Many of us in the web marketing space have a love/hate relationship with the practice of leveraging blog comments as a marketing strategy. On the one hand, it can bring valuable participation and content to our sites and provide an outlet for us to reach other communities and bloggers/comment-enabled communities. But, it's also an endless source of spam and low quality contributions that teeter on the "publish-worthy" seesaw.
Given the ongoing popularity of this practice and some recent successes (and failures) I've observed and participated in personally in this arena, I felt it worthwhile to explore in more depth.
Why Comment on Blogs?
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Branding / Awareness - commenting on blogs will almost certainly get you at least a brief once-over from the writer, and consistent contributions are a proven way to build relationships with bloggers. That participation can also yield awareness and branding to the blog's audience, at least those who are consistent comment readers and interactors. Depending on the blog/sector and your goals, this can be a very positive marketing move.
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Direct traffic - comments with links, especially those that are well-written and entice readers to click a link (rather than just being a random/irrelevant/spammy link drop) will send visits. If the post itself continues to earn traffic, this can even be an ongoing source of referrals to your site/page.
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SEO / Search Rankings - some blogs use "dofollow" links in the comments that are approved and may send search ranking value. However, it's generally my opinion that many of these links aren't treated as... let's say "impactfully" as normal links in the search engines' ranking systems. However, leaving a link that is so useful and valuable that the blog author edits his/her post to include it (something I've done many times here on SEOmoz and helped to make happen through my own comments) is definitely SEO accretive.
- Second-Order Marketing Impact - many of the effects you might feel from commenting aren't directly impactful, but instead come later on as a result of the post. e.g. the reporter who follows up on a comment for detail to include in a story, the link to your content that comes from another blog discussing your comment, etc.
Given these goals, it's essential to think a bit more strategically about the practice of commenting and participation. Whereas the right contribution can bring you all of the above, the wrong one(s) could adversely impact many of these.
10 Recommendations for Blog Comments
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Read the last 5 posts made by the author - assuming you've never participated in this particular blog/community previously, make it a pre-requisite of commenting to read through their prior material. You'll get a good sense of the author, their interests, their perspective and their writing style. All of these will help you considerably to make a positive, impactful impression with your comment.
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Read at least 3 posts worth of comments - If you don't read the comments on other posts, you may have a tough time getting a sense for the community's level and style of discourse, making your comment appear out of place. You want to stick out from the crowd, but not because you're an inexperienced contributor. If it's your first time to a site, don't just drive-by comment and link drop, take the time to understand protocol and your contribution will be far more likely to generate value.
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Read previously posted comments on the thread - This one's obvious, but also oft-forgotten. In order to have a comment that the author and other readers will take seriously, you need to know what else was posted on the thread. If there's dozens or hundreds of comments, it's OK to skim, but make sure your point is being made and discussed earlier a reply or back-and-forth thread may even be a more appropriate place to post your content in these cases.
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Write "more than a tweet and less than a blog post" - The exact amount is up to you, but generally speaking, the range between a long tweet (~140 characters) and 2-3 paragraphs (too short to be its own blog post) is ideal. It's easy to consume, but gives you enough room to make a substantive point (and potentially leave a relevant/useful link). If you do want to go much longer, write that post! The content will likely be more valuable for marketing on your site, and many times, the author may append their post to include your link. You can then make a short, relevant comment in the post itself and leave a link back to your more in-depth piece.
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Never drop a pure bio/reference link - If you link with something like this, you're barking up the wrong tree:
These sorts of "drive-by" link drops will get rejected 8/10 times and have the link removed before approval the rest. If you're going to leave a link, it better be highly relevant to the post, interesting to the audience and as non-promotional as possible (or, if it is highly promotional, prefaced transparently as such).
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You may link to your own content a maximum of once in a comment - If you're linking to the content of others as a reference, it's fine to leave a link or two, even three (this can be particularly useful if you're referencing data points, studies, surveys, etc. that back up a point), but if it's promotional in any way (even if it simply exists on a site you own/control), best practice says keep it to one.
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If at all possible, use your real identity and photo - The goodwill and trust built from an authentic human face and name that go together, match the bio/team of the site they link to and carry across mediums (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) is invaluable. It can often mean the difference between being treated as a respected new member vs. a black hat spammer. If at all possible, use your real identity, full name, and actual photo.
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Be authentic and honest about who you are and why you're there - You may be paranoid that by admitting you're a marketer, a community manager, an SEO, etc. you'll be thought worse of and potentially excluded, but I can say from experience that honesty is the best policy and that being open about your motivations and background will more often than not build trust and acceptance. That said, in many communities, if your title is officially "SEO link builder" or "SEO specialist" you might want to modify that slightly to "organic marketing specialist" or "content marketer" or even "blogger," if the title fits. So long as those descriptions are still honest, they can lessen the negative perception that "SEO" unfortunately still carries.
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It's OK to promote your comment (and their post) socially - Bloggers love getting their work tweeted/shared, so if you tweet/FB share a reference to your comment on their post, particularly if you call them out by name, it can have a very positive effect. For example:
- Make your profile link point to an appropriate place - You can ruin a great comment by linking to what seems like a spammy/manipulative site. If you run a site that's completely off-topic for the blog/community to which you're contributing, at least point to your bio page on the site rather than the homepage. Seeing a great response from "Maggie Thompson" that links to "www.suffolkhomeloans.info" might get a link-strip, but linking to "www.suffolkhomeloans.info/maggies-bio.html" could very possibly pass the same smell test.
Looking forward to hearing your suggestions on comment marketing. And if you want to write your own blog post about it and link drop, feel free - the thumbs here at SEOmoz do a great job of sorting the great comments with links from the spammy, drive-by linkers.
11) If your name is ""Generic Cialis or "Cheap Viagra" DONT EVEN THINK of commenting on my blog.
Frankly, even if your name is "New Jersey SEO Company" you are unlikely to get aproved. Just dont do it kids ;)
However, if you use a real name as opposed to anchor text, or have no link at all, even a pretty poor "thanks for the post, I really appreciated it" comment is appreciated.
Great addition..
You'd be amazed at how often I get comment spam with the name so-and-so seo or linkbuildingseo or ... y'know ... something along seo or link building lines. And it's blatantly automated too - all my comments go into my moderation queue - so they get rejected out of hand.
