Next time you read a blog and feel compelled to comment, go on with your bad self! You actually could be helping your website-of-choice’s search engine optimization (SEO) with the right blog commenting strategy.
But beware: the wrong blog commenting actions can result in your brand and website being written off as spam. Here is a guide on why blog commenting still matters, and how to do it correctly to benefit your brand.
Benefits of Blog Comments
SEO results are influenced by a variety of factors, and lots of them can get a boost from blog comments. Here are some benefits to consider.
- Increased website traffic: If you leave an interesting comment, other readers or the blog creator may click over to your site to learn more about you and your brand.
- Trust and authority: When your comments are valuable and high-quality, you enhance your reputation as an authority on whatever you’re commenting about.
- Backlinks: When you comment and link back to your website, you’re building backlinks on the sites you’re commenting on. When those sites are high-quality and are followed by influencers, that can help increase the credibility of your site.
- Relationships: If you’re an active commenter on certain blogs, the blog creator may take notice and reach out to you to learn more about who you are and what you do. This can lead to valuable marketing campaigns, like influencer marketing.
- Leads, conversions and sales: A great blog comment can turn into an interested website visitor who descends into your marketing funnel and ultimately becomes a sale – all because you left a heartfelt, high-value blog comment.
While commenting on every and any blog out there is unlikely to have a powerful effect on your search rankings, all of the above benefits could boost you up. The key is using your time wisely to leave blog comments that matter on websites that matter.
How to Use Blog Commenting for SEO
Blog commenting effectiveness requires being genuine, honest and trustworthy. Commenting on 100+ blogs a day with pithy one-sentence generic takeaways is not nearly as effective as actually reading a blog and leaving your real response to it. Here are some tips.
- Comment on blogs whose target audience matches yours. You will have captured the attention of leads who are interested in similar content.
- Prove you’re engaged. Most blog owners will have the ability to delete your comment or mark it as spam. To show that you’re actually an interested blog consumer, mention a takeaway from the blog that you enjoyed to show that you really engaged with the content.
- Only link when it’s relevant. One major spam warning flag is when a commenter leaves a comment as useless as, “This is great. Read this link to find out more.” You should only present a link when the link’s content relates to your comment and to the content of the blog you’re commenting on.
With every blog comment you leave, take off the hat of SEO crusader, and put on your content consumer hat. Your goal is to be a participant in the blog’s community and add value to both the poster and other readers. If your blog comment isn’t going to do that, think before you hit post. A poor comment or one that doesn’t provide value could decrease your brand authority.
How to Be an Active Content Consumer
If you don’t currently follow any blogs, there are loads of easy ways to get involved in meaningful discussions on topics that relate to your business.
- Use social media. Check out links your contacts on social media are sharing. If the people close to you are interested in specific content, you might be, too.
- Create a blog feed. Manually typing in blogs to catch up on news is cumbersome. Add blogs you’re interested in to a blog feed. You can use a free tool like Feedly to curate content based on topics, and then scroll through to find headlines that catch your eye.
- Subscribe. Subscribing to blogs you like does more than give you insights for your marketing automation campaigns like email. When you subscribe, you’ll receive blogs directly in your inbox. Set aside some time each week to peruse new content, then read what’s interesting and comment if you’re inspired.
Blog commenting is just one component of the intricate SEO puzzle. Leaving comments isn’t a guaranteed way to increase your search results, but the benefits can lead to partnerships and new leads and customers that increase your revenue.
Want to learn more about SEO-friendly techniques like these? Contact us for a free consultation.
