One of the biggest components in SEO is blogging and we know that the internet loves fresh content daily. What’s even more interesting is that blog comments can also contribute to these contents and help build your affiliate business.
So, how do you do blog comments for SEO? Let’s find out more below.
First, What Are Comments?
People still get confused, but comments are not the same as feedback. Feedback is something related to the structure, designs, and layout of a website. A comment, on the other hand, is related to the content of the article.
With feedback, you can just skim through the site and offer a general impression, but with comments, you need to read the entire article and offer your opinion on the subject matter.
Even so, some ‘opinions’ can be rather plain like “Thank you for sharing this post.” While I do appreciate the fact that my articles are informative, as a blogger, I am more interested in the value of engagement.
So imagine how ecstatic I was when I came across this comment in my recent article about using PayPal for businesses ;
Peter, the blogger, offered not only his experience but also exhibits relevant knowledge of the subject matter. The comment is brilliant, in my opinion, and I am sure it will serve the knowledge of other readers as well.
Why do You Need to Have A Commenting Area?
Let’s put SEO aside and think for a minute why comments are important for your blog, from a business perspective. Potential customers come to your blog for information, hence when they get to read a lot of discussions, they can educate themselves about the topic.
If they have any concerns, they can leave a comment question on your site and you can point them to the right resources such a particular ‘How To-’ articles or a product review. Again, you are empowering the knowledge of your readers by offering them solutions to their problems.
But, what if they ask you something that you don’t know of? Well, I say that’s an opportunity for a new content idea. And what if they leave negative criticism on your blog? Then find a way to build some positive comments from it.
Now, from the SEO perspective, it works both ways.
When people leave useful comments on your site, it adds content to your preexisting article. So say, you have produced a 1000 word article; if you keep getting good comments, those will add to the quality of the content, boost the page ranking, and potentially get more social shares.
Meanwhile, when you point your readers to a resourceful page within your blog, you are creating more internal links that can boost the rankings of other pages too.
Now, when it’s your turn to leave useful comments on other people’s sites, you are building a good relationship with other bloggers. Engaging in a healthy discussion adds values to content and most bloggers generally appreciate that.
If you do this consistently, you’ll be seen as an expert in your niche and it makes people more receptive when you try to provide a backlink to your site, whether it is through your comments or guest blogging.
But isn’t that spamming? Well, not quite actually. Here’s Matt Cutts take on the subject.
How to Do Blog Comments for SEO?
When you are first starting as an affiliate marketer, it can be quite challenging to get comments for your blog, especially good ones. There are several platforms you can try, but most of the time, unless you are a super blogger, it’s really hard to get people’s attention.
However, SiteComments is different. Ever since I started using it in 2014, I have managed to get my blog posts viewed and shared many times. It has also provided me with prompt and good quality comments (such as Peter’s) right after I publish my articles.
When using SiteComments, you must offer quality comments to other people’s blogs first before requesting for your own. Since the platform is built for niche bloggers, there are a variety of topics that you can choose to participate in. Here are just some of my interests;
And here is the list of blogs that I’ve given comments to recently;
When it’s my turn to request for comments, I simply have to choose an article and list it in SiteComments. Within hours, I know I’ll always hear from someone on my blog.
Extra Tips!
- It’s okay to ‘not approve’ bad comments. If you feel it does not add any value, Google probably thinks the same too. In my recent attempt to improve on my website traffic, I deleted a lot of poor quality comments and the result was quite encouraging.
- Set your comments to the latest one first so that the readers will always get to read a fresh discussion.
- Always comment with a Gravatar so that people can become familiar with you as a person.
Engaging Comments = Good Quality Content = Good SEO
As you can see, the equation is quite simple. Offering and receiving comments for SEO is nothing more than creating an engaging discussion with your readers. The more everyone gets involved, the better the quality of your content becomes.
The other good thing about commenting is that it makes you a better thinker, a more proficient writer, and a more successful business owner too. So there’s a lot to gain and nothing to lose when it comes to blog commenting.
Are you interested to join a community that can help grow your affiliate business? Then check out my number #1 training site here.
Do you have any thoughts or questions about this topic? Please leave them in the comment area below and I’ll get back to you.