The "pretty-poor" example you quoted - it's a fine line - I've actually caught a couple of comments trying to sneak past like that - while I'd like to think at least one or two of them are genuine - they all have links attached to them that link to some product or some video - so once again, they get dumped.
Doesn't even have to be a high-volume industry either - a relatively small blog like mine gets hundreds of spam comments per day (By relatively small I'm referring to about a 1,000 visitors per month)
I happen to come from a long line of Viagra's. Because my parents decided to name me "Cheap" has always been a burden. And let me tell you, it's tough getting respect, let alone a comment approved.
Sincerely,
C. Viagra Esq. III
Commenting on blog post with a keyword or some other not logicl name is a poor actvity i do understood this. Will it be ok to use company name in blog commenting will that work among bloggers or it is also not recommended.
@MOGmartin i have personally feel that without linking your comment is been approved & modrator or blog owner or website owner like to give an answer....
I do completely agree with you... :)
I wonder - would it be better for me to enter my name as "TJ" or "[email protected]". The 2nd gives me the advertising I am looking for, but the first is probably more likely to be accepted by the moderator. What would you guys recommend?
Thanks,
TJ
I agree - I think it would be TJ. I have seen colleagues of mine leverage that methdology before with great success.
Thanks Rand for this "guide". While reading it, I understood how much I still have to improve myself in this facet, as I tend to exceed, for instance, in what you say in point 4.
Finally, as a commenter here, I can be a live testimonial of the best side effect of commenting: gaining a voice in the community and its respect. Personally, this is the highest marketing value I give to commenting, as it will lead to all the others (SEO advantages and, yes, new business opportunity).
The only things I personally recommend is intellectual honesty and respect when commenting, because they pay.
P.S.: gfiorelli1 as my nick owns a long story, as it is my nickname in almost every website since 1996, when I first signed for a Yahoo.com email account and gfiorelli and gianluca.fiorelli were already caught by a namesake.
Cannot edit my comment anymore.
Just wanted to add a tip. I strongly suggest you to create a profile on Gravatar, as it the most used avatar system. That will help making your "online" identity congruent and recognizable, making easier to transport uniformly your brand from blog to blog.
I was also going to suggest Gravatar.
Rand, you're hitting them out of the park in '11.
Commenting on a blog, is like anything else in the world we live in, open for opinion. It's a great way to build a fellowhip of like-minded individuals, but it's also a great way to become hated, and despised.
Consider the following; treat others how the way you would like to be treated. If you were giving a speech and people were giving you feedback and one of the people just said "good job, check out my company" that wouldn't be very constructive or beneficial, would it.
I long wondered what the backstory on your nickname was. I know I've accidently sent gfiorelli tweets before by forgetting to append the 1.
Really... well, I still use it more for an affection toward it than anything else.
Anyway, did you read point 7? ;)
My top tip is to do a search for blogs running the 'CommentLuv' WordPress plugin, as it automatically pulls from your RSS feed to link to your last blog entry at the end of your comment (it doesn't change the URL when you post your next entry either).
By default it's a dofollow, and I've not seen any webmasters go to the trouble of changing it. Bonus is that you can leave a worthwhile comment without thinking about how to incorporate your link in there or be seen as a spammer. And the webmaster clearly approves or they wouldn't have installed it in the first place.
- Jenni
I agree, using Commentluv enabled blogs are a great. At wpslug.com you can search for plugins, e.g Commentluv in this case and then click through to get thousands of Commentluv enabled blogs.
"drive-by" link drops will get rejected 8/10 times
I'd append that to include "by any blog that's worth getting a link from". There's plenty of oportunity to drop this kind of stuff on poor quality blogs with every reason to assume it will be published.
Well said Andy - by any blog worth getting a link from. hah.
Commenting helps the blog as well as the commenter.
Comments add value to and leverage the blog and also sometime lead to intellectual discussions which help in adding more SEO value to the blog .
Regular comments from regular commenters help build a community.(has the roots of Social Media in it)
Yes, but this also like SEO has to be done keeping in mind the ethics of it which has been clearly stated in the post.
I think we should comment only on topics close to your heart and head as only then the honesty and genuineness will be reflected.
Links which add additional information to the post also help the readers and in future may help in content curation.
I think the post can be titled as "The Art and Heart Of Commenting On Blogs"
As someone has stated above, All comments to my blog on Internet Marketing go straight to the moderation squad, right after being processed by a continually updated Spam filter.
I wish this was really standard practice or a requirement of blogging platforms but alas we are set to see Viagra and FREE SEX spam across the blogosphere for a good while yet ... I do wonder though one thing
Does google take note of huge ammounts of spam comments and penalise the site for allowing them? Does it "mark them down" as such?
Also as noted above 100's of links or stupid names like "cheap xyz" or "viagra 4 u" will not mean your comment will be accepted on any blog I run or am associated with via my clients! - one day the spam-bots will learn real names sometimes slip through but until then nope just go away!
I'm glad to see you write about comments, Rand. Everyone is so concerned with getting their content on their blog and then to get others to Tweet or Like it. But what about actually responding to the post itself? Comments show engagement and will coax those on the fence to read your blog - what great social proof.
Blog commenting is also a secret influencer outreach weapon that too few people use. What better way to connect with a writer than to demonstrate that you've read his or her content, thought about it and spent the time to comment on it? If you plan to ask someone to guest post on their blog, start off by commenting on their blog posts consistently for a few weeks. The pitch is oftentimes much smoother than just a cold request.
One suggestion to blog owners it to make it as simple as possible. For example, I was readying a news blog the other day, and he had ONE article (out of around 100) that was relevant and of interest to me. I wanted to add a comment (genuine!), but to do so had to register, provide details, respond to an email, then find the article again, then comment. And attempt to remember the username and password.
I gave up. It just wasn't worth the time. So give people the choice of anonymous comments, facebook, disqus or other systems as well - all assuming you actually want comments.
I feel exactly the same way. I can't help but be reminded of this comic by Matt Inman. Check out number 4, it sums this up perfectly. Now if only seoMoz would do a post about watches so I could link to myself...
I agree 100%. Half of the comments I want to leave on blogs require me to register. I don't comment often (except on SEOmoz), but when I do, it's definitely not to put a link on there. So whenever I run into the registration thing, I usually don't bother. Sometimes I think that site will try SPAMMING my inbox!
I'd be careful adding too many even legitimate links into a blog comment as you might get caught by the spam filters - either dumped into a bucket the author never looks at or held for manual review.
