Blogging

Blog Commenting Explained: A Guide for Beginners

Does blog commenting matter to you?

If you have been ignoring blog commenting, then this blog post could help you get perspective on blog comments. I have been paying attention to blog comments since 2015, and it has done wonders for me. In 2017, I shared how I started getting comments on my blog.

It’s a follow-up blog post on the previous one to dig deeper into the blog commenting topic. Over the past few years, I’ve come across multiple opinions on blog commenting.

I’ve heard people say that blog commenting is great for SEO-juice.

In my opinion, it used to be a great SEO-tactic years ago, but now, things have changed. The comments section has a nofollow attribution since the WordPress 1.5 version. Read this for more information.

Others say that blog commenting doesn’t matter at all. Plus, it attracts a lot of spam comments so it’ll be a good idea if the comments are turned off.

The third school of thought says that you shouldn’t do commenting for the SEO, but to build relationships with bloggers, help out new audiences, and start conversations on others’ real estate. And, this is what I believe in whether it’s blog commenting or guest posting.

blog commenting guide

Why You Should Comment on the Blogs

Here are my top 5 reasons why you should comment on the blogs:

1. It’s a polite way to introduce yourself

Leaving a comment on someone else’s blog is a multi-dimensional strategy. Make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons. There are so many perks attached to it, for instance, you get to learn something new, you build a connection with the blogger, and you become a part of the conversation.

On the other hand, if you just want to drop off your link on someone else’s blog, your comment would uncover the truth because it won’t sound genuine and authentic.

Commenting is a great way to introduce yourself to other bloggers. Not only does it help the blog owners, but it also helps their audiences.

2. It starts communication between bloggers

Do you know how difficult it is to get someone else’s attention? Have you noticed that a lot of companies and influencers don’t even reply to emails and direct messages?

Blog commenting, however, gives readers a chance to communicate with their favorite bloggers to ask questions, admire their work, and respond to their fresh content. Being a blogger, I want to communicate with other bloggers to learn from them as well as share something useful with them. So blog commenting does start communication between bloggers.

3. Readers benefit from the conversations

One of the reasons you should always respond to the comments is that readers scroll through comments and read the responses you’re getting on your content. Not only do they take inspiration from the comments, but they also learn a thing or two from your replies.

To benefit from the conversation between a blogger and the reader, pay attention to the comments section to get the idea of what’s going on.

4. It adds user-generated content to the blog

Most of you won’t notice the effect of user-generated content except for webmasters and experienced bloggers who dig into their site analytics. The user-generated content could work as an SEO-factor in search engine ranking, but it won’t show immediate effect. I won’t put my hopes on the SEO perks for user-generated content, but I’ll surely look at the engagement side of the user-generated content.

When readers sit down to write a comment on the blogs, they spend some time on the site, which benefits the ranking of the site, especially when a reader comes through a search engine. Also, remember that the same thing could backfire if the visitor decides to go back to the search engine for some reason.

5. It gets your face recognized

One of the favorite reasons to write comments on the blogs is face recognition. There are no guarantees that your SEO strategies would work out as Google keeps changing its algorithms. What matters is that when you show up over and over again on a blog to write amazing comments, you become familiar with the blog owner. It builds a connection with the blogger, and your face works as a stamp to that connection.

So I’d highly recommend leaving comments properly, meaning, use your real name, picture, and main website URL to comment. Don’t try to trick others by using a specific post or page URL in the comment section. I’ve seen bloggers and SEOs do that, which shows that you want SEO juice out of this.

How to do blog commenting

If you’re wondering how to do it right, I’d share my strategy with you. I won’t brag that it’s the righteous strategy to follow, but it works for me. So here are five essentials of blog commenting:

1. Build a list of blogs to comment on

It shouldn’t scare you away; go to Google sheets and set up your blog commenting spreadsheet. What you may want to do is keep adding the relevant blog URLs to the list with your email address (which you’d use while commenting) in the very next column.

I have been managing my blog commenting spreadsheet for quite some time, and it helps so much. Otherwise, it’s impossible to keep track of your commenting. Not only does it help in commenting, but it also makes you read the content on the relevant blogs.

2. Share valuable insights

The more you share value in your content, the more you get a return on your investment. It doesn’t mean you’d immediately start making money. The ROI has many shapes and forms in blogging, for example, if your readers find your content helpful, they’d subscribe to your blog or share your content on social media or buy your ebook. The possibilities are endless; all you need is to figure out what their problem is, and then try to solve that problem.

I always share personal experiences, useful tools, and examples in my content. It’s my way of delivering value to the audience. It’s one of the reasons why readers like my content.

The same goes for blog commenting. Make sure that when you leave a comment on someone else’s blog, you’re adding value to the blog post through your comment. You’d be fascinated by the outcome if you continue submitting useful insights into your comments.

3. Pay attention to the spam folder

It’s necessary to keep an eye on the spam folder. I have had such experiences when comments from pro-bloggers went to the spam folder.

I used to ignore spam comments, meaning, I used to flush them out without going through them, but a few months back, I randomly checked the folder and found a comment from a pro-blogger friend. Then, I kept on checking the spam folder from time to time, and most of the time, I found at least one genuine comment out of a few dozen spam comments.

So I learned that it’s essential to go through your spam comments at least once a week because you don’t want to lose comments from your friends, subscribers, and loyal readers.

4. Give more than you ask for

Always remember the power of giving when you leave a comment on someone else’s blog. Ever since I read the book “Give and Take” by Adam Grant, it gave me perspective on giving.

It was fascinating to notice that I never thought about it before. I generously apply that lesson in my commenting. What I do is that I try to give something valuable in the comments. I never leave a comment on the blogs for the sake of a comment. I’ve seen bloggers leave a comment; they reiterate what they read in the blog post just to leave a comment. There is no point in writing such comments. So try to give more than you ask for whether it’s blog content or blog comment.

