Blog comments: quick link building win or spam-tastic black hat method you wouldn’t touch with a barge pole?
I wanted to find out what the general consensus was on this controversial topic within the SEO world, so I set out on something of a fact-finding mission to attempt to answer one question: does blog commenting work, and if so, can it be done in a white hat way? (Ok, I guess that’s two questions then.)
Let’s clarify what we mean by ‘blog commenting’
We’ve probably all left comments on blog posts we’ve enjoyed or where we’ve felt we had something to contribute. What we’re talking about here is the use of blog commenting purely for the purposes of gaining links – i.e. you wouldn’t have left a comment if you hadn’t been trying to build a link. That might mean an anonymous blog comment with an anchor text link in true old-school black hat style, or it could mean the more socially acceptable form of an actual contribution to a post but including a link back in the author profile, with your name as the anchor text. Or it could mean a comment linking to a resource on your site because it’s relevant to the post in question. Either way, the motivation behind the blog commenting I’m talking about is self-serving, making it ethically questionable in the eyes of many.
Are people still using blog comments in this day and age?
I ran a quick poll to gain a rough idea of what proportion of the SEO community actually use blog commenting as a link building tactic. Here are the results, based on 52 votes:
So, based on this sample size, that’s 65% of SEOs saying yes to some form of blog commenting being used for link building. Encouragingly, it looks as though most are doing so using their real identity, but that’s still 35% who don’t ‘do’ blog commenting (or at least, won’t own to it).
So does blog commenting actually help your rankings?
One could argue that if it didn’t work, people wouldn’t still be building links using this method. But then, plenty of people still use the obsolete meta keywords tag. Does blog commenting still work, or are the 65% who said they do it wasting their time?
The anecdotal evidence certainly supports the argument in favour of blog commenting for link building. One particularly enthusiastic commenter on the poll said:
“I, and many other people, have ranked pages using nothing but blog comment links.
There’s no opinion in if it works or not – the answer is yes. How *well* it works vs. other tactics, what types of terms it can work for, and if it’s worth the effort of doing manually are other questions entirely.
But, as a sweeping statement – anyone who claims it doesn’t work either… did it wrong, never tried for themselves, or didn’t do enough of it.” – Ian Howells
I also asked SEOptimise’s very own link building genius Marcus Taylor for his opinion, and he said:
“Blog commenting is something I’ve experimented with considerably over the years and have ranked sites competitively using just blog commenting as a strategy, so I can confidently say that it does work, although it’s certainly not the most effective link building strategy.”
Overcoming the obstacles
What are the main obstacles to blog commenting? Do the obstacles mean that it’s ultimately an ineffective link building method? Let’s take a look:
- Perhaps the main obstacle to blog commenting for link building is that many of the comments you make may be filtered out, either automatically by spam software such as Akismet, or manually by whoever approves the comments.
- You have to spend time finding blogs to comment on. If you’re putting any thought into blog commenting, you may be finding blogs which are relevant to your industry – thus providing links from relevant pages.
- You have to take the time to make an actual contribution if you want your comment to be approved. That really means actually reading the post, which can be time consuming.
So is it still worth it? Some surmise that blog comment links, even followed ones, may carry less weight with Google than regular links. However, as Rand Fishkin points out in this useful post on blog commenting, if you leave a helpful enough comment, the author of the post might even edit the original post to include your link in the post itself – and that’s a lot better than relying on comment-based links! The bottom line: a helpful response that suggests your link as an additional resource is likely to result in sufficient success to justify the extra time it takes to leave a worthwhile comment.
Blog commenting isn’t just about rankings
Those who scream “black hat” at the practice of blog commenting are perhaps forgetting that there are benefits other than rankings. For example, it’s certainly helpful in blogger outreach – if you’ve contributed useful points to someone’s blog posts in the past and they recognise your name as someone who knows what they’re talking about, you’re much more likely to be able to guest post for them. It’s also a reasonably effective way of engaging with relevant communities – i.e. your target market.
This is what my Twitter followers had to say about blog commenting…
“Not sure I use it for link building per se, but I do leave them for the engagement side. I encourage clients to engage in communities in that way – would I do it on their behalf? Not unless I really knew what I was saying inside out, as saying the wrong things is more damaging for the brand than any link gain may give.” – Peter Handley
“Although I don’t use commenting for link building directly, I do sometimes use it as an early stage of building a relationship with a blogger or particular author as part of outreach projects.” – Paul Rogers
Marcus Taylor added, “I think the greater benefit of commenting is to build relationships with the bloggers themselves. In my opinion, there’s nothing wrong with blog commenting, providing you don’t do the whole spammy anchor text name thing and you do add value to the post. Steer clear of overdoing it or doing it on spammy/irrelevant sites solely for the links and you’ll be fine.”
So from what I’ve seen, the consensus seems to be: there’s still a place for blog commenting – but not the spammy black hat kind. Blog comments can build you valuable links both directly and indirectly, but maximum benefit comes from genuine engagement – communicate what you’re interested in and knowledgeable about, and the time it takes will more than repay itself.
Image by Kristina B on Flickr.
Let’s see if the comments backup the poll results. Heh.
We regularly comment on blogs, both from a link building perspective and a relationship building perspective. Didn’t get a chance to complete the poll as I missed it being announced.
