Are Blog Comments now useless?
-
Hello
I see there is much debate on this issue of Blog Commenting. Is it still a useful way to get a backlink? Would you suggest only using 'No follow' blogs to leave comments?
Many thanks
-
Eliathah - I agree. Blog commenting is extremely inefficient use of time. I wonder how many of the people who promote blog commenting as a method to obtain traffic would pay someone else to put "meaningful comments" on relevant (no-follow) blogs. I wouldn't and I doubt many people would.
-
Yes I'm afraid they are useless when it comes to incorporating them into your SEO stategy.
Better to take the energy you would have expended tracking down do follow comment opportunities and spend it creating rich content like posts, guides, infographic(high quality only) and useful widgets.
Yes it's harder now than pre Panda but good in a way because the barrier for entry is that little bit higher and that gives you an advantage over new starters who want to cut corners and steal your customers.
Good luck, you're going to rock!
-
Blog commenting is a crappy way to spend your time if your goal is to get quality backlinks for SEO purposes. With that said, I have clients that receive substantial (relevant) traffic on a daily basis from blog comments they posted a while ago, so i know first hand that blog comments can drive traffic.
Is it ever the MOST productive and efficient use of your time? Probably not. Not unless you're commenting on blogs you already read regularly. Going out of your way to search for relevant blogs, reading articles you have no interest in besides getting traffic from the comment link, and crafting comments that grab peoples attention and encourage click throughs...? I can only speak for myself, but that doesn't sound like the most effective use of my time.
-
I agree, Simon pretty much summed it up pretty well. I was thinking the question was asking "Is it still a useful way to get a backlink?" which it is but only if done right and not a one time action. We're obviously on the same page though. Thanks for the clarity in your answer.
-
Hi Darin,
We might've gotten confused with the OP's question.
I agree with you of course in marketing terms but the OP's question is referring to backlinks. Backlinks as in SEO not PR. Hence my answer commenting for SEO purposes are useless and not a good idea.
Commenting for marketing and PR is good, but be selective.
-
Comments from William and Darin show the two different types of blog commenting. Let me expand:
Type 1:
Commenting on any blog you can get your hands on linking back to your site (those that will let you): This is the kind of blog commenting that you should avoid like the plague. It will do you no good and will simply be a waste of time these days.
Type 2:
Commenting on blogs that mean something in your industry and commenting with content people want to read: Like with any kind of content, if it is content people want to read it can be valuable. If you are selling running shoes and you build your authority on an athletics blog and your comment is contributing to a conversation and a link to your site is relevant and valuable to the users then by all means this is the kind of blog commenting you want to involve yourself in and can be very beneficial in the long run.
Hope that helps.
-
I have to disagree with William Lau.
I think that blog commenting has changed a bit. It think it is still relevant. I prefer the term Comment Marketing and Link Earning because that is my goal, to market my site and earn links. Here is how I do it now.
I find blogs that are relevant to my industry and of people who I really want to have link to me (authority figures). I follow their blogs and comment regularly on them. My goal is to build up enough trust and awareness of what I am all about. I have two goals here. 1) if my comments are good then people will want to learn more about me and click on my profile/link to go to my site (not so much for SEO purposes but for site traffice) ( I don't care if I'm number one if no one goes to my site. Traffic is important to me. Even better, relevant traffic.) and 2) I want to be able to eventually earn the right to become a guest blogger or have that person read about me and link to my site because of it's good content.
I think the idea of posting a comment for the sake of posting a comment is pointless. SEO is changing (for the better) and SEO now should stand for Search EXPERIENCE Optimization and not Search Engine Optimization. Comment Marketing is relevant if you use it to help build traffic and not to earn "traditional SEO links".
-
Yes, blog spamming is not really a smart idea. Plus majority of blog platforms nofollow comment links.
The only way you will benefit from blog comments are if they actually help the reader and is more of a marketing tactic than SEO.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Is commenting on other peoples blogs / articles good for seo?
Hello everyone, Just a quick question, say if I find some websites which are relevant to my service and they have articles I can comment on and include my URL , will these help for SEO? The websites also have a good PR rating higher than 3 does this count towards anything? Would these links be classed 'follow' or 'nofollow' links - could something please explain what this means aswell. Thanks very much!
Link Building | | vanplus0 -
Blog Commenting, how to start?
Greetings Mozzers, I have read that interacting on blogs in a natural way is good for building relationships as well as earning links. This is what I'd like to do, however what is the best way to find blogs to start doing this for different industries? Google [industry blogs]? Go to competitors and look at their link profiles to see if there are blogs they are on? Whats a good way to start this method? All the advice/clarification would be outstanding!
Link Building | | MonsterWeb281 -
Should I link from my blog back to my product pages?
Hello... I just installed a blog on my Magento site. My question is whether or not i should be linking within posts on the blog back to the product or category pages that i am talking about...from an SEO perspective. If in my post i am talking about flashlights being important when preparing for a storm, should i link the word flashlights to the flashlight category on my site? I know I can do this, the question is should i, from google's perspective. A) should i link the word (flashlights) to that category on my page B) should i put a line at the bottom of every post that says something like "if you are interested in purchasing flashlights, visit this link" and hyperlink that whole sentence... THANKS!
Link Building | | Prime850 -
Guest blogging for the gaming industry
Guest blogging seems to be one of the few legit linking methods left these days. My problem is that I work for a company in the gaming industry niche. All of the blogs directly connected are either spam, competitors or affiliates. I have been doing some guest blogging with connected articles on non-related blogs such as "financial advice if you win big" or a recent news story for a general blog. However, these sites are not connected and I cannot get the more quality general sites interested in these topics. Any advice for me?
Link Building | | theLotter0 -
White Hat way to do blog commenting
Do you guys think careful blog commenting is still a valuable day-to-day linkbuilding tactic? If I create a list of relevant unspammed blogs, and spend maybe 30 minutes per day commenting on 3-5 of them per day, while making sure that they're not inundated with spammy comments - is that worth my time?
Link Building | | ilyaelbert0 -
Dofollow Blog Comments
I wanna buy dofollow comments, can be there any negative effects? I understand that is a kind of a black hat seo, but i saw many sites who used this type of service and get boosted in the search engine ranking.
Link Building | | Alexsmenaru0 -
Blog commenting
I have been doing a little bit of testing in regards to blog commenting on high authority blogs that no follow comments. The comments have all been manual and added value to the blog. I have noticed quite a big jump in rankings for some keywords. I was wondering if anyone else has a view on the effectiveness of these links when combined with other link building methods?
Link Building | | PeterM222 -
Sponsored Directories & Blog Posts
In your opinion, is it worth paying for sponsored links in directories like http://www.dmegs.com, rather than the standard free links? I'm also curious about sponsored posts on Blogs (such as http://www.lovemydress.net/blog/sponsors/) where links are dofollowed, but clearly marked as sponsored. Will Google penalise me for purchasing these links? Are the links de-valued in any way?
Link Building | | cmaddison1