Running an SEO blog 100% of my comments go into the moderation queue. I *wish* I worked in an industry where that wasnt needed, but given the proliference of auto-commenting bots, its just a fact of life.
Agreed. Especially WordPress, where the maximum number of links per comment is often restricted to 2.
This is a good "Blog commenting for dummies" post and is actually quite useful for people that are considering getting involved in blogging and online communities, especially if you are considering participating in a competitive community.
Following these rules will probably result in more people interacting with you as well. That’s actually my main reason for participating on blogs, it also happens to make blogging and commenting more fun. It’s not all about your post count, but your personal enjoyment as well.
My personal tip: Spell checker is still your best friend.
Personally, I'd never drop any sort of link until I'd left a respectable number of good quality, conversation enhancing comments. It should be considered SEO etiquette to have to earn link privelages. I think most blog owners would overlook a promotional link or two if you've demonstrated a history of adding something to their blog.
I've always struggled with blog commenting as an SEO strategy for the kind of reasons you've highlighted above, but your post has spurned me into action a bit! It seems as if it really can be a useful strategy if used wisely...
Now I feel under pressure to make my comment as authentic as possible!
Seriously though, i think authenticity is the key, if your motives are genuine and you're authentic then people nearly always appreciate your comments. I don't even mind people who are motivated by getting a backlink from my forum or blog so long as they make a bit of effort to add something to the discussion and aren't so brazen to use their KW as their name.
I like the idea of using spam blog comments as a self-motivational tool, given how complimentary some are, I choose to accept the compliment.
My favourite?
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I've pinned it to my wall ;-)
J.
This is one of the most incredible blogs Ive examine inside a extremely prolonged time. The level of details in right here is stunning, like you practically wrote the book around the topic. Your website is wonderful for any person who would like to fully grasp this topic a lot more. Wonderful things; please preserve it up!
LOL!! What a great comment! If you don't mind TBPL I'm going to save it for special use here at the moz. It will only be used for posts/and or comments of extremely high caliber! :)
Rand, I agree with another comment, you are starting 2011 with a bang!
Great guide - especially the part about taking the time to read several posts by the author to get a feel about the blogger's main objective, tone, personality, etc. This is overlooked most of the time. I hate it when I read a really thoughtful post and then see a bunch of garbage below. It takes away from the entire blog. I agree with your perspective that it's much more than "do follow v. no follow." SEOs tend to get caught in a loop over this. Being seen as a true expert of involved community member is key.
What about "top contributor" links?
BTW- Love the live Whiteboard! You should definitely keep doing it!
In response to bigwillg`s comment regarding the importance of correct spelling and grammar when commenting on a blog, I agree with you that it is important but let`s not forget that every so often even those whose English is mother-tongue make spelling and grammar mistakes I still do not think that "Hey look this guy can`t spell". Moreover, I personally appreciate people making the effort to learn foreign languages and even more appreciate the fact that it does not stop them to become valuable members of blog communities even if their grammar is not 100% correct. And one of the example I can bring is Gfiorelli1 who is a very active member of blog and twitter communities and I particularly enjoy reading his opinions.
Great points and very timely considering the recent lengthy discussion had on this topic in response to Lindsay's what not to do in 2011 post. I rarely use blog comments for SEO, but when I do I am always guided by the principle that quality SEO is about driving long term business results as opposed to short term gains in traffic which might quickly evaporate or worse, cause long term damage to a brand. If the business results to be gained from researching the norms and etiquette of a community prior to engagement don't justify the time and effort that entails, it simply isn't worth my time to participate. Drive by link dropping is not only a poor long term strategy, it makes it that much harder for SEO to be taken seriously in the business world. I especially liked your suggestion of tweeting a blog comment. What a great way to leverage a valuable comment and get more out of the work you've put in to it.
I think (9) is a great point - I've seen many people use something like "Great discussion over on Site X..." on Twitter to drive people to a post where they just commented. It boosts the exposure of the comment and the post, and it sometimes gets the author's attention. Of course like most of these tactics, it helps to do it sincerely.
Also wanted to add that building a relationship with authors and regular commenters is a great way to get guest post spots. You'll also know the audience and what they like, leading to a better guest post experience all around. Too many people think guest-posting is about getting up that one link, but the real power comes when you can post a few times on a blog and make a name for yourself.
To conclude the syllogism: use the YouMoz opportunity here to start guest blogging.
Good point, thanks for the reminder.
I agree with almost every point Rand. Especially point #7 If at all possible, use your real identity and photo.
When I first got involved with the moz, I was of the paranoid tinfoil hat wearing variety thinking that Google was keeping an eye on SEO's by harvesting comment data from popular SEO sites. So I thought I'd be clever and not use my name or my photo to stay under the big G's radar. Instead I used the nickname goodnewscowboy and one of my dog's pictures for my avitar.
I also didn't dream that I'd get so ding dang caught up in being a part of the mozzer community. Now, years later, I've built a personal "goodnewscowboy" brand up so that when you see Boozie you know it's "goodnewscowboy". (His name wasn't pronounced like you think. The Boo part sounds like as in "book")
But now I'm hesitant to put my actual picture up as no one will associate it with my "brand" [sigh] So now Boozie and I are forever linked it seems.
So I said all that to say this: Think twice before you create an alternate photo/name when you register at blogs. You just may wish you hadn't years down the road.
{editing the above comment] I'm dropping in my real photo to replace Boozie as an experiment. I'll leave it awhile to see if it affects my "brand" negatively or positively.
Woo hoo! I like it :)
Good always wanted to see the face behind @goodnewscowboy !
Thanks Jen and Bharati. Hope it doesn't give you nightmares :)
Allowing commenting on my blog is one of those things I've struggled with, because my blog/site is still pretty small in terms of traffic, and while I have yet to see any positive effects of real community participation, I have spent tons of time patrolling the site for spam and blocking IP addresses. I recently just turned off my comments because I got tired of doing that work. I think there's a tipping point at which you are getting enough real attention that allowing comments makes it worthwhile.
When I MAKE a comment on someone else's blog, I've gotten in the habit of trying to extend the life of it. If it's particularly insightful I Tweet about it and say "hey, i just commented on (link)", which helps me with my web authority and also accomplishes for the blogger what Rand was pointing out.
