Commenting on other peoples' blogs

[Spider]

Somewhere in these forum I saw mention of commenting on other peoples' blogs as a means of getting backlinks to one's own site, but I can't find it now. The thought was that the backlinks resulting from such comments would improve a site's ranking in the search engines.

1. I have found that many blogs do not invite comments.
2. Some that invite comments do not allow input of one's URL.
3. The post I was looking for suggested - if I remember correctly - that many blogs that invite comments and allow input of a URL, disable their "linkability" with "nofollow" tags.

My question is: How can I determine if a blog that invites comments stops SE spiders from following the link?


Do you prevent SE spiders from following the links provided in your blog's comments? And why?

[Business Attorney]

If you are using Firefox, highlight a link in a comment (or any text for that matter) and right click on your mouse. You'll see "View Selection Source". Take a look at the html code and if the you see rel="nofollow" then the blog is instructing the search engine not to follow the link. You can also check the page source in Internet Explorer.

From what I gather, all search engines do follow the link, so the name "no follow" is a bit of a misnomer. The effect of the code (when it is honored by a search engine) is that the link is not given any weight as a backlink in the search engine's ranking algorithm. Google says that they do not give weight to nofollow links; it is not as clear with the other search engines. I have seen some people write that at least some other search engines appear to disregard the nofollow directive.

Even though a "nofollow" link may not have any weight, in my own case I have found that the text in the nofollow link does appear to help me get search engine results for that phrase. Whether that holds up across the board, I don't know.

[vangogh]

I'll basically echo what David said. The official word from Google is any link with rel="nofollow" added won't pass any PageRank to the page being linked to. I have seen examples though of pages ranking well for phrases that are really only present in nofollow links.

Frederick there are several plugins for Firefox that will highlight nofollow links on the page you're viewing. SEO for Firefox (http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/seo-for-firefox.html) is one of my favorites. It does a lot more too and is worth installing.

Most blogging software automatically adds the nofollow to the link on your name in the comments. The original purpose of nofollow was to prevent blog comment spam, but it was never effective. Some bloggers remove the nofollow attribute usually in the hopes of getting more people to comment. Many display a dofollow badge on their blog somewhere and there are lists around of blogs that are dofollow.

Beyond the actual link on your name in a comment the real benefit is consistent commenting on a blog in order to build a relationship with the blogger. If you write informative or entertaining comments the blogger will likely notice. If you continue to add something to the discussion started by the post over time the blogger will definitely notice and most will start paying attention to your blog and linking to it.

Regardless of how a search engine spider sees a link, real people still click on them. If you write an interesting comment people want to know more about you.

That's where the real benefit of commenting on blogs is. It's getting to know the blogger and the community around a blog. The people in that community will eventually notice you and some will go on to subscribe to your blog assuming it's on topic and a good blog of course.

I did leave the comment links on my blog as nofollow. It's the default and I never changed it, though I have thought about it. I didn't want people commenting though just for the link so I left it nofollow. I generally delete any comment when I think the comment only exists for the link.

[Spider]

Thanks for your comments.

I wasn't planning to blog-comment just for the linkback but there are only so many hours in a day and I would not be a ble to comment regularly (which was my plan) on many blogs, so I thought I would only spend time on blogs from which I could get something back for my efforts.

I can certainly see the advantage in becoming a regular commenter, for the blogger and for myself.

[vangogh]

I hear you. It gets very time consuming to comment all the time. What I've done in the past is to pick 2 or 3 blogs that I read regularly and while reading I'd leave comments on some of the posts. After awhile I did notice an increase in traffic from those blogs.

The key is really choosing the right blogs. You could pick one blog to comment on for a month and see what happens. Are you getting traffic from that blog? Are you making a connection with the blogger or some of the other people commenting? If it seems to be working continue and maybe find a second blog to comment on. If it's not working move on to another blog and see if it works there.

It can definitely be time consuming though.

[Harold Mansfield]

When I comment on other blogs, it is rarely for any kind of PR juice, but to get traffic from the blog.

News sites, such as local and national newspapers are a good place to comment depending on your niche. They won't pass any juice, but if you register (most require it) with your blog name, instead of your personal name, it helps.

Don't be scared of big sites like MTV, VH1, CNN, or those in your niche that have big traffic, especially if you can add to the article, or in the case of opinion or editorial type sites...prove them wrong or stupid....especially if everyone else is disagreeing with the author.

Read the previous comments, sometimes someone will give you an opportunity to help, or answer a question that the author didn't cover, which will get you a few looks to you own site.

There are a few utilities like Comment Kahuna, that will help you find blogs that are "Do Follow", and lists the page rank of each. It's about 75% accurate.

If you have a few sites with traffic that you want to "target" regularly, try and get a feel for when the author updates, so that you can be the first few to comment. (First 5 is preferable) to insure some reads and looks to your own site, or at least get your brand across with your signature.

If you comment regularly you will find your self actually searching for blogs to read that entertain or inform you and become not just a commenter but a reader. Otherwise, just commenting for the "juice" gets old real fast, and if you aren't really reading the articles, your comments will not be very relevant and will do you no good.
Just my 2 cents.

[vangogh]

I agree with everything you said. I think the big mistake people make is looking at blog comments solely in terms of increasing link juice into their site. It's better to see it as a way to get direct traffic or a way to build relationships with the blogger and the community around the blog.

That's not to say you can't get link juice benefits from blog commenting, but I think most people will see greater success with the idea of increasing direct traffic or relationship building.

[KristineS]

I've used commenting to increase traffic and it's worked quite well. If people see you comment fairly regularly and if your comments are substantive, at least a few of them will click on your profile and stop by to view your blog.

It is also great for relationship building as Vangogh pointed out. I've met a lot of fellow bloggers simply by commenting on their blogs.