Blogs help you keep up to date on current professional issues, get inspired and motivated, and interact with fellow bloggers and webmasters.
The interaction is done by leaving a comment where views and ideas are shared. And yes, you get to leave a link back to your site with that comment, which helps drive traffic back to that site.
Varying Your Comment Links
Now, considering commenting is a form of interaction, it makes sense to link back to your blog, right?
However, if you own or manage more than one site, why not vary your comment links? You can send traffic back to other sites of yours, or even, as suggested by Kristi Hines in this post, to articles you have published on other sites.
There are advantages to link variety when commenting on other people’s blog posts. For one thing, you’re sending traffic and linkjuice to sites that may need it more than your main blog. Also, by sending people to your Hub Pages, Squidoo lenses or syndicated articles, you are building pagerank and authority of pages that have backlinks to your blog or blog.
Of course, you would be presenting visitors with a site that is not as personal as your blog. You also risk coming across as being spammy in the eyes of fellow bloggers, to the point of having your comments trashed.
The advantages here are significant, but you need to do it right -
- Make sure your first few comments on a blog link back to your main blog.
- Set up your Gravatar picture and make sure you use the same email when commenting so that your “identity” remains whole.
- Establish a relationship with other bloggers and make a name for yourself before you start linking to your other sites.
- Never use affiliate links in post comments. Link back to your own pages and articles.
So, what about you? Do you always link back to your main blog, or have you tried varying the links in your blog comments?
Twitter: Alexwhalley23
says:
Hi Anne,
just came over to continue the conversation and Im glad I did! This is a fantastic post that touches on a very important aspect of blog commenting, that being backlinks. I have never thought to link to my other sites but something I do is take advantage of CommentLuv.
If I have just posted an article and I want it ranked I will go and comment massively so the article gets heaps of keyword rich backlinks, works well. Thanks for a great post Anne!
Alex
.-= Alex´s last blog post ..The Internet Marketing Jigsaw Puzzle. Why do I have too many edge pieces?? =-.
Glad you dropped by, Alex! Are you talking about promotional articles, like in ezinearticles? In that case, why link to your ezine RSS feed rather than directly to the sites you’re trying to promote with it?
Twitter: websiteweekend
says:
Yeah, it’s a good way to cross promote between various blogs.
For a while I was promoting There Is No Box (tinobox.com) this way from Website In A Weekend, and vice versa.
Even wrote up a Practical WordPress Tip last summer on the very topic.
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog post ..Blogging Hamster Wheel… tired of it? Then get off it =-.
Twitter: mattchedit
says:
Good tips. I tend to vary links from time-to-time (often depending to some extent on what I would like fellow readers of said blog to click through to).
In general (because I’m typically using my name and not keyword spamtastic entries like we’ve all seen from time to time), I tend to link either to our Blog, Homepage or occasionally “About Us” page – at least I did that for a bit when we wanted to nudge it up the ranks slightly!
.-= Matt Chatterley´s last blog post ..Starting an online shop – Part 6 – The Shopping Cart =-.
Thanks for useful topic. It’s really useful for me. I have known that by that way. Rank of my site increase more than.
.-= gamememe´s last blog post ..Tanks Game =-.
If I notice that one article [that I wrote recently] is getting more comments than other articles are, I usually will link to it when I comment on blogs that day. That way, I get more traffic directed to it, increasing the odds of getting more comments. If most people like it, why won’t newer people like it, too?
Great post!
I totally agree that you need to choose the right post to link to according to the kind of audience that may be reading the comment. And as always, when it makes “people sense” it makes “SEO sense” too
Pingback: Links Of The Week: Part 1 | WebMaster-Success.com
Twitter: kikolani
says:
Thanks for including my post in your example. I think it’s essential to vary your CommentLuv post selection when you’re commenting – I try to think about what readers on the post I’m commenting on are most interested in, and leave a link that they would most want to click on. That is really the best way to do it if you want traffic and new readers to come to your site.
.-= Kristi´s last blog post ..Strengthen Your Article Marketing With CommentLuv Links =-.