Very great tips Rand, but the problem is that if you were to do all these things (read his latest 5 posts, read other comments, etc) this would take you a lot of time for one comment, especially if you're commenting just for backlinks, so you want to comment on as many blogs as possible, so i guess, rather than spending all that time, you can invest it in a better way to build backlinks. If you're using this for increasing the brand awareness, indeed, you should follow all the steps you described, even so, it would take aroun 20-25 minutes per comment, which isn't a really big gain, I guess, especially if you have an hourly payment of a 10-20 dolars:)
Iulian has it right, the blog comment strategy depends on your objective. Sometime you leave comments because the content is great. Sometimes you leave a comment because you need a backlink. Sometimes you comment because you have something fantastic to add to the article. Depending on your objectives you might end up doing a blend of all three.
Hi julian - sorry if it wasn't clear. My intention on the "read 5 posts from the author" and "3 posts worth of comments" only applies to new blogs/sites on which you've never previously commented. In these cases, it's my strong opinion that quality > quantity. A few properly placed comments with good, relevant links are going to serve your needs far better than dozens or hundreds of low quality contributions (many of which will be overlooked, flagged as spam or edited).
I couldn't agree more Rand that comment/link quality trumps quantity and knowing which strategies support your clients goals is the key to success. If you are posting on a Top 10 blog in your industry, or maybe more importantly, Top 10 blogs of the industries of your target clients, then 20 mins invested to get your comment approved, especially if that blog has follow links is well worth it in my opinion, even if from purely selfish SEOs perspective.
We all recognize that spam comments must be working or SEOs wouldn't apply these tactics. Maybe these tactics have more efficacy outside the US where Google anti spam algorithms are less mature. For pure churn and burn offers/domains, maybe it is even a suitable strategy.
However. If investing in long-term link equity and protecting the value of your client's domain, particularly if their domain is also their brand, then spam comments are extremely risky and should be disclosed to your client so that they understand the associated risks.
For more thoughts, see: https://www.ebizroi.com/blog/?p=746
little blog can show your comment
I like the post but up to now I never used that tactic and probably never will. Simply because it is too time-consuming and - in my opinion - the merit of that strategy is too less. Of course it depends on which blog I try my luck. But the more value the blog has, the more difficult and time-consuming is the "work" to go for it.
You point to a great issue: time vs. quality. And that is why is very wise - IMO - to learn what blogs are worth commenting in and therefore "reserve" time to comments. And this could be extended to sites like Quora.
Anyway - and this is a "social kind of comment that could help community being an human one" - I see you lost your first SEOmoz commenter status since a couple of weeks ;)
Nevertheless you have to set priorities how you are going to help you clients to rank best - depending on budget, market strategy etc.
I never made a challenge to comment n° 1 - but I can certainly do better ;-)
Right... but when it comes to clients I usually don't use comments as a priority tactic, even though I strongly recommend them to do it and I provide them of a sort of tutorial quite similar to this post by Rand and do a "best blogs" list research I give them to use (useful also to let them enlarge their online market vision)
But, yes, I use commenting as an essential form of my brand marketing (apart that - you all know it so well - I am quite of a graphomaniac ;))
I'm with you on this one. As long as you are working with reputable, well-established businesses (which of course we all aspire to do), the client will always be an expert in their field/ niche.
With just a little bit of education, and pointing them in the direction of some quality niche blogs, I've seen my clients drive some nice traffic to their sites. They've just got so much experience that even an hour or so a week of their time is enough to build a great reputation on 2 or 3 blogs.
I even run a little report to highlight the traffic that my clients are able to generate themselves through comment and profile clickthroughs. I've found that teaching customers to generate traffic for themselves is a great way to add value to my services.
Well you said it.. Make sure you make every comment count. Just had a discussion about this with a colleaque today, and this blog post of yours, will come in handy in my favor as i'm pro for commenting, as long as you do it properly and where it makes sence. I especially liked your idea of promoting the blog post after your comment, really nice idea.
Blog comments are effective way of getting traffic & recognition on online world if you have done it right, but you just stuffing links in comments, then you will look like a comment spammers.
Using keywords in the name category is really useless & depicts you show no respect to the blogger who have written the post, the most effective way of getting link from comment is to find post which relates to the subject that you have written on your site & provide a feedback in such a way that is useful to the reader of the blog which links back to your content, which is welcomed by many bloggers.
As Rand has mentioned in this post, always avoid generic comments to the post believe me(As I am blogger myself) those comments are really hated by the bloggers as they are the most useless comments. couple of months back I have written about the 15 Generic comment spam I received on my blog that nobody likes to read.
Use blog commenting as an Marketing & Personal Branding Tool rather then just using it for SEO benefits, if you have don it right even search engines will reward you.
Most blog comments allow you to enter a website url in addition to your name. Would the website field be sufficient for a page or product link or do you recommend inserting the link in the actual comment? What is the best practice?
Hi Rand,
again, some useful tipps there!. If you share knowledge or useful links within comments I really do agree that you gain brand awareness (or personal reputation) as well as quality traffic. Even if it's just a few clicks on your link below a great article about your topic! We managed to get lots of traffic an podcast-subscriptions through comment-links (that weren't set to push traffic in the first place!).
Being the first commenter on a swell viited blog might be a good idea for getting some useful traffic, too.
Thanks for the list!
One more tip: keep your comments enough short. I recommend 2 to 4 line/each comment. Because if your comments are long, someone will skip them. I know long comments are good contributions but you have time to read them among alot of other comments?
True. When leaving comments, I often draft-write, leave it alone for a short-while, then come back and re-edit/re-format it. I find you can always reduce waffle that way.
I do similar with emails too.
Just installed a captcha on my blog. Absolutely fantastic results on combating spam. The main benefit I get from blog commenting is traffic from a targeted community of readers.
Though very time consuming, I think building an online profile/s dedicated to commenting is now an important part of SEO. Whether you do it via Google profiles / Facebook / Twitter / Disqus or any other service (or services combined) – in my view, this is one aspect of the social layer Google is looking for when identifying legit people with proven identities. This should help in the long run and should generate more power from comments as opposed to anonymous comments .
This should also be valid for forum posts and article submissions, the more "karma" you have on a certain forum and the more posts you have should make you signature links carry more weight, and the more articles you have under your ezine or whatever article site should win you a few extra Google points…
Of course this is just common sense talking, not sure Google still using common sense these days :)
The follow/no-follow has always been a bit of an issue, but as has been stated recently, no-follow are/might/possibly be being recognized now.