Very interesting read. I think a lot of people within affiliate marketing niche blogging have figured out the importance of commenting by now, but I’ve never made the click of how comments actually make you a better thinker, writer and business owner.
I was told that commenting on websites are important, but this post truly taught me the true meaning of leaving comments and how it differs from giving feedback on a certain website. Now I know where my errors are and how to overcome it. Thank you so much for this valuable post.
Hey Jose, we all make mistakes when starting out as a blogger. Don’t worry about it. I am glad you found some values in this article.
Very informative article. I used to comment on blogs a long time ago. But I stopped doing it because I thought it was against Google’s rules. However, after reading this article and watching the video with Matt Cutts, I have a change of heart. I think I need to start back commenting on blogs again to help my online business move forward.
Blog commenting is not something that is against ‘Google’s rules’. Most blogging platform like WordPress has a commenting system and they exist for a reason – to get engagement going for your online presence. In fact, the more feedback you get from the readers, the more an article would rank for other relevant keywords.
For me, the comment is one of the ultimate ways to keep the content fresh and improve. Also, the active thread in the comment section also indicates to Google that the content is worth talking about. Most of the newbie online marketers are still confused with the importance of comment and as the result, they leave an old page to become haunted. For me, a comment is one of the best way to improve the existing page/post and it is also the best weapon in the PR competition.
Very well said Roudell. In fact, comment sections also get indexed by the search engines, which means the article which you targeted for one particular keyphrase can be ranked for other relevant keyphrases as well. I’ve personally seen this on my blog posts. This will improve your overall search visibility and traffic to your site.
How Ironic. Today I was mulling over just this issue of getting comments on my web pages. I steered away from the Site Comments tool, because I felt that some of the content/topics posted did not encourage a meaningful response or I was not knowledgeable enough on the topics to contribute constructively and that demotivated me a bit.
I understand your frustration with using SiteComments. But when you stick to the system long enough, you’ll find that it offers more advantages. Of course, there will always be poor quality comments, whether they are coming from the member’s area or from the general public. It’s how you tackle these situations that will change the way people engage on your website.
Excellent article. I think a lot of web editors or bloggers underestimate the need for comments and engagement of their page. Before I started doing this I didn’t realise the power of the comment section, like you say it attracts search engines and helps to rank your site higher. Thanks for explaining this so clearly here and bringing attention to this important part of SEO.
Kathy,
I owe a lot of my site engagement to SiteComments on Wealthy Affiliate. And the best part about it that I learned to articulate my thoughts much better since I started as well as learn from other folks in the business. A great give-and-take model 🙂
Most of the time Cathy, I scroll to the comments section more anxiously than I scroll the article itself, especially for a controversial topics, which by the way is a good writing technique. Although I am trying to find if SiteComments is a service, just cant find a site for it, and your link just points to creating a WordPress website.
Thanks for taking the time to check out SiteComments, Kyle.
In case you didn’t read the entire article, the commenting feature is part of SiteRubix’s hosting service. When you build a WordPress website on this platform, you’ll also benefit from comment exchange with the community at Wealthy Affiliate. It’s a great way to add good quality content to your webpage and boost your rankings. If you’d like to know how it works, just sign up for a free trial. No credit cards required.
Let me know if you need anything else.
Hi Cathy,
If there is one thing that I have realized about SEO then it is that engagement is very important. Google does not really know what articles are of good quality so they need the readers to tell them.
Anything such as real natural backlinks, social shares and comments are indicators that your article is of good quality which will then lead to better rankings.
You have a good point there Viljoen,
That’s why they always say that you should learn to write good quality content for the readers and not for the search engines. You can clearly see these behaviors on your Google stats and it will reflect how much you really understand your niche.
Hello Cathy,
Nothing like a challenge first thing in the morning. I feel that I really have to be on my toes to give good comments on an article about writing good comments. Hopefully, I am up to the task.
One thing struck me when you were explaining about the difference between site comments and site feedback. When you said for site feedback you can just skim and offer general impressions, I think that, if I may be so bold to say, misses the point. You have captured the difference between the two but when someone requests site feedback it is just as important to dig into the site and offer real, constructive suggestions when giving feedback, as it is to do a good job with comments. When I ask for feedback the last thing I want is a bunch of “I love your site!”, “I really like the layout”, “I think this site is just great” as feedback. I want things like “I found it hard to find articles, maybe add categories to make it easier” or “I think some diagrams would help you explain things on page…” or “I think there are too many unrelated ads on your page titled…..”. Feedback that can help me make my site better. What do you think?