Great post Rachel! I think that blog commenting is often overlooked, particularly by those working on large SEO campaigns. In my experience, the main benefit is that it can balance out followed links to give you a more natural-looking link profile. A good tip is to set up Google Alerts on your targeted keywords and then comment on the posts that interest you. This is also good for content inspiration, so it’s win-win.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! Good point about creating a more balanced link profile and thanks for the Google Alerts tip, I’ll definitely do that!
I do comment on blogs but and a big but this is what i keep in mind just like my own blog does it help the user is it a valuable comment or not. And it works for me keeping that in mind. I have tryed a bit freelance work and used black hat and i can tell you it damaged the site more than helped it so if your going to comment make it relevant and keep it to the style of the author.
Nice post Rachel.
I think many people comment on blogs a lot less now days as social sharing increases. Personally the only posts I comment on that cry out for a comment (like yours) or ones that I strongly disagree with.
I think micro commenting is due another resurgence.
Thanks Danny, you’re right – it’s often easier just to add a quick comment to a Facebook share or to reply on Twitter without ever actually writing a comment on the blog itself. But more people benefit if engagement happens on the post itself, so that everyone can see people’s comments and learn from them :)
Most of the blogs out there use a no-follow link in the author profile, like this site. Do no-follow links help rank your pages any better? I was to the understanding that they had to be follow links to improve the target sites rank?
Very interesting post – I regularly post on blogs and consider a link a nice bonus. I will admit however I have decided to stop publishing comments on my blog as the SPAM just sucks the energy out of me. CommentLOVE is worth a go
Thanks for quoting me :)
I’ll echo some of the other statements here really – I’ve not commented heavily personally for a while as I end up “responding” on Twitter more often these days…
Maybe, 2012, I’m going to make an effort to write some comments more often on the things I read
Personally, I think no-follow links still carry some weight if they’re from authoritative enough sources. And they’re still an indication of a good neighbourhood, I would have thought.
Agreed Rachel, I’ve always said that nofollow may not pass authority but I’m almost a certain it can still pass an element of relevancy and trust. There are many that will argue that nofollow links are useless, but if nothing else, they are essential to maintaining a healthy balanced link profile (from an SEO perspective) but nofollow or otherwise, a link can still deliver targeted traffic and this should be at the forefront of any marketing strategy anyway, not simply whether the link has any SEO benefit.
Just my opinion – and that’s not going to change the web society we live in…
In an ideal world all blog commenters would be adding to the conversation or seeking some advice. Sadly many people see blog comments as a chance to spam their links all over the place. In regards to the no follow links in comments if your adding good value to the blog post and people see that they may visit your site. Regardless of whether you believe no follow doesnt pass anchor link text authority or not your first consideration should be to the readers not what seo advantages you can get.
Yes, also agree with doing blog commenting because it gives you quick result but with Quality, matters most instead of quantity, bulk in quantity may have irrelevancy…as commenting should me in good quality as per its topic.
Rachel’s post reminded me of one of my favourite parts of the “Lie to Me” series (1st season) where a very wealthy man wanted to find out whether a young stunning girl he was going to marry was after his money or really loved him. So, the lie deteciton experts came to the conclusion that she actually was after his money but at the same time really loved him, as his money was an integral part of him. The same way the guy was with her because she was young and beautiful., not just because she was such a nice person:) So, I say YES to blog commenting not trying to draw a line between “having your say” and “having a backlink” …
I do still use blog commenting as a quick and easy way of gaining backlinks, I do however question how much difference they make to SERP, especially when gaining them in large quantities with very little quality
i dont know whats going wrong ! I have do many comments but still it shows there are no backlinks in my site
Yes! There is no doubt about the importance of Back Linking in Search Engine Optimization. Google and Yahoo algorithm also says about the same. But If you are serious about your link building exercise, then please avoid Paid Links and Reciprocal Back Links as short cut of your link building activity. We used Tenders as Keyword for tradereader.com for Organic directory submission. We found that it is time taking but very effective. We had also observed that different keyword like Tenders India, Government Tenders, Public Tender, Tender Information needs to be used to speed up SEO Processes.
I am posting this comment purely for SEO reasons, just to be ironic :smug:
:D
http://www.experienceoz.com.au/sydney
Loving the comment Jack. We like a good bit of irony in the SEOptimise office.
At the same time though, as we manually approve all of our comments we do have the ability to alter them, I’ll let you discover what I’ve done ;)
You did still get one link out of us though for keeping us amused (and so kind of adding to the post) :)
I can tell you i use blog commenting as one part of making backlinks to my websites,and although many people believe it is just a rubbish or a waste of time, i can clearly say this:
if you are only after linkjuice, and posting irrelevant comment such as- great blog, i loved it, you simply missed the point of blog commenting!!!
Blog commenting is very much about getting interested on a subject, driling deep, creating a good content which could be from our knowledge or experience,it is about creating a supportive community which supports one another.
I know…SEO guys don’t have much time to drill in or read the whole article,but building some good foundations, you can reach very high, and i tell you this- relevant comments recieve the gratitude of the blogg’s owner, by approving your comment, and sending link to your website!
This is cool, and i think many other should do it too.
Loved you post very much :)
Avishay