Although I use and advocate comment systems like DISQUS, being js based, if you simply use it out of the box it has little SEO value, either on your own site or when you use the profile to comment on others - it does make it quick and easy though, and if where you are commenting has high traffic, you will get on target visits if you are relevant.
Like any link building, although personally I find blog commenting one of the quickest and easiest, I am very conscious that variety in link type is essential. IE not spending all my time on just blog comments.
Comments are the easy way out for creating a large backlink profile. Isn't it bad for your backlink profile if some spammer comments next to you. I think google has stopped to add any value to comments links. It has recently closed name/url option in blogger default commenting system.
Talk about going into the lion's den. This is my first comment and I just uploaded my first two blogs. Check it out....is this how I add a link?
https://thegraphicedgedallas.com/wordpress/
Trying hard to learn the ins and outs but there is so much information to sift through. Somehow, I found SEOmoz and it looks like I found a great source.
OK, everyone, come and correct me!
Talk about a double dose of edumacation on one page. Cogent, nuanced advice on commenting, then a ton of comments that one would have to assume all met the criterial put forth in the post (else they wouldn't have been approved). Very meta, reminds me of when I used to have level 5 clearance at the Large Hadron Collider: just by virtue of having been granted access to the inner sactums of the atom splitting facility imbued everyone there with instant credibility. No matter how they looked or acted, if they were allowed inside you knew they had done something right. Even the guy who cleaned the toilets could go on at length about Schrodinger's Kittens.
I've never been to the LHC btw, but reading this post made me feel as if I had.
Being new to blogging, I took an online tutorial on Wordpress. One of the recommendations I took from the instructor was to use the default Wordpress setting to hold over, for moderation, any comment with more than one link. I've certainly implemented this on 75th Anniversary of World War 2. It doesn't mean you can't post more than one link, but I get to take a look at it before it goes live on my site.
The other important security aspect is to use Akismet to detect and hold for moderation any comment by known link spammers. Now there's a list I don't want to end up on with inappropriate commenting. The 'rules' here seem to be a great start to avoiding that.
It is true and very frustrating when you get comments that are pure bio /reference link.
The trouble of going through the subscriber's comments for moderation and seeing all these meaningless comments is just crazy.
Do they really think their comments are going to be approved?
Great post about SEO, randfish. Im a marketing enthusiastic and I have been searching for marketing blogs for posts about How to evaluate digital marketing campaigns and I think that this hasn´t been very discussed on the web. I did a video and I provided a calculator for marketing metrics such as ROI, CPC, CTR etc, but I think a full post of this kind of strategies would add a great value to it. If you´ve done it in a previous post please ignore this message, but I didn´t find it... If you haven´t, I ask you the favor to do it as a pro;) Here is my video/ tutorial on how to calculate this metrics and a link to download the calculator is provided there, if you want it of course... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBKtfplLAhE
Here's a new spam trick I've been noticing lately. They make a nice simple comment, with a regular person's name, and a website url of google.com or bing.com. So they're not trying to promote anything. But in the comment itself, they will misspell a word "frustarted" "inconplete", something like that. I think then that they run a search for their comment, with the misspelling, and when they find it, aha! they have found a blog that auto-approves comments, and they can compile a list of these blogs and sell them. Or just add their own spam.
I wonder what the minds that come up with these spam-scams could do if they left the "dark side" and thought up ideas for....the light side?
Interesting tactic. I have noticed random gibberish (comments that literally make no sense whatsoever) and wonder if the same tactic is being used there... just a way to test the waters so-to-speak, and then when they find the safe water, guess where they'll continue to swim?
For the longest time, I've known that blog commenting is one great marketing strategy but I get lazy to leave comments on blogs I read. I agree with the previous comments that it could be time consuming but I guess I need to start practicing this strategy and look at the long-term effect of leaving links on other people's sites. Anyway, this article is very insightful Rand. Will definitely start applyying some of the recommendations you cited though am still debating if I should change my profile photo.
I am a total beginner to this process and found this article to be great. Thanks for the help.
These are good recommendations for blog comments... I published some of my own opinions on the subject of blog commenting "Do You Post Effective Comments" where I mentioned limiting the number of relevant links to ones own content, the length of a comment, and genuine identity.
Both tied in well to SEOmoz recommendations mentioned in your article. The post describes my considerations when approving comments
I had to smile at this article, but the reason people still use these spam bots is that some web masters either leave their comments open without moderation or that they don't bother reading comments before he/she approves them. I always get the impression that an article is less appealing when I see comments about where you can get cheap viagra.
Great post blogs are a great way of building your audience and creating brand awareness at the same time.
As we all know that blog commenting plays a crucial role in driving traffic, branding & etc. But the blog commenting should be done effectively to get more benefits to our company,website. Here the Rand had given us the very useful tips or the recommmendations that should be always kept in mind while doing effective blog commenting. I think this will help for the beginners for understanding the blog commenting.
Really a great post.
Though I comment on blog posts but I have not developed habit of thinking about points you have mentioned in this blog post. But after going through your Recommendations for Blog Commenting as a Marketing Strategy,I think that all the comments should be backed by a proper strategy.
Well said Rand, i have read your post and it has helped me and showed me the way for ward for my travel website www.masaikenyasafaris.com, to grow as onlive travel company.
It's Incredible. i am also doing blog commenting whenever i read a good post and some time i get approval also.
This the secret of bblog commenting....................................
Only Comment if You Have Something Valuable to Add to the Discussion
This factor is huge! Kind of like the line you might have heard while growing up about how if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all. This is also true to blog commenting. If you cant make the post better or add any valuable info. Just forget it.
very nice Article create a new ideas
In present days majority of student are want to start there carrier as a IT professional. We all know IT carrier is the best carrier. IT industry able to give you money, promotion and a healthy life. eGramin Infotech is a IT based company which can make your dream true to become a IT professional.
Really good article!
Here's how I do it. I’m leaving on topic comments on any blog with decent traffic that’s in my niche.. It’s a simple process really, find blogs within your niche and share your thoughts on the topic. If you have something of value to share that will be in the interest of the blogs readers there is a high approval rate. Use https://wpslug.com to find blogs within your niche and do the same, simple andit works. Make sure you have something of real value to the blogs audience to share otherwise the approval rate will most likely be low.
