Social engagement is fraught with land mines. For instance, if I make a comment on a blog and share something about my business, doesn’t it make sense to include a link to my website and wouldn’t this be a good way to drive traffic? While this may sound completely reasonable, it’s more complicated than you might think. Inserting links into blog comments for SEO can negatively impact your ability to rank.
A Little History About Blog Comments and SEO
Link building is an important part of SEO because links can add to the credibility of your website. In years past, SEO was a bit of a game in that it was possible to outsmart search engines. When people realized that search engines favored links, they began to put them everywhere. And they did so without discrimination. It was purely a numbers game, and for a while it worked.
However, the primary goal of a search engine is to provide meaningful results when someone enters a query. The better job they do, the more likely it is that people will continue to rely on them (providing a bigger audience for advertisers).
So search engines are constantly tweaking their algorithms to ensure quality results. Allowing people to game the system is not in their best interest. As the technology evolved, they began to crack down on shady SEO practices (like blog comments for SEO) and even penalize websites that used them.
Where Are We Now?
Link building is still a big part of SEO. However, the focus has shifted to gaining links naturally through quality content and relationship building. Quality links from relevant and authoritative websites are still a strong signal to search engines that your website is worth considering for search results. The difference is that search engines value earned links, not purchased or indiscriminately planted links.
With respect to blog comments, adding links purely for the purposes of SEO is no longer recommended and could actually be harmful. Commenting on blog posts is still a good way to gain visibility for your brand and to get involved with your community. But be mindful of your execution of this practice.
When commenting on a blog post, focus on sites that are relevant to your target audience and make sure that your comment adds value. If a link to your website makes sense go ahead and include it, but reserve this activity for when you feel it is truly meaningful and useful to the site’s readers.
Oops! What if I’m Reading This Too Late?
So maybe your knowledge was a little dated. You have been merrily going along, sprinkling links wherever you go. And you’ve been wondering why your website rankings have been dropping. Well, you have some cleanup work ahead. Use a tool such as Ahrefs to identify links to your site and remove anything that might be causing a problem. This can be a laborious task, to be sure, but it’s well worth your time.
If you desire more information, this blog post on link building may be of interest to you as well as this video from Moz. And, of course, you can always contact me directly.
