Blog Commenting Tips for SEO Link Building
Commenting on blogs has been a valuable practice for years, but the practice has changed somewhat. Before Google’s policy and algorithm changes, blog commenting offered a way to get direct links. Now, most blogs are set at “no follow” to stay in compliance with industry changes. Commenting is still a valuable way to build links, just not directly. As you develop your brand through commenting, people will respond and share your content organically. It can also be a decent traffic source.
However, it’s important to develop a link building strategy that incorporates a variety of tactics. One popular link-building tactic is blog commenting. Leaving a thoughtful and insightful comment on a blog post along with a name, email address, and link is not only a great way to get an inbound link but it can also improve your company/brand visibility and establish your place as a thought leader in a particular industry.
Blog commenting etiquette 101 tells you that you need to take the time to actually read the post and submit a worthwhile comment, but in order to do blog commenting well it’s recommended to follow these additional guidelines:
Do Your Research
Before commenting on blogs, it’s important to understand your own target audience. Understanding your demographics will help you target the blogs that will reach your audience. Doing research properly is time consuming because there are no shortcuts. However, you can set up Google Alerts with relevant keywords, which can help narrow your search down.
Assign the Task to One Person
If you assign blog commenting to more than one person at your company there is a good chance that things could get messy. There are only so many blog posts to comment on within a particular industry and it’s very likely that everybody would find the same ones. This could result in more than one comment coming from the same company on one post. This isn’t good, but what could be even worse is if the opinion is slightly different. To avoid confusion, give blog commenting responsibilities to only one person if possible.
Use a Real Name
If a blog owner sees a comment from “Company X” they are skeptical right off the bat. Even if your comment is good, some blog owners won’t let the comment go through if it is under a company name because it seems spammy and they don’t want any advertisements on their blog. Instead, use the name of someone that holds a prominent position at the company.
Keep it Organized
Keep your blog commenting activities organized from month to month and keep a record of every blog that you commented on. This can help for a few reasons. First, after a few months you will have a great resource of industry blogs that you can revisit again and again. Second, you can go back and check to see if your comments went through and if anyone responded to them.
More Than Just Link Building
Another key thing to understand is that blog commenting is about more than just link building. In fact, as a direct link-building tool, the practice is obsolete because most of the blogs are set at “no follow” anyway. However, it’s still a viable practice because it can help with your branding and can also give you direct traffic. Also, as you build your brand, you will get quality, organic links as people share your site on their own websites and on social media.
Link to Interior Pages
It’s important to build links to all pages of your website, not just the homepage. If possible, link to a page that is closely related to the topic of the blog post. For example, if the blog post discusses the evolution of blue widgets, link to your blue widgets product page.
Don’t Get Frustrated
Not every blog comment is going to go through. You have no control over other people’s web properties. Don’t take it personally. If you notice that a comment didn’t go through, try again on a different post. If the next one doesn’t go through, just cross it off of your list and move on to the next one.
Even though the industry has changed, blog commenting is still a valuable practice, as long as you spend enough time to research the right blogs to comment on and you leave valuable comments that your audience will respond well to.
Categorized in: SEO
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