Even Matt Cutts use this strategy so why shouldn't we ...
I am fan of MoZ and always use free tolls for analyse my business. after google Panda and penguin update i always follow MoZ blogs for latest update. Thank's for share a great idea on blog commenting..
blog commenting is a great way to bulid backlinks. this have helped me a lot rank my blog on search engines.
Keep this check-list in mind whenever you are on a mission – Blog Commenting. You can always use Google to search blogs to comment on. Here’s how to do that. Simply use some of these phrases to find the best out of the web.
I agree. It's way easier to penetrate a market by putting yourself in the open, where you make yourself known. This is a great guideline to follow, but some of them are quite hard to follow. For example, commenting "less than a blog and more than a tweet" may seem ideal, but it endorses beating around the bush, not straight talk. A thing I like about SEOmoz' Rand though is he finds a clear distinction between what White Label SEO (what I do) and black hat seo, and how, by being sleazy, it can turn unethical. Blog commenting for me is a good Whitehat technique, but unscrupulous blackhat if interspersed with lousy spam routines.
PS: Drive-by link (just like what I did, or tried to do at least) I think is a whitehat method, as long as you stay on the same category, and put it in context. Any thoughts on this?
[link removed by staff]
Hey Rand, great post!
I'm one of those people that are always looking to make their lives a bit easier..
Do you know of any service/solution out there that monitors relevant mentions of your product (or relevant features), and keeps track of all interactions, in many different channels? If so, which do you recommend?
Thanks in advance,
Arie
you have mentioned some unique points which i cant see from other blog. very useful article. thanks for publish.
Thank you for laying down some guidelines, luckily I have been following the majority already but there was still stuff for me to learn. One question I do have: with plugins in such as Commentluv, does this add anything negative to the blog that is actually hosting it. I mean, does the traffic it drives outway the outbound do follow links? I like their mantra of 'rewarding your readers', but as we have only recently launched our new site, I wouldn't like any negative impact that can be helped, especially while we see how the dust settles in terms of Google SERPs.
Great article. I’m going to bookmark this marketing strataegy [link removed] , sometimes I lose my way and think of link building like collecting marketing strategy blog and forget the importance of relevant links. Thanks.
Thanks for the great post! A quick question (if this is still being monitored). Do you think that 1-2 paragraphs is still relevant 5 years later? It just seems like A LOT, when more and more people are scimming everything.
Thank you so much. I’ve just started two blogs one is Tech Leaks [link removed] and was surprised to see all the comments on one of them. Your suggestions regarding Google-ing the text was really eye-opening. Also, I agree 100% with a prior comment about the level of English. You made it so much easier for me to mark items as spam. I don’t really use any social media so I can’t add one to this post.
I am new to comments, commenting and blogging (just started my first blog a couple of days ago), and am just starting to learn the etiquette of such. It seems a must in order to actively engage the community in which you are trying to target but also to keep on your toes for what it is you ar blogging about. I have learned a ton about this as I begin my journey into the blogosphere and engage those with similar interests to mine. Thanks for the helpful posts Rand Fishkin!
I think its also important to make sure all links posted are relevant to the blog/site/conversations. Irrelevant links might not only get caught in spam filters, but also decrease your credibility as a fellow blogger/commenter. Like many of you have already mentioned, nobody wants to read through the comments who were posted by 'that guy/girl' just trying to 'link'drop. Great post, thanks for sharing!
I think the greatest benefit of blog commenting is networking and building relationships. A lot of blogs in your industry may have little or no comment activity. If you leave a comment on these blogs, you can really stand out to the blog author and it can start a relationship that could even lead to a link later.
Hey Randy!
I've been reading your blog for awhile, as I started my own webhosting company in college and have recently been working for a Chicago based SEO and intermet marketing firm; I have your all the content on moz very interesting. I never really found a need to comment, but after reading this post I figured, why the heck not, might as well build on my network a bit. Just dropping a line, and saying thanks for the great post =).
-Jimmy
Hi Rand!
To be honest I jumped onto SEOmoz after noticing today's update to Linkscape. Then your article jumped out and caught my eye.
The Reason for this is my last blog post happens to be about using the SEOmoz toolbar as a resource for the blog commenting portion of a link building campaign.
Here's the post: https://www.synactable.com/blog/charleston-sc/blog-comment-link-building-tips/
You mentioned that you were looking forward to hearing suggestions on comment marketing, so I figured this last post I wrote is pretty much my extended answer.
Thanks for the continued stream of helpful information you guys provide!
I found it helpful to read this post and all the comments as I learnt more about how to keep blog comments less spammy and more effective. With just a few changes it is possible to make them more professional and less irritating to the person who wrote the original post.
I'm glad a post like this came up because I've been having a lot of spam lately to my blog through the comments and contact page.
What do you think would prevent something like this from constantly happening?
Anyway I would agree with some of the commenters here about being careful with any link on the comments, It has happen to me before where I left relevant links NOT promotional on other sites and they were rejected.
Just be careful and as you said it honest, it's the best policy.
This is a really good article, especially for those who are new to link building and SEO :) Thanks for sharing!
You also might want to check out this post from a blogger's perspective on how they view comments: https://www.designspongeonline.com/2011/01/biz-ladies-online-ethics-etiquette-part-1.html
Look for a comment policy before leaving a comment. That way you don't piss them off and lose any chance of getting a link back.
Yes, looking for the comment policy is a very good idea. Sign of a good blog is that they might actually have a comment policy. Thanks.
Great post Randfish! I would suggest using Gravatar.com to manage the avatar with the picture associated with the mail.
Yes, it was an excellent post, Rand. Especially the part where you talked about reading all of the comments :)
A couple of things, first: for those struggling in allowing comments on your blog- in WordPress you can go to settings---discussion and make a black list of terms that get comment automatically deleted. Do yourselves a favor and go add pills, loan, replica and viagra to that list now. You'll be amazed at the drop off in comment spam you are getting.
Second, Rand, can we get a top 10 things NOT to do in blog commenting? I feel that could be good training for some who are new to it and you could probably have fun with that. A few suggestions:
Don't leave a name like "cheap discounted replica watches online." Spam is written all over it.
Don't leave 10 comments in 10 minutes on 10 different posts of the same blog. Way too obviously spam.
Don't leave a comment that could universally apply to any blog online. Clearly automated.
