Blog Comment Links

[adrianaldous]

Hi everyone! Using the Open Site Explorer tool I can see many of my competitors leave blog comments which (according to the tool) are providing link value to their sites. This seems like something that can easily be used in a black hat sort of way.

My question is this - Is leaving comments on blogs an effective way of generating positive links to my site?

Adrian

[Harbor_Compliance]

If the links are follow and the sites have high DA, are they valuable?

Of course this is provided that I'm using my real name, picture, and contributing valuable and thoughtful information to the discussion.

[evolvingSEO]

Adrian

Blog comments are not typically thought of as carrying a whole lot of weight by themselves.  However, when you're building your overall backlink portfolio it is good to have some variety to your backlinks - some high quality links, plenty of followed links, some no-followed, some in social, some in places like digg etc.

I would certainly comment if you feel you have something to add to the conversation (and you find yourself doing so naturally, not forced - and definitely don't add any comments on fake blogs) but you don't have to go overboard and spend tons of time seeking out lots of blogs just to get some comments in. Leave them as you would in a natural way. They can add some social value and help round out your overall backlink portfolio, but don't do a whole lot by themselves.

-Dan

[EGOL]

(according to the tool) are providing link value to their sites...

You might see the links listed but who says the provide ranking value?  Google and other search engines determine their value for rankings. Many of these links are no follow and many of those blogs are probably untrusted or have so few links of their own that the links are worth almost nothing.

My question is this - Is leaving comments on blogs an effective way of generating positive links to my site?

Only if they are followed links and only of those blogs have valuable links from other websites.  In my opinion the value of these links is so low that they are not worth going after.