Glad to see you here, Kristi! I agree – and as I mentioned in my previous comment here, it also makes for good SEO.
Twitter: familymusings
says:
It never occurred to me to link to anything other than my main page. Of course though, most of the comments I leave are on “mom blogs,” the vast majority of which are NOT do follow. I am working on improving the Do Follow image for Mom Bloggers and have started my own <a href=
http://www.familymusings.com/2010/06/do-follow-mommy-blogs.html" Mom Bloggers Do Follow list. It is kind of small for now though.
.-= Jennifer @ Family Musings´s last blog post ..Mother vs Wife =-.
I couldn’t reach that page but I think it’s a great idea. Let me know when the list is up – I can add my http://israelimom.org blog to the list
You really know much about SEO,What you said in this post are correct.It is friendly and make effective.I am very glad to found this blog.Thanks
Since I’m using blog commenting not only to build backlinks but also for marketing purpose it depends a lot the subject of the blog post. if it’s a general subject I mainly link to my homepage, if it’s a subject related to one of my categories so I link to those pages. In this way I might see more traffic to inner pages from referring sites and for the purpose of backlink building it looks more natural. Also I sometimes link to any hubpages like e.g. squidoo or to any articles I have published with certain article directories.
It’s what I try to do too. By the way, I had to edit your name field. I know some blogs even suggest keywords in that field with keywordluv, but I prefer no keywords there and don’t have that plug-in.
Twitter: PJK56
says:
No problem with me about you had to edit my name field, Anne. Some blogs do accept it, some don’t. At least you didn’t delete the entire post. I like your posts and tips and advices. I just don’t comment on everyone like some people do.
I’m not a great blogger yet, I have just one blog and many things seem unknown and even scary..And yet, many thanks to Kristi for her suggestion and all other people posting here. It gives me hope that I can succeed too. Hope it’s not too late to learn for me!
.-= Mary´s last blog post ..Migraine Help =-.
It’s never too late to start – and you have to start somewhere! I had a look at your blog – I think maybe you should try injecting a more personal tone into it. As it is, it’s more of an informational site about migraines, utilizing a blog script as its platform.
Twitter: sonlinebiz
says:
Nice tip but it doesn’t really work for on all dofollow blogs cos some dofollow plug-ins work with url and once that changes, nofollow is added to the link until you meet the quota of comments needed to go dofollow.
Dofollow plug-ins that work based on commneter’s email are the best and that’s why I use Jennifer R’s Link Love WordPress Plugin: http://www.intenseblog.com/wordpress/link-love.html.
P.S: Do please install the subscribe to comments plug-in so I can follow up. Cheers
.-= Udegbunam Chukwudi | Make Money Online´s last blog post ..How To Sell A Blogger Blogspot Blog Without Hassles =-.
The tip was actually about the comluv links, rather than the actual link, but I see your point where it comes to the actual links – I guess I would prefer an email-based identification as well.
Was pretty sure I have the subscribe to comments plugin – will take a quick look to make sure it’s activated.
Yup, it was deactivated, not sure why. Upgraded and activated – thanks for letting me know.
Twitter: sonlinebiz
says:
You’re welcome BUT it seems you might have to hack into your theme’s comment.php to make it show as I still can’t see the option below.
.-= Udegbunam Chukwudi | Make Money Online´s last blog post ..How To Fix Windows Live Writer Embed Video Error =-.
Interesting post, Anne. I’m activating various things myself, muchly owed to your advice. Thanks.
Twitter: woody79_06
says:
Hey Anne, been a long time good to see your still blogging away!
This is an excellent post, and you bring up some very good points. since you know how much i loathe spammers(I think every blogger does). I aggre one of the fastest ways to get your comments trashed is by posting affiliate links in comments, or not talking or trying to add to the content of the post.
Also just to let you know, I have come around a bit to the whole blocking ad thing. After much thought and looking into the issue, it can be unfair to block them at times.
anyways I hope your doing well, take care i’ll visit back often! keep up the great posts!
.-= Ron´s last blog post ..5 Reasons To Dump Microsoft Windows For Linux =-.