I believe it is a good strategy for blogs and brands that are just starting out. If done well you will be noticed and most likely rewared with additional mentions in the blogs you're commenting on.
This is a great set of guidelines. I hope everyone has a read before leaving comments. I will try and make this a part of my routine when landing on a blog / community I haven't participated with before. Please share these guidelines!
I was a blog-commenter long before I ever got into SEO, so some of these things are second nature to me. I enjoy the conversation, and the bonus is that it can have traffic and SEO benefits. I’ll continue to comment even if it’s proven it has no SEO benefit. (I’m kind of opinionated.)
Reading five previous posts and three posts worth of comments can be a bit of a stretch (I rarely go that far), but I agree it’s worthwhile gaining insight into the blog’s culture before posting. I find reading the post in question and associated comments is sufficient.
I keep track of my comments and will go back and follow up. Bloggers should give commenters the ability to subscribe to comments. I really appreciate bloggers who do this and it’s a great way to stay engaged with readers.
I’ve often started a comment and it turns into a blog post, which is why I almost always type up my comments in Word. I don’t hesitate to edit or rewrite my comment before posting.
QUOTE: "I was a blog-commenter long before I ever got into SEO"
You were in SEO, you just didn't know it yet ;)
I would also like to point out that spelling and grammar are important. Poor spelling or grammar will takeaway from the actual discussion and turn the comments into "Hey look this guy can't spell"
I won't take it personally also because I agree with you ;)... but a little bit of understanding and spelling tolerance should be given to those that are not your same language born, as they are doing maybe a valuable comment in a language that is not theirs.
Or I'll start to point to all the misspelled italian/spanish words I see in any blog in english ;)
Disclaimer: for the redaction of this comment was used Chrome and its great spell checker.
Spelling and grammar are some of the things I struggle with when deciding whether to approve a comment or not. At what point does the spelling/ grammar/ not a native speaker truly impact the insight of the poster? When is it alright and when is it just too distracting?
Sometimes as a new blogger, it can be hard to tell when the comment is striving for a true insight or is just bad spam.
To clarify my original statement, I am not trying to discriminate against people who are not native English speakers. I simply drawing on my experience as someone who frequents social and political sites where legitimate discussion is often derailed by people who wish to point out spelling errors rather than have an actual conversation.
In fact, if you are trying to blog comment as a form of exposure, its never a good idea to make your introduction as "Joe's Marketing and SEO said: Wow, you guys are dumb learn how to spell."
Hey everyone
In regards to #8...
I frequented a popular Disney World forum for quite some time (I live an hour away and am a season passholder) and disclosed my profession as being involved with SEO and internet marketening. After a good number of useful posts I was feeling pretty comfortable.
However a topic came up about where to get unique wrapping paper that was on sale after Xmas - I represent a personalized gift wrap company that happened to be doing a relevant promotion. Instead of dropping a name/link, I replied that I was affiliated with a company and didn't want to spam, but mentioned that I could provide more info in a private message if interested.
The next time I visited the forum - I had been banned. The moderator let me know that after looking into my background information, he noticed I worked as an SEO/SEM. He proceeded to let me know that... "we find people practicing your profession aren't a good fit in our community". I had to laugh it off...just a bit of a warning though - I will remember to use your suggestion of "blogger" next time :)
I don't know if to laugh or to get depressed reading what the Mickey Mouse guys told you...
Tell me about it...So many ways I wanted to reply - but no good would have came out of it + Mickey is definitely the wrong person to piss off
While commenting is an effective methodology the issue with it is the anchor text. Unless you plan on changing your name to something relatively spammy you run the issue of having the same anchor text in most comments. I doubt most people want their company name entirely relevant to their personal name. Most moderated blogs will not approve spammy keyword names in their comments. For this reason it can be counter productive. You can in part be google bombing your own site.
Great post! I having been meaning to make more time available to engage in discussion rather than just blogging away on my own.
The most trusted resource centre in the business surely can't be making up words, "impactful" come on, I know the Americans are prone to doing that but not the SEOMoz blog. It's our business to stand up against the rage of the Spammers who are becoming so proficient these days that the only way to distinguish them from White Hats is the quality of their on-page language.
Fantastic, useful stuff. We've just been writing content for a site that will help small businesses navigate the world of social media and one of the topics was commenting. I was surprised to discover how little was out there on this aspect of social media/content marketing, so this is particularly timely.
--Heidi Strom Moon, Director of Marketing (CDG Interactive)
Love this post! I wish more people would read this, you offer some really good suggestions on best practices for blog commenting. One point I think it’s extremely important to highlight is to make sure you understand the community where you are commenting. By understanding the community, your contributions will hold more weight and actually add value to the community. When I go through the comments on our blog, I look for ones that add real value (and make sure to engage with them) and ignore the ones who are there to just tell us about their site or product.
These are great tips. Having worked at a website development firm, we are always telling our clients about SEO best practices, and encouraging them to stay involved in the blogging community by posting on other blogs, but this article really lays it out very straight-forward.
Additionally, I have just started my own personal blog for young couples on a budget and am trying to optomize it and draw in more traffic, so these simple rules ring even more true when applied to a brand new venture like this.
Thanks for all of the great advice!
Having read the "theory" part, i.e. the post, I feel like here's a great opportunity for putting it in practice. If You (and I mean everyone reading this) received a comment like this on your blog would you treat it like drive-by comment link drop? Do you feel there's enough additional value provided by the comment to get the webmaster thank you with leaving the link on it?
I would've taken it out, but then that's just my opinion.
I'm working with site that has a lot of video content (flv & mp4).Some of the files are local, but some of them are from partner's projects.Is there any link checker for such kind of stuff, for remote media files? It's not enough to check that link to the file return 200. Very often partners are removing files but instead of 404 page their site still sends 200 code and some kind of sorry page. But it kills flash player on my page of course, and as result I have page with dead content. So it's important to know that for example ******/movie.mp4 is real movie file, but not just live sites page.Thanks for any help.
Hi Rand,
This is really great post.. Thanks for your valuable ideas..
But now a days to add comment in do-follow blogs is difficult.. most of the blog's comment section has nofollow tag.. But still if you add comment in those blogs who has nofollow tag .. and your comment is worth for the reader and blog owner then it will definately helpful to us to develop the brand and awareness about us or our business..and also it helps us to generate the referral traffic to our website...
