Blog Commenting For SEO: The Why & The How In 2024

How do you start increasing your search traffic and building links if you have no cash and no connections?

The answer is simple:

But what is blog commenting? Well…

What Is Blog Commenting?

Blog commenting for SEO is defined as a simple strategy to start building links back to your site while building strong relationships with people in your industry.

It is about exchanging ideas or opinions about what people think or feel about a topic. It can also help blogs to attract traffic, leads, and add a ‘social touch.’

And, if you’re a new SEO who isn’t taking advantage of this strategy, you’re missing out on a world of potential that your competitors are going to use to beat you.

(You snooze you lose, right?).

Bellow, I’ll show you what blog commenting for backlinks is, how to use it and why it’s an important part of the link building process.

PRO TIP: Before starting any link building campaign, it’s best to determine how many backlinks you need to rank.

Why You Should Use Blog Commenting For SEO

Blog commenting is simply leaving a value-adding message in the “comments” section of a blog and the earlier the better.

They’re one of the simplest and easiest ways to start building links to your website.

At the end of many posts you’ll see a form where you can add your personal information:

It’s important that it has the option to add your website as part of the information.

This means you can include a link back to your site, that anyone who reads your comment can click. Link building in its simplest form, right?

Now, these links don’t carry lots of direct “link juice” that will send you up the rankings.

But these links do contribute to your website’s link profile.

If you’re getting links back from your comments on large well-established blogs, Google & editors are going to take notice.

Blog comments also come with two other great benefits:

1. They help you grow your network and build relationships with people
2. They offer targeted traffic back to your website

Because if someone comes across a three-hundred word comment at the bottom of a blog post that adds tonnes of value (see below) they’re going to take notice of that as well:

Website owners use blog comments to help them grow successful online businesses.

Ryan Biddulph of Blogging From Paradise credits his success to blog commenting. His comments on my blog were so valuable it led to him getting featured to my full email list.

The relationship he built through his comments, lead to a really valuable link building and traffic opportunity through being a guest poster on the blog.

Powerful stuff.

There is a ton of SEO value in blog comments.

Okay, that’s the “why”; let’s take a look at the “how”…

How To Use Blog Comments For SEO

There is an art to blog commenting for SEO.

• Use Your Real Name: Always use your full name instead of brand name or keyword to look genuine.
• Add Value: Write comments that are relevant and add value to the blog post. Avoid short, generic comments like “Great work!”
• Be Relevant: Make sure your comment is relevant to the blog post to engage in meaningful discussions and not look spammy.

That means comments like this aren’t going to cut it:

Think in terms of a mini blog post.  It should add value or continue the discussion.

This is important to remember because blog owners have to approve your comments. If it’s not value adding or worthwhile for them to have it on their blog, it’ll get rejected.

Here’s an example comment that would get approved:

“Hey Dan,

You did an excellent job on this post! I’d like to add an extra productivity tip to your list if you don’t mind?

I find that when I fast in a morning – that is, I get up, drink a coffee and get straight to work – my productivity is 10 TIMES better than when I’ve eaten. I thought it would be the other way around, or that I’d struggle without food, but I really do thrive.

The people in my coaching community have found this to be helpful, too! Something worth trying.

Have a great day,

Matthew

I’d say that around 1 in every 250 comments I process on the blog go beyond one-line.

Comments like the above really stand out because it’s rare to see such engagement in this busy world – this means it is VERY EASY for you to stand out from the crowd.

Here are some blog commenting tips and best practices you should follow:

1. Comment First: Get that first comment spot for the most traffic (more on that in the next section.)
2. Use Your Full Name: Don’t aim for a keyword or your brand name.
3. Use Your Correct Email Address: This allows the site owner, or interested people, to contact you.
4. Connect Your Email To Gravatar: This will display a profile picture next to your comment.
5. Be Selective: Choose blogs and posts that are relevant to your niche or industry.
6. Ask Questions When You’re Not An “Expert”: If you’re unsure about something they wrote about, ask a question about it.
7. Add Extra Value When You Are: If this topic is something you have experience in, add your own opinion and contribute value.
8. Don’t Write Spam: Like, ever.

Pretty simple right?

3 Steps To Successful Blog Commenting (And Secure The First Comment)

As Neil Patel found, getting the first blog comment generates the most traffic and gets the most attention.

How do you find blog commenting opportunities and ensure you get the first comment?

It’s pretty simple… Identify the blogs you want to comment on, get notified of their new posts and then leave your comment.

Let’s take a closer look…

Step #1: Identify The Blogs You Want To Comment On

Finding the blogs you want to comment on can be pretty simple.

For this I use Feedly.

Sign up for a free account and you can search for blogs based around certain topics:

You can then find lots of sites to add to your “feed”.

Just click “follow” and away you go:

Take a couple of minutes to add blogs to your feed before moving onto the next step.

It’ll help you out massively.

Step #2: Get Notified Of Their New Posts

With your feed in place, you will start to get email notifications about the latest posts on your favourite blogs.

They’ll also show up on your home screen here:

A second step you can take is…

If you head to the search bar at the top of the page and enter in your keyword (eg: productivity) you can choose to set up a Google News alert around this topic.

This will now send you immediate updates about all of the new content around this topic.

Step #3: Leave Your Comment

When you receive a notification it’s important that you act fast.

You ideally want to get the first comment.

But the higher up the page (closer to the content) the better. So as soon as you get a notification, get in there and leave your comment!

Wrapping It Up

Blog comments have powerful SEO, networking and traffic benefits.

You should regularly be leaving value-adding, long-form comments on regular blogs in your niche to help with your link building & wider digital marketing strategy.

Be sure to use your:

…and never leave spam.

If you want to get notified about blog commenting opportunities you can sign up for Feedly and use them to create in-app and Google News alerts you can quickly act upon.

Note: You can not use blog commenting to get edu backlinks or gov backlinks.

Next up, I’m going to show you another powerful white hat link building strategy for those who are just starting their link building campaign… Testimonial Link Building.

Or, if you want to outsource it, check out my review of the top link building services.