When it comes to blog comments that are posted in order to get backlinks to a site, a huge controversy appears. Unfortunately, people still use the same strategies that worked a few years ago because they look for SEO tutorials online and they find information that is outdated. At the other side of the debate, there are people that will tell you to never post a blog comment with a link towards your site because of the fact that this will hurt your rankings.
As always, the truth is somewhere in the middle. Let’s just keep it simple so that we can get to the main point of this article. If you comment on blogs, you need to:
- Always add value through the comment and think about the conversation that is started instead of thinking about backlink value.
- Use your real name (ie. Adrian) and not the company that you own or the keyword you want to rank for (ie. Cheap Shoes). Only comment as a brand in the event that the comment is an official response for the article.
- If you link something to your name, link your personal blog, or your social profiles.
- Never use blog commenting as the main strategy for link building.
Also, watch this video for Matt Cutts:
When Do Blog Comments Become Valuable?
No matter what others may tell you if the comments are done right, they do bring in some backlink value. This will help you to rank. However, the main advantages appear when thinking about the value that you offer through the comment you make.
Let us think about an example. Let’s say that you constantly blog about working out and there are some workouts presented on your site. When you find a blog post that talks about a workout, you can comment something like:
“While I agree that X, Y and Z, I believe that A, B and C are wrong in the workout. This is because 1, 2 and 3. In my workout [insert direct link to the workout you offer as example], I use a different approach. Take a look and tell me what you think.”
This is just a rough example but it automatically brings in value. It improves the original blog article and your site is properly promoted. The main benefits that we gain in this case:
- Strengthening you as an authority in the market.
- Gaining direct traffic to your workout vids.
- Gaining a backlink that is actually relevant, maybe even with high authority.
- Maybe gaining followers on social channels.
Blog Comments And Branding
The smart SEO specialist will always combine optimisation with marketing. This is exactly where blog commenting can come in to lend a helping hand. However, this is something that would work great for personal branding. For company branding, we would recommend that you never use blog comments. That is because it is tricky to comment as a company. It is rarely justified.
On the other hand, if the people that run a site establish reputation and authority in the market, this can bring in long term benefits for the projects that are launched.
