# General Business Category > Marketing Forum > [Article] Blog Commenting - Yes, No, Maybe?

## derekjay

I have a lot of people asking me about the effectiveness of blog commenting as a link building / SEO technique, so Id like to express my opinion on the topic. I personally believe in blog commenting, and have enjoyed great SE results from this technique, but, and this is a big but, it must be done correctly. Heres how:



*Contribute, Dont Spam*

If you think youre gonna get easy links by just writing a really generic message, and posting it to hundreds of blogs using something like Comment Kahuna (or anything similar), youre wrong. Most blogs will simply flag you as spam (assuming you get past the Captcha code), and the ones that do accept you will most likely by poorly maintained blogs that carry very little SEO value in any case.

If you want to get that link, you have to work for it. And its really not that hard. Simply read through the article, and draft a short, worthy response, that adds value to the blog. You can even ask a question you might have on the topic as this too adds value. Now Im not saying that youll always get a link this way (because there are some nasty moderators out there), but this strategy is a lot more likely to win you some link juice.

*Forget About NoFollow*

The nofollow conspiracy as I call it is highly overated. Dont waste your time looking purely for blogs that implement a dofollow comment policy. Rather mix it up and comment where its most appropriate. Looking for only the best, high PageRank, dofollow blogs is going to waste so much time that you could have used building links or otherwise marketing your business.

*Get A Gravatar*

This ones more an opinion than anything else, but as a moderator, I always look for comments that have Gravatars (avatars) to add to my blog posts. Not only are they more colourful and exciting, but chances are that someone whos taken the time to set up an avatar is less likely to be a spammer.

*Link To Something Useful*

Dont always just use your root domain  if the blog post is about something that you have more info about on your site, link to that page instead. This adds more value to your comment, and also diversifies your backlinks, ensuring a natural look.

*Spread It Out*

Getting backlinks from the same blogs over and over again isnt really that useful. Aim to get a few links from many different blogs, and diversify your linking domains.

*Be Consistent*

Last but not least is the one that trips us all up. Be consistent - its no use commenting a whole lot this month and forgetting about it next month. Rather commit to doing a few comments each week, and youll enjoy a much higher rate of SEO success.

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## Dave A

> *Contribute, Don’t Spam*


As a moderator myself...  :Thumbup: 

It's the first question I ask when I look at a post in moderation. On topic/relevant goes a long way.

And honesty too.

The first post goes - "I saw this on the internet, what do you think?"
I think "this is the first thing you want to tell us about and you don't have a personal interest? Yeah right!" *Delete as spam*

A guy makes a first post asking for SEO advice for a website or page that is clearly optimised and with a horde of backlinks already... *Delete as spam*

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## OnlineMarketing

Good post Derek. Blog commenting is certainly a way of targeting better PR sites ie sites with more authority in the eyes of Google, of course it is also a good medium to drive direct traffic if you are adding value AND you target blogs in your niche. Relevant ie niche related links on high PR sites are very valuable in the eyes of Google but even with good scanning tools(we have 4) finding such sites is not easy thats why overall we only use this strategy for less than 5% of our linkbuilding. Having said that if i were launching a new blog and was happy to grow my SEO slowly but with a great foundation for longevity i would probably use related niche blog commenting to drive traffic and get some decent links. IMHO though for mature sites or even young sites SEO is a link numbers game(assuming on page factors are a 6 out of 10) so blog commenting is too slow.

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## derekjay

> IMHO though for mature sites or even young sites SEO is a link numbers game(assuming on page factors are a 6 out of 10) so blog commenting is too slow.


Agreed - Blog commenting is only one link building tool of many. I'm not in any way suggesting that it be anyone's *sole* strategy  :Smile:

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## ava_camen

these are really good tips, im a newbie in blog commenting and it all makes sense. cheers to the ts!

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## Dave A

> im a newbie in blog commenting...


 :Nono:  Bullshit. I've come so close to banning you for comment spam and deleting everything you've ever posted on this board so many times, you *have* to be the ultimate expert. You can't walk that close to the line without knowing what you're doing.

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## bjsteyn

> Bullshit. I've come so close to banning you for comment spam and deleting everything you've ever posted on this board so many times, you *have* to be the ultimate expert. You can't walk that close to the line without knowing what you're doing.


I Agree Dave, Just from reading that one comment I get the impression that ava_camen is playing the dumb blond routine.

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## bjsteyn

@derekjay you seem to be quite the SEO expert here. I read a while back how somebody increased their traffic from a few visits per day to over a 1000 per day by just using social bookmarking suggestion. What i believe he did was when ever a person came from a stumble upon ( or I cant remember if it was a different sight, any ways), he suggested that they social bookmark the page on stumble upon.

This had a huge effect for his traffic. What are your thoughts on Social Bookmarking Suggestion? 

