Adding comments to blogs is thought by some as a great way to gather back links to their own sites.
Well, I hate to burst your bubble but it doesn’t really work like that. You see blog commenting may drive traffic to your own site but only if you have something interesting to say.
Running two blogs I get my fair share of spam comments. Some are blatant spam full of links to other sites; others are seen as spam because of the content of the comments.
So how can you legitimately leave comments without being seen as a spammer?
4 tips to becoming a good blog commenter
1. Read it
If your comment is “Wow! Great post!” it will show the blog owner that you really haven’t read the post and may well be seen as a spammer.
If you’re going to take the time to read someone’s article and comment on it, at least make sure you’ve read it, understood it and leave a comment that’s relevant and intelligent.
2. Know who you are
When you leave a comment you are asked for your name – so use it.
Many people try to get a leg up by using their keyword as their name (so rather than leaving my name as the commenter, I would write freelance copywriter). If you do use your keywords you’ll probably be seen as a spammer and your comment won’t be published.
3. Forget link juice
Most people comment on blogs with high page rank (PR) because they think they’re going to get some link juice from their comment.
Think again. Most blog platforms will only give a nofollow link. You may get a bit of traffic (if you’ve left a well considered and intelligent comment) but you won’t be getting anything else.
4. Be relevant
Following on from number 3, those under the impression they’re going to get link juice only target high PR blogs, even if they have no relevancy to their own field.
Comment on blogs that are relevant to you. That way, assuming you’re leaving intelligent comments, you may get other people popping over to your website for a quick peak.
What it comes down to is this – blog commenting is not going to help your SEO. But, it will get your name in front of people who are either interested in your product or service or in the same industry as you. This kind of exposure could bring a bit of extra traffic your way.
2 comments ↓
Sally, thank you for that awesome post – it save me much time! For big save on PS3/Nintendo visit…
Wait! Don’t hit the trash button!
Plenty of the obvious spam gets deleted every day, but you’re right, there are others who just use it for crude backlinking with comments that add nothing.
Still, there’s another side, which is the blog’s owner. I’ve put in contributions in places that are both relevant and interesting in terms of my profession but I soon give up if the blog owner never even acknowledges my presence. (Hasty insertion here to note this doesn’t apply to you – you promptly responded to my first post on your blog several weeks ago!)
Some blog owners, though, have very interesting things to say but seem to feel they should only interact with their mates and for someone who’s genuinely interested in joining the discussion or even sharing a joke that’s pretty off-putting and I stop bothering.
So, perhaps a follow-up article is “Blog Owners – Are You Genuinely Interested or Just Promoting Yourself?”
Hi David,
Thanks for your comment and you’re right, there are many blogs out there that no matter how interesting and insightful your comment may be, you don’t get a reply from the blog owner.
I know that with many of the ‘popular’ blogs they probably get oodles of comments every day making it impossible to reply to everyone, but they have to remember that blogging is a social thing and it’s nice to say thanks or reply to a comment when someone’s taken the time to read their post and comment on it.
I hold my hands up to being guilty of not always posting a response, but when I can, I do 🙂
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