5. Avoid adding links to your comments

A common mistake beginner bloggers make is that they try to insert the links in the comments. It gives their comment ticket to the spam folder. Please understand that the majority of the blogs have nofollow comments section. So commenting for the sake of SEO won’t work out. Instead, you can write thoughtful and breathtaking comments to gain the attention of the readers.

There are two types of links people add to the comments. The first one is in the text-part of the comment, and the second one is added in the URL section of the comment. You may have seen spam comments with page or post links in the URL area. Either way, it looks unprofessional. It looks like that you just want to paste your link somewhere. Most bloggers don’t approve comments with such tactics. However, there is an exception to this rule when you’re asked to provide the link to a page or resource in the comment.

What’s the takeaway?

Should you leave comments on others’ blogs?

Hell yeah.

I explained that leaving comments on the blogs doesn’t mean you’re just doing it for the links. If you’re still doing blog commenting for SEO, you’re going to waste your time and energy.

As far as SEO is concerned, I implore you to invest your time, money, and energy into producing in-depth content that people could link out to or share with their followers. That’s the way to crush it with SEO in today’s world.

If this blog post made you interested in blog commenting, then I’d highly recommend following the essential points I mentioned.

Don’t underestimate the power of “originality” and “authenticity” in blog commenting.

When I leave a comment on someone’s blog, I don’t comment unless I finish off reading the blog post and fascinated by something in the content.

Often I open up the blog posts and scroll through the page and leave the site. The reason is mostly the lack of interest in the topic, but it doesn’t mean the content was written poorly. The point I’m trying to make is that whenever you leave a comment, you should mean it. That’s what brings in authenticity and originality in your voice.

I hope now you’d make the most of blog commenting.

Not only could you attract readers, but it could also land you clients. You never know. This is why I don’t take blog commenting lightly, neither should you.

What else would you think my readers should know about blog commenting?

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12 Comments

  1. Hassaan,

    Yet another great article by you. Beyond the opportunity to share our valuable insights, backlinks, or anything – blog commenting is a powerful strategy to build relationships. I could more bloggers like Nikola Roza realize it and leverages its power to the core. Thanks for your inputs.

    1. Hi Aria,

      Thanks so much.

      Indeed, blog commenting is a powerful strategy, which is why I wrote this blog post.

      A lot of my friends Ryan Biddulph, Donna Merrill, Moss Clement, Enstine Muki, Nikola Roza, and others utilize blog commenting at its best.

      Thanks, again.

  2. Hassaan these are great tips bro. Commenting is still oft-ignored because bloggers just want links and cannot see the forest for the trees. Bloggers cannot see commenting is a gateway activity, building bonds that lead to all types of success for both blogging parties.

    Ryan

    1. Exactly!

      Commenting is much more than leaving your link on someone else’s blog.
      I try to inject a bit of value every time I write a comment on someone else’s blog.

      Thanks for stopping by, Ryan.

  3. Hey Hassaan,
    Great tips for bloggers as always. Thanks for that. My goal is at least three comments per day. However, it is a bit harder for me because I do not comment until I read the article fully. I know even some experts comment without even reading at least half of the article. They just skim through subtopics and write comment.
    From the beginning, I just don’t care much about SEO. I wanna build strong relationships and expand my network.
    I have never maintained an excel sheet or kept track of my comments. It is a great idea Hassaan. I have already created my excel sheet. Thanks again for that.

    1. Hi Nirodha,

      I’m so glad my small idea could help you.

      That’s the beauty of blogging. You share the lessons you learned and they help others.

      Let me know how the excel sheet works out for you.

      All the best.

  4. Hi Hassaan!

    I think that blog commenting is still really under utilized by many bloggers and as you point out it can still be really powerful. In the past, people tried to use blog commenting as an SEO strategy and for a while, it worked. Today blog commenting can still be very powerful as a traffic generator but even more powerful as a networking tool. The amount of business connections that have started through blog commenting alone is just staggering.

    A spreadsheet is a great way to keep track of blogs to comment on but what I’ve found works even better for me is an RSS reader like Feedly. This way I can quickly browse all of the new posts that my blogging friends have made each day all in one place, without having to visit each site first. It saves a lot of time!

    Anyway, great article and I’ll be sharing it shortly.

    – James McAllister

    1. Hi James,

      I couldn’t agree more. Blog commenting is so underutilized. The reason I wrote this blog post was that I have been seeing two extreme point-of-views for quite some time. Some bloggers and digital marketers believe that blog commenting is just for SEO, and others don’t bother pursuing this just because it’s somehow dead for SEO.

      As far as Feedly is concerned, I’ve made my account. It does seem like a great tool. Thanks for recommending it.

      All the best.

  5. Excellent, Hassaan! What a powerful tutorial on blog commenting! I’ve equally read a lot of agitations about blog commenting as to whether it should still be leveraged for SEO or not. Honestly, I was once confused about this when I was just getting started with blogging. Since I learned that search engines no longer follow blog comments, I lost interest in commenting on blogs.

    Your tutorial has given me more enlightenment on the efficacy of commenting on blogs, as this is useful for building relationships, connecting to authority bloggers, building buddies, and many more. I’ll sheepishly follow your guide for doing blog commenting, henceforth.

    Sierra Morgan

  6. Again a good explanatory article.
    It is very important to establish strong connections with other bloggers, also within the same niche as yours.
    If you create a real connection with other bloggers in the same niche, then you get stronger exposure from Google.

    Today 2021, blogging is very competitive. So if you want to dominate your blog, you need to have a strong bond with your other bloggers in the same niche.

    Do not call each other in the same blog niche for competitors, but colleagues.

    / Adele

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