I added Social Bookmarking Buttons on my blog, but noboddy bookmarked, so i removed it and rather used it as advertising space. Maby an idee for your next helpfull post.

Cheers
BJ

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## JanvandeMerwe

I can not but think to myself - this is not new, not a brainchild that someone just had, not something that we should hail.  But there is something in me that says that we should keep writing about these things until people, and marketers especially, get the point that we add content to the web and contribute to the discussion.

As long as you are contributing something to the readers and the author of the piece then it is not spam.  

That being said, I hope this contributes, and as always...  pardon the ramble.

-Jan

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## Dave A

> Just from reading that one comment I get the impression that ava_camen is playing the dumb blond routine.


Not really - well certainly not always. At least 50% of those comments actually do display a meaningful grasp of the topic and every now and then they're genuinely wordly-wise (albeit in a very brief statement of opinion).



> As long as you are contributing something to the readers and the author of the piece then it is not spam.


That's exactly what makes dealing with Ava so tough. Today's another example - Ava has commented on 6 threads in 5 minutes. None are blatantly off-topic spam although most are very "thin."

Individually they're encouragment/refreshing the topic/possibly adding value. Viewed collectively a different agenda emerges, but is that important enough an issue to whack Ava for spam?

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## bjsteyn

> Not really - well certainly not always. At least 50% of those comments actually do display a meaningful grasp of the topic and every now and then they're genuinely wordly-wise (albeit in a very brief statement of opinion).


I did n forum search and cannot find any of ava_camen's previous comments and the search link you supplied says "Sorry - No Matches"

Some people spam very cleverly, using the dumb blond, charming or I Agree tactic.

WoW, I did not know that!! - Dumb Blond
Blog Commenting is a great SEO strategy, you are right!! - I Agree
You are just so awesome DAVE!! - Charming

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## Dave A

> the search link you supplied says "Sorry - No Matches"


 :Sorry:  I forgot searches are only cached for an hour.  :Slap:

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## JanvandeMerwe

Dave, I guess in this case if all the posts were like that, then I would axe them or deny them a signature with links.  If there are good comments amongst the spam I would have to look at the overall contribution.  But I guess we should never say that someone is contributing if there is no substance.  Naturally this effects the quality and culture of the forum in the long run.

Pardon the ramble

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## Dave A

> I would axe them or deny them a signature with links.


I hate manual; far prefer automated. I had a mod loaded that automatically dealt with the "signature link incentive" for spammy commenting techniques like Ava's, but with the December upgrade it needs some fixing to work on the vB4 platform.

It'll come back. In the meantime I guess we just need to grin and bear it.

For Ava and co., enjoy it while it lasts  :Big Grin:

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## BryanCasson

Google no longer takes blog links into consideration and the value you get from them for link building is next to none. If we were to give a score for the quality of links, it breaks down like this:

Relevant Link on page in footer of site or side bar 5/10
Irrelevant Link on page in footer of site or side bar 2/10
Relevant Link in main content of post when there are less than 5 outgoing links in the post content: 10/10
Irrelevant Link in main content of post when there are less than 5 outgoing links in the post content: 3/10
Relevant Link in main content of posts shared with 10 other links 4/10
Irrelevant Link in main content of posts shared with 10 other links 1/10
Relevant Comment Links 1/10
Irrelevant Comment Links 0/10
Relevant Links from Facebook/Twitter 6/10
Irrelevant Links from Facebook/Twitter 2/10
Relevant Reciprocal Links 3/10
Irrelevant Reciprocal Links 1/10

what is the difference in Relevant vs Irrelevant?

Site A: Vet
Site B: Dog Food Company
Site C: Car Sales Company

Link from A to B = Relevant
Link from B to A = Relevant
Link from A to C = Irrelevant
Link from C to A = Irrelevant
Link from B to C = Irrelevant
Link from C to B = Irrelevant
Link from A to B and B to A = Relevant Reciprocal
Link from A to C and C to A = Irrelevant Reciprocal

Hope this helps.

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## Dave A

Interesting post, Bryan. Any thoughts on how the relevance of *outgoing* links and their location might affect Google's quality score of the page?

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## BryanCasson

Hi Dave, remember that Google is all about relevance. Everything they do is to try and improve the quality of a users experience. What benefit to the user is there if he gets to a site about one topic, enjoys the information but needs to know a little more so see's and outgoing link and follows it to a page that is nothing to do with the topic.... this causes the user to bounce... we all know that bounces are the easiest way for Google to identify relevance.... no relevance means no brownie points for the site that referred the irrelevant page.

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## Peter Princeton

very true

as far as no-follow links go...

i have seen plenty show up in google webmaster tools as acknowledged links back...

while many others from do-follow sites did not

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