Link Building: Addressing Comment Spam
Today, I want to talk about blog commenting, which is a method of link building used by search engine optimization experts. First of all, we know that there are ‘do follow’ and ‘no follow’ type of links. Most blogs have no follow links in the comments section. And, if a blog that has a do follow link type in the comments section, then most probably it is just a spam blog – which is not always the case though. So, when you are looking to build links on blogs, the first thing that you look for is the type of links the blog comments has, and then you just go on posting a few lines appreciating the content somewhat like this: “Good article. Thanks for sharing.” or “Amazing post. I really liked it.”, and related. You get the point. This is totally WRONG!
Now that I have your attention, I wanted to address this issue with amateur link builders or people who are new to SEO link building (i.e., blog commenting). You should not focus on “no follow” and childish comments just for the sake of link building. We know what penguin and panda updates have done and all you are doing is poisoning your website! Instead, this is what should be your motive:
- Link building via blog commenting should be done to build relationships (with other commenting people and even the blog owner/writer whom you can also address in the comments)
- Even if the comments are no follow, this does not mean they are worthless! They do have some value. Just some advice, targeted no follow comments are sometimes better than do follow irrelevant comments.
- Ask yourself this question: Will the people that are reading the blog visit my website? Or the other way around, will my target audience visit that blog?
- Always check the domain and page authority of the blog that you are commenting on via OpenSiteExplorer.org.
- Another thing to note when commenting: Do check if the blog is often updated or not?
- Then again, even if the blog has a low rank or a low authority, but has relevant content to that of yours, then go for the comment.
- When commenting, ALWAYS (and I’m stressing this point) try to contribute to the post by sharing or adding your feedback. In return, this will reward you (perhaps you will be able to build relationships with the blog owner — hint: guest blogging opportunities?)
After the updates, most blog owners have installed third-party commenting API’s which have auto spam filters enabled. That’s the way to go! Stop spam!