sites ie sites with more authority in the eyes of Google, of course it is also a good medium to drive direct traffic if you are adding value AND you target blogs in your niche. Relevant ie niche related links on high PR sites are very valuable in the eyes of Google but even with good scanning tools(we have 4) finding such sites is not easy thats why overall we only use this strategy for less than 5% of our linkbuilding. Having said that if i were launching a new blog and was happy to grow my SEO slowly but with a great foundation for longevity i would probably use related niche blog commenting to drive traffic and get some decent links. IMHO though for mature sites or even young sites SEO is a link numbers game(assuming on page factors are a 6 out of 10) so blog commenting is too slow.

[derekjay]

IMHO though for mature sites or even young sites SEO is a link numbers game(assuming on page factors are a 6 out of 10) so blog commenting is too slow.

Agreed - Blog commenting is only one link building tool of many. I'm not in any way suggesting that it be anyone's sole strategy

[ava_camen]

these are really good tips, im a newbie in blog commenting and it all makes sense. cheers to the ts!

[Dave A]

im a newbie in blog commenting...

Bullshit. I've come so close to banning you for comment spam and deleting everything you've ever posted on this board so many times, you have to be the ultimate expert. You can't walk that close to the line without knowing what you're doing.

[bjsteyn]

Bullshit. I've come so close to banning you for comment spam and deleting everything you've ever posted on this board so many times, you have to be the ultimate expert. You can't walk that close to the line without knowing what you're doing.

I Agree Dave, Just from reading that one comment I get the impression that ava_camen is playing the dumb blond routine.

[bjsteyn]

@derekjay you seem to be quite the SEO expert here. I read a while back how somebody increased their traffic from a few visits per day to over a 1000 per day by just using social bookmarking suggestion. What i believe he did was when ever a person came from a stumble upon ( or I cant remember if it was a different sight, any ways), he suggested that they social bookmark the page on stumble upon.

This had a huge effect for his traffic. What are your thoughts on Social Bookmarking Suggestion?

I added Social Bookmarking Buttons on my blog, but noboddy bookmarked, so i removed it and rather used it as advertising space. Maby an idee for your next helpfull post.

Cheers
BJ

[JanvandeMerwe]

I can not but think to myself - this is not new, not a brainchild that someone just had, not something that we should hail. But there is something in me that says that we should keep writing about these things until people, and marketers especially, get the point that we add content to the web and contribute to the discussion.

As long as you are contributing something to the readers and the author of the piece then it is not spam.

That being said, I hope this contributes, and as always... pardon the ramble.

-Jan

[Dave A]

Just from reading that one comment I get the impression that ava_camen is playing the dumb blond routine.

Not really - well certainly not always. At least 50% of those comments actually do display a meaningful grasp of the topic and every now and then they're genuinely wordly-wise (albeit in a very brief statement of opinion).

As long as you are contributing something to the readers and the author of the piece then it is not spam.

That's exactly what makes dealing with Ava so tough. Today's another example - Ava has commented on 6 threads in 5 minutes. None are blatantly off-topic spam although most are very "thin."

Individually they're encouragment/refreshing the topic/possibly adding value. Viewed collectively a different agenda emerges, but is that important enough an issue to whack Ava for spam?