According to my opinion, comment is comment. That should be positive or negative. Yes for marketing purpose you have to follow specific practice. On any Blog post just be there as you are. Which kind of comments are require that also important. I also observed such thing… If post have more than 100 comments so many new comment poster have no interest in such a big discussion. And by end they leave duplicate comment which is available in above 100 comments. If anybody wants to be genuine Blog comment poster so, give time to that specific Blog that’s it. Leave comment what you fill regarding that post --- positive or negative….@randfish what you think about it?
Before I read this post, I rarely included links in blog posts because I didn't think that was good blogging etiquette. Also, I know there is a link to your name on many sites when you enter your information to leave a comment. Now, that I know that it is OK to include links, I'm going to do so.
This has definitely been my reservation as well. Before reading this post I always felt it was a little 'cheap' to include (and by extension promote) my blog/sites in the comments I posts on sites. Forums, I know are fair game, but I never thought to use the comments area.
In any event, this is just another one of the MANY thing's I've learned from SEOMOZ. Great stuff guys.
Quick Question: How does one determine if a forum allows indexing (I think that's the term) of their comments?
<links removed>
:) I appreciate the thought but I removed the links in your comment. :) We remove links that aren't relevant to the current post and discussion.
It's a great article. I have a recent example how blog commenting increases my website's online visibility!
There was an interesting article on Spinn last week, so I took part in the discussion. Luckily, this comment has been chosen as a comment of the week(!) and mentioned in an article on SearchEngineLand.com (https://searchengineland.com/hot-at-sphinn-13-62287) with a link to my own website! I don't have to say that that made my day (who am I kidding:)- it made my month!:)But seriously, it really increased my motivation to take part in interesting online discussions. So, have an active approach and if you really can add value to an article by leaving a comment, just do it!
"it's generally my opinion that many of these links aren't treated as... let's say "impactfully" as normal links in the search engines' ranking systems."
Actually, when i check my or competetors websites' link with openexplore or yahoo link search, those high weight website's comment or review links always rank well if PA or DA is good!
Let me get this straight. You want me to spend a ton of time thinking about writing a comment and not promote myself in the process? You want me to add value to the conversation!!!! Rediculous thoughts! Erroneous on all accounts! O.K. I can do that.
Great post on how to effectively engage in new markets with blog commenting, or as we effectionately call it in the office "smoothing the pony" (Don't ask where it came from. I couldn't tell you)
This article is informative, well-written and very interesting. I have truly enjoyed reading your own points of view and I agree with you for the most part. Now I have to think about this material.
Hi Rand,
Firstly, I liked your article, you've given some good suggestions especially about reading comments made by others and reading other posts by the author. However, I'd like to add that most often the problem which people face is on how to comment. As in what makes a comment valuable?
One often typically comments with “Great Article” or “Nice one” however, one doesn’t express what is great or how it affects us or how it’s worked for us. We’re suprisingly unsocial in the online world, where as in the real world if some one were physically talking about an idea, we’d typically share our insights or question the idea etc. basically have a conversation. Ther are psychological reasons why we don’t, but thats another discussion. Moreover, some of the commenters in this post have provided great inputs as well.
I recently ran across an interesting article where the author(Tristan) talks about how to give a great comment. He’s created a framework for the same. He talks about firstly communicating whether one liked or disliked the article, then what one liked or disliked and finally why... this framework I feel is extremely productive both for the author and the commenter.
I've created a visual which explains it. Unfortunately can’t post a picture in the comments box so here’s a link to it https://vizcraft.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/a-model-for-providing-meaningful-comments-fast/I look forward to hearing your thoughts.Regards,Sanjay Shetty
I definitely agree with the author very good point and refreshing to see.
[All I need is a link in my name and I'd be gold ;) ]
A very good and informative article indeed .
It helps me a lot to enhance my knowledge, I really like the way the writer presented his views.
wow. Awesome post. I swear Someone Upstairs is watching over me. I'm new to internet marketing (1year & change ) I have stumbled on some very good training tools to Use & Sir are definitely one of them now. You've been added to my Much Faster Traffic Life Line Generator lol thanks man. : )
I become your truly fan.Actually I am learning many thing from this community.
Fantastic Post! I like this topic.This site has lots of advantage.I found many interesting things from this site. It helps me in many ways.Thanks for posting this again. Thanks a million and please keep up the effective work Thank yo so much for sharing this kind of info
Enjoyed the article, great read - fantastic information. Thanks @Christopher.Colvano
Since Panda and Penguin I have been re-evaluating the value of various different link building techniques, including blog commenting. You hear a lot of people saying that comments are spam then you get others saying they are about "community engagement" but I think the recent updates have made people even more cautious.
Personally, I see comments as a form of community egagement, whereby you are actually contributing to a particular post. If you are actually adding something to a blog then comments are good, aren't they?
Even if they have zero value for SEO, I agree with the idea that they increase a brands identity and are a good source of direct traffic. This type of traffic is invaulable as you can post comments on very niche blogs and directly market to your potential customers.
You just have to be careful that you write something genuine and that you give the author a reason to approve and the reader a reason to click. I recently wrote a blog on the topic of comment quality, giving examples of good and bad comments. Further comments are welcome.
Comment Evaluation: The Good, The Bad and the Fugly
Great topic, thanks for this effort
Thanks for the advise, I do still use blog commenting in my SEO strategies however not as much as I used to. I always find reading the full post and leaving a contributing comment does the trick. I find the keyword luv plug-in to be really good for do follow links but as you mentioned before the link droppers try and spoil all the hard work of decent SEOrs.
Gav @ Eqtr Digital Agency in Scotland
Link removed - Jen
Mmmm... did you read well point 5? :)
its where i got the idea from lol - only kidding off course. I also read piont 8 where Randfish says "honesty is the best policy and that being open about your motivations and background will more often than not build trust and acceptance." :-)
Ah! Ok... therefore I must practice more the Scottish sense of humor ;).
Also because to sign with a link to my site was also in my first comment ever here in SEOmoz.
lol I know it was cheecky to leave a link and it may look a little spammy as its not stitched into the comment or the post however sometimes you just can't resist. I have found out the hard way though as I have 2 thumbs down already, I just hope people read our conversation and think differently when they discover my Scottish humor like you did :-)
Take care gfiorelli1 - I look forward to having more debates with you :-)
btw I removed the link. :)