As far as site comments go, I think you are right on track. If you are leaving a comment to say you like my site, then add a paragraph and specifically say why you liked it. Like you said, tie it in to a personal response of some kind. Like “Oh, this article reminds me of….”
Read the article like a person who is interested in the topic. Yesterday I read a post which was a product review of a refrigerator. I asked some questions in my comment that I would want to know if I was in the market for a new refrigerator. Do you try to do this as well?
I guess my thoughts are very similar to yours as far as site comments go. The comments need to be relevant to the article you are commenting on.
I really liked how you used screenshots to help illustrate what you were saying. Pictures are often worth a thousand words. Good article!
Hey there Xin,
I see that you have been using SiteComment for a while and I hope it’s adding values to your blog each day. The quality of comments are way better than the old style where we post our article links on discussion threads within the Wealthy Affiliate forum. In the old days, I probably get 2/10 comments that were valid; now I get 9/10 most the time.
I actually enjoy reading other people’s blog and it’s eye-opening to learn that there are so many niches out there to be profited from. It really goes to show how vast online marketing can expand. Every time I leave a comment, I learned something new and I find that this repetitive process is good for training my mind as a blogger as well as an affiliate marketer.
Hi Cathy,
Thank you for your tips on How To Do Blog Comments for SEO Affiliate Marketing tips. I started my website about a month ago in September and was wondering what would help people interact with its content more. The tips you provided has helped me to understand and receive such great insight.
I used to use this form of backlinking ( blog commenting ) about a year back but I heard on the grapevine that it may be a bit dangerous – what have you heard about this? Someone said that Google now looks down on blog comments and most are nofollow anyway. Do you feel this is danger to your site if overused?
Hi Chris,
I have not tried to leave any links in my comments before so I don’t really know. I would probably do so down the road if I develop a good relationship with the blogger, but otherwise I wouldn’t be too worry about it. I think back linking from social sharing is good and natural enough for now.
Hi Cathy,
Firstly I still want to say thank you for the this how-to-give-good-comment, because I believe a thank you is an expression of gratitude from the reader 🙂 I am actually still a newbie in blogging world, and a bit surprised when found out that comments can affect the SEO too.
I want to ask, if all comments in your blog are simply expressing thank you only in a mere paragraph, will that hurt your SEO? I mean, sometimes I can see people are only want to say thank you for my post without giving any deep concern, question, or maybe sharing his/her expression.
What do you think?
Hi there Alblue,
There’s nothing wrong with saying “Thank you” to the blogger. In fact, it encourages me to write better post each time.
However, as a blog owner who is also concerned of new readers visiting my site, I want to make sure that my posts are not flooded with too much of these expressions as they don’t really really create a lot of engagement. I think readers in general are more interested in the value of a positive discussion based on the topic content rather than a paragraph of positive words.
Hello Cathy, very informative post!
I really enjoyed your article. When I think about it, I have been on many websites that have been extremely helpful but never bothered to leave a comment. I can’t really tell you why but now that I see the importance of comments I will make a point of leaving one from now on.
I really think another way to get comments is to present yourself as a real person. Let your readers know who you are so they feel more comfortable with engaging in a conversation with you and fellow visitors.
Hi Melody,
When I was a newbie in niche blogging, I didn’t start leaving comments immediately either. It was only after publishing 10 posts or so that I started to understand the importance of readers engagement and thus, leaving comment seems like a natural thing to do.
I would encourage you to join SiteComments more often because you’ll see a variety of comments being presented here. Not all of them are perfect but I appreciate the fact that most people become better at it after a while.
Cathy,
A good reference to building traffic. Blog comments do add to your blog length and will get you some search results for words or phrases that are not in the original blog. I have seen where the search results are only for keywords located in the comment section of the blog.
This is why it is important to have comments that are relevant to the original blog. Linking your other blogs to answer questions in the comment section is also another way to add to your SEO power.
