The crucial element to any effective strategy for link building is to have a consistent ongoing campaign. Much like the fable of the tortoise and the hare, slow and steady wins the race. Incorporating link building as part of an overall SEO campaign involves deciding on a pace that is realistic and sticking with it. If you are just beginning a link campaign a good starting point is to build 3 links per week, and then gradually increase your weekly number. There are always new and inventive ways of building links. One such strategy which will be discussed here is by commenting in the blogosphere.
Blog > Read other blogs in your industry > Participate on those blogs by commenting > Build a link to your blog in your comment > reap the rewards
Blog commenting is one of the best ways to market your blog if you are incubating a brand new blog or want to increase your readership and build quality links on an already established blog.
If you make interesting/intelligent/insightful comments on highly trafficked and well recognized blogs in your industry and build links to your site through your nickname or within the comment itself, you will be;
- attracting many relevant visitors
- building quality links to your blog
- promoting your brand
- building some authority in your industry
Once you leave a comment with a link on someone’s blog, they will check out your site. So there is at least one relevant visitor to your blog per comment. If the blog you’re commenting on is in your industry then there is at least one relevant link (we will discuss nofollow / dofollow a bit latter) to your site for your commenting effort.
If you make interesting comments on highly trafficked blogs in your industry, your potential for relevant traffic is infinite. You are also putting yourself in a position to generate natural links because that blogger that followed your link may be looking for topics to cover for their next blog post and just may reference your content.
Best practices for blog commenting for link building include; writing a compelling blog post and then searching on Google Blog Search for any other bloggers that may be writing about the same or similar topic. Read the entire blog post and the other comments. Make useful comments and keyword focus your username (do this intelligently, as keyword focused usernames tend to sound spammy.) Some bloggers are more strict than others when it comes to keyword focused usernames (especially do follow blogs) so read the blog’s commenting policy if they have one. If the blogger has strict rules for leaving links, follow those rules to the T even if it means not leaving a link at all. Use Cligs to track the clicks you get from your commenting effort.
Avoid using any automated blog commenting software and make sure that your comment is not mistaken for spam. Bloggers are especially acute to any form of spam and will report spam by using programs such as Akismet . This is a program that blocks certain commentators based on email and IP addresses as well as the commentator’s name. The rule of thumb is to make your comment sound relevant to the post and avoid phrases such as “I like your blog” or “great post” or “interesting insight”. The bottom line is remembering that your comment will go through a human review and concentrating on making an insightful comment that adds interest and attracts relevant visitors should alleviate any spammy looking comments. If you find that you are having a difficult time coming up with a comment that you like on a certain post than skip it and find a post that you have something of value to add.
Comment on all blogs that you find interesting and relevant to your industry, however commenting on dofollow blogs will help your SEO effort, (don’t just comment on a dofollow for the sake of a link, make sure it’s relevant and that the page your linking has real value to those following the link.) Remember that you are an evangelist for your brand and people can see right through you if your intentions are in the wrong place.
Chances are you will end up finding a few blogs that you really like, when you do, submit the best posts to your favorite bookmarking site, this will add to your profile at your social bookmarking site of choice which will increase your authority at such sites. By commenting on these blogs and submitting posts to bookmarking sites you will end up building a relationship with that blogger. They will start to read your blog, submit your posts to bookmarking sites and eventually you will develop some quality banter which can lead to industry contacts. Link building is about cultivating relationships and this is one of the best strategies to develop those relationships and give back to the community.
Image Credits: Comment box by: Seigel Display Products
Related SEO Blog Post
Tags: Blogs, Link Building, Link Development
lol, Wilson normally I would delete your comment as being spam. But in this case ironically, it serves as a great example of how NOT to use blog commenting as a link building tool.
Dropping off a generic comment that has no value to the discussion and then an obvious link is a typical spam technique and is a great example of how idiots abuse blog comments to try to create links.
Wouldn't it have been a better use of your time to take 5 minutes to read the article, contribute your opinion to the discussion, and then receive a link that was actually an indication that you had something valuable to say?
But instead, you have severely affected you ability to build any kind of credible relationship with the authors of this blog, and furthermore, anyone seeing your link, now knows that it points to a company or person who advocates spamming.
So thanks "Wilson" or George or whatever your name is, for this perfect illustration of what not to do when leaving a blog comment. Take care.
I really like your idea about submitting their best posts to your bookmarking site.
That is ingenius because it doubles your productivity of doing the link building by also building your profile.
Hi Fred and thanks for commenting. It's really a win win situation. Your helping your profile and your community as a whole by advocating high quality material. Additionally, your recognizing a fellow blogger who created useful information. and this in turn can foster the types of relationships that lead to links and other opportunties. and all it costs you is a little time. Give a little and its suprising how much you get in return. Have a great day.
Hi Catfish
It would been great if you illustrated more on DOFOLLOW/NOFOLLOW thing. I am not sure but I am of the opinion that except Google few other SEs like Yahoo/Live do not take this aspect into consideration while determining site position.
My point is – even nofollow links are counted by them
Is it true?
Besides, although I disabled comment option on couple of my blogs (WP blogs like educationguideonline dot net) – how come automated programs still keep submitting their comments? How do they do it?
Also as Fred said – I make it a point to submit my informative articles to bookmarking sites. It harms nothing to try to get a new source of extra taffic – isn't?
Cheers
Attracting RELEVANT visitors is the key to true, effective and professional SEO practices.
Nice blog.Thanks.
The problem I have with Askimet is bloggers can easily put you on the spam list even though you are participating in the conversation. I have a friend who likes to comment on blogs and participate. Even though he uses his actual name in the box they mark him as spam since his site is massage chairs. He is a chiropractor and he works hard not to spam.
great strategies for link building, thanks…
Good and helpful Idea!
Very interesting article — very helpful! Thank you for sharing.
-Aaron
I think the comments left for this article do a perfect example of highlighting why this is not quality SEO. Techniques like this give the entire SEO industry a bad name. Although it may (under current algorithms) increase page rank, it is NOT organic and the actual in-bound links are crap. Currently SEs see in-bound links as relevant. Techniques like these will cause them to soon be irrelevant. This is CRAP not SEO.
I appreciate your work its interesting..
[...] mentioned in our previous blog post about blog comment strategy, participating in online community that is relevant to your business and industry is a key way to [...]