By using the system at Wealthy Affiliate, you can add to your comments with a little input to others blogs. I do find that about 5 % of the comments are not related to the blogs and I do not approve them.
Hi there John,
New users on SiteComments usually need some time to brush on their commenting skill which contributes to the 5 % that you are referring too. To me, it’s not a big problem because there are always other members who will offer better ones.
You are right – internal linking can provide a lot of SEO and if you are constantly getting a good stream of comments, that particular blog post can rank for a variety of keywords that you would never thought of.
Hi Cathy!
I read your article and actually I found nothing unknown, but I liked the comment’s value explanation. Simple and understandable. In most cases, we write comments to get some value. In the past, I really did it just to get a back link, especially in high PR forums. It worked for some time, but sooner or later, these kind of back links disappeared.
I’ve also written comments in the forums that interest me and that are related to my job or hobbies. In those cases, when it is linked to a relevant content site, the link still works even today. Truly, the value of a good, appropriate comment cannot be underestimated.
Hi there Andre,
I prefer the latter method of leaving comments on sites related to your work or interest. For me, that seems more natural than deliberately writing comments just to get a back link. Besides that, social sharing your articles is also a natural way of building in bound links that can have a positive impact on the SEO.
Hi Cathy,
It wasn’t that long ago that I discovered how important comments can be for your blog, like you say it adds to the overall length of any post as well as showing the search engines that people are interacting with your content.
Once I knew how important comments can be, I started to use the ‘Site Comments’ that you mention, which I have had great success with, a really smart idea.
I have to confess that whilst reading this post, I did not watch the video, but I am going to put that right and watch it now because it looks interesting, and its by Matt from the big G.
Thanks for a very interesting post Cathy.
Hi there Robert,
Length is great, but quality is even more important. That’s why when using SiteComments, one must click on the page to read it first before leaving any comments with a minimum of 50 words count.
The other good thing is that once you submit your blog post to SiteComments, comments will trickle in over the weeks and months, even surpassing the number of comments that you requested – granted you are actively offering comments to other people as well.
This process indirectly keeps your content ‘fresh’ at all time and that’s a signal for Google to keep ranking your website too.
Great post on how to do blog comments for SEO, Cathy!
Too often people will just leave a short comment like “great post” or “good job”, and while I still appreciate them, they don’t really do a lot as far as Google rankings and SEO are concerned. The great thing about learning how to build an online business with Wealthy Affiliate is that they teach all aspects of building a successful long-term affiliate marketing online business, including how to leave a great comment for SEO.
This new tool “SiteComments” sounds like an awesome platform to give and receive awesome comments that add real value to our websites and readers. I will investigate this platform right away!
Great to hear from you again, John.
SiteComments really teach me what it means by adding relevant comment on someone’s site. Ever since I started using it, I could see from my Google Analytics that the reader’s behavior on my site is gradually improving, especially on pages that have a lot of comment engagement. I would encourage you to check it out and see how you can leverage it to boost your rankings too.
Hi Cathy,
Very interesting read. I think a lot of people within niche blogging have figured out the importance of commenting by now, but I’ve never made the click of how comments actually make you a better thinker, writer and business owner. Unconsciously, I guess receiving great comments on my site (like your example shown above), have always given me more material to write and topics to think about.
I wonder tho, in what way were the results of removing bad comments encouraging? For example, You get a long comment which actually was feedback to your site. But, the feedback given is quality feedback to some of your other posts, layout of your page etc…
I would most probably disapprove it as it is irrelevant to the post and it would confuse my readers, but would allowing that comment really have any negative effect on the SEO-side of things? Can Google distinguish quality comments from quality feedback? Cheers!
Hi there Maarten,
I am not an SEO expert, but here is what I think. If I am reading comments that are irrelevant to the topic of the article, I would probably not stay on that page for long thus leading to a higher bounce rate. And we know that bounce rate is an SEO signal when it comes to Google Ranking, right? When more people leave your site at a higher rate, Google is going to recognize this search behavior and that’s going to backfire on your SEO ranking too, no matter how good you think the comment is.
Maybe publishing one of two feedback won’t do much harm, but if you are going to allow that for every single post and they sit right at the top of the commenting area where it’s visible to read, I think it could affect your bounce rate at some point.
Hi Cathy,
I am new to blogging. I did find this post very informative. Now I understand why in WA we have all the discussions and sharing comments. The video from Matt Cutts should be watched by every one. I do not understand why as a blogger any one would want to use anything but their real name. I personally look at this as branding. Why would I want to talk to some one that would not introduce them selves?
Peter’s comment about PayPal is right on. Exception – since PayPal is not a part of eBay, they have changed their policies. They now hold your money for a period of time. Not sure why your account is verified but that is what they do. Might be a new post for you.
Welcome to my blog James,
The only time you would find people not using their real names is when they don’t register a Gravatar or they are simply spamming comments just to get some backlinks. Either way, you probably can’t expect much good comments coming from these two sources. To get real people to comment on your blog posts, you need to communicate with a group bloggers or at least with people who read blogs frequently like those in SiteComments. They tend to be more transparent with their identity.
Thanks for the information about PayPal. I shall look into it.
Hi Cathy,
Great article on leaving effective and meaningful comments on other blogger’s websites. Thank you for writing this informative article about commenting on other’s websites. I have used SiteComments before on Wealthy Affiliate. There are many training resources on WA on how to leave appropriate and cordial comments. I think it is always good to start your comment with a thank you about how much your enjoyed reading the article.
You are right and there is a difference between feedback and comments. For feedback, I usually follow the sandwich philosophy – say something that you liked about the article, state what needs improvement and than follow up with another thing you liked about it, hence the sandwich with the two pieces of “bread” being the nice things and the improvement being the “meat” of the feedback.
I enjoyed this article and thank you for bringing my attention to the usefulness of SiteComments.
Hi there Steph,
Comment is a great element of a blog post that is very underutilized especially by new websites. However, it can be quite challenging to leave comments when you are new to blogging because readers might just be skimming through an article or feel that their opinions don’t really matter when they actually do. So there’s a need to get both readers and bloggers to ‘speak’ their mind on the same platform and SiteComments have been quite good at doing that.
When people are more aware of comment being part of an article, they will gradually develop the same mindset as the author and learn to leave good quality comments as they see appropriate.
Hi Cathy.
I like the fact that you differentiate real comments than feedback about your site because;
1) One will add value to your actual content as it will add other aspect or opinions that you may have not seen personally as a blogger and even help you write better content in the future.
2) While the other will not add anything to it when other visitors will come and read it.
It becomes an experience sharing things like you said, rather than just compliments about something we’ve done. I like also the fact that you put a video of Matt Cutts here talking about comments on a blog. I tend to see more and more of him lately. Is he a guy from Google?
Because if he is, it’s good to learn from a guy like that what Google like or don’t like and adjust to it. Because otherwise we run the risk of not having a business for very long with them if we don’t.
I used to see Google as that big egotistic monster that was playing God. But more and more I see that they are there to serve better the people because they themselves would not have a business for very long either if they don’t focus on that.
Serving the people better seem to be their business. And that’s what I try to do too.
Thanks for this article Cathy and the opportunity you give me to express my view on it,
Hi there Guy,
Yup that guy is Matt – head of Google’s Webspam team. He offers a lot of useful tips on how to make your website more searchable and user-friendly and you can watch more of him on YouTube.
Google, being one of the largest search engine on the internet, has a huge role to play and as such, I think they need to be strict with website rules and regulations to keep the online world safe and pleasant for everyone. With the world pushing to make internet accessible to everyone by year 2020, it’s even more crucial that Google ramp up their criteria for good website ranking so that more business opportunities and talents can be discovered to add value to the global community.
Interactive and engaging comments have always been the main teaching at Wealthy Affiliate so any sites that are lacked of good quality comments should really check out their training.
Making comment as a content is really difficult for me to do. It is because I don’t have experience and I’m worry about my grammar. Thank you for this helpful tips. It helps a lot to develop my understanding in making blogs and content comment for the future.
Hi there Renelyn,
Language shouldn’t hinder you from commenting on other people’s blog. You might make mistakes a few times, but you’ll get better as you go along. Here’s a free tool to help you out. Download Ginger and use it to proofread your comments/articles before you publish them. I use it all the time and I am still learning from my grammar mistakes.
If you need any help, just send me a PM at WA.