Blogs to increase backlinks and traffic

Thursday, March 18. 2010

A recent article I wrote was about backlinks, specifically crafting great anchor text, but now I want to take the entire process forward another step and talk about blog links that work for me.

I love when people comment on my sites, the more comments I get the more I feel like I'm connecting with people and sharing something worthwhile. If you blog on any subject it's good to get comments and boost your ego. Of course I never get as many comments as the a-list bloggers, but I'm not chasing huge traffic like they are so it's understandable.

The second reason I love comments is that they actually increase the amount of content on my page, every person who comments and leaves a paragraph or two gets approved, and their comment increases my page length by another couple of paragraphs. This is why I also try to answer every good comment with a couple of paragraphs myself.

It doesn't take very long to get a 1000 word article converted into a 2500 word page when you include 10 comments, and it doesn't matter if half the comments are yours, why? Because it's more content. The only thing you should try to do is keep your comments on topic.
A friend of mine operates a bunch of sites that are in small niches, then he promotes his blog posts specifically to get comments using forums or Blogcatalog discussions, the comments are sometimes as long as his post, then he responds point by point and before you know it he has 10,000 word pages on his blogs which the search spiders eat up and regurgitate in the SERPs. Good stuff!

You can do the same thing, you only need to be honest and ask yourself will people comment because they like your article, or because they want a backlink. The reason they comment is important and dictates how you write your article. On this blog I want comments, I love reading what people have to say and it helps me work out my best answer to questions. The reason I want comments is because I plan to write my own ebook one day, it will be a free download, and the more comments I get the better my ebook will be.

On other sites I own I want comments because everyone who leaves a comment goes into my feed reader so I can track other blogs in my niche, that gives me a bunch of blogs to follow so I can send them guest posts that link back to my blog.

Comments on blogs are an awesome way to connect to other bloggers, and most of us want content so don't be afraid to check out the blogs of people who leave a comment. I've had people say to me that I'm only working with reciprocal links if someone leaves a comment on my blog and then I send them a guest blog, but actually that's not correct because SEO and link juice is per page NOT PER SITE, so a link from one of my posts to another site, and then a link from one of their posts to a different page on my site is NOT a reciprocal link.

So if you own a blog with similar content to this blog then feel free to send me your guest posts, just remember I only publish posts with good English. See how blogging works? I often comment on other peoples blogs, but I mostly follow other people so I can get a sense of what they like writing about so I can make a decision if a guest post would help them, but more importantly if it would give me a good backlink or traffic.

Commenting rarely brings traffic, but it does work to help you get a link back to your website, except it needs to be used intelligently. Seriously, be smart about your linking strategy, if you're going to leave a comment at least leave a decent comment so the blog owner has a reason to approve your comment. Definitely use good anchor text, then ask yourself is this the type of blog that could give me a good backlink, if the answer is yes send them a guest post.

Let me tell you when I look at Google Webmaster Tools I see article directories linking to my pages (that's obvious - I submit a lot of articles), but I hardly ever see blog comments, but I do see guest posts I've written and sent to other blog owners. I also see major forums if my link is in my signature. BUT, guest posts trump forums, and if the other blog is in my niche they trump article directories every time!

My last little secret is to make sure you always leave a comment on a popular blog that also has a top commentators or recent comments widget. Chances are you can get your link in the other blog's sidebar, then you multiply the power of your comment because a comment on a blog post is only one page, but a recent commentators widget might get your anchor text into hundreds of pages on the other blog. If you don't see the immediate benefit then just quit trying to promote your site.

So what do you think? Tell me about how you use blogs, blog commenting, guest posts, or some other way of using blogs to increase your backlinks or traffic.
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in SEO, Traffic   Comments (43)

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  1. Muhammad Waqas said,

    Friday, March 19. 2010 at 17:23 (Reply)

    Hi there, Im happy that im the first one who is going to answer your question which you have asked to blogger..First of all I thank you to share this information.. I got your blog from a site..so im fist time here. I red your first post and its really amazing..
    when it comes to using other blog for own benefit.. I always follow blog to get information. even though im a commerce student, but im addict of IT.. so sometimes I also comment but never intend to do comment at every post.. like I follow mashable and techcrunch i open them once of twice in a week. some times I read article and leave them becoz all the time its not necessary to leave comments..But i only do comment when I feel i got something useful which I dont know before..and the question about increasing backlinks. I never increased backlinks.. I hate to submit in directories..its a wasted of time.. I feel its better to read a single blog post in a day and comment at that rather then submitting links to 20 directories per day..so we also get some knowledge

  2. Carl said,

    Saturday, March 20. 2010 at 09:21 (Reply)

    LOL, you weren't the first, only the first to be approved. But thanks for taking the time to comment.

    As for the value of blog comments vs directories, I hate to say it but if you're basing your link building strategy on these you will never increase your backlinks very much. Personally I still do directory submissions, and a link in a 1000 directories will actually do more for you than a few blog comments. You should check out SubmitEaze, it's around US$75 and makes directory submission with spun descriptions easy.

  3. Philip B. said,

    Saturday, March 20. 2010 at 04:01 (Reply)

    Hmm, i don't understand the sense of commenting your own blog? You could simply add more content by writing longer postings, aren't you?

  4. Carl said,

    Saturday, March 20. 2010 at 09:26 (Reply)

    If I write an article that is 1000 words, chances are there isn't too much more I can say. For example 1000 words about anchor text is pretty much it. So then people leave a comment, most will write a decent comment, say 100 words, then I reply with another 100 words or even more, and it doesn't take long for the entire page to increase in length.

    Then when search spiders revisit the site they see comments, they see updated content, and they see comments, it's a triple dunk. the more comments a page gets, the more content commenters add, the longer your page is, the more search engines love your site. Have you ever noticed that sites that get comments get crawled more often?

    Sites that get crawled more often also appear in SERPs more often. If I make a comment, you might think I'd be better adding another post, but then anyone who comes to this page from the SEs wouldn't see my replies to your questions.

  5. Rebecca M. said,

    Tuesday, March 30. 2010 at 18:30 (Reply)

    Regarding the question as to why you would want to comment on your own blog, besides the already stated content producing benefit, replying to comments left on your blog ENCOURAGES discussion and community and even more comments.

  6. Carl said,

    Tuesday, March 30. 2010 at 18:33 (Reply)

    Thanks Rebecca, I don't think that point was made in my article, and you're the first person to mention it - a very good point, and for most bloggers quite important.

  7. Andrew@BloggingGuide said,

    Saturday, March 20. 2010 at 05:28 (Reply)

    Guest blogging is one of the best ways to find new visitors, customers and blogging relationships. But some of us might hold back from doing it because of a lot of reasons. But, I tell, you, I've been through that and all I can say is just ask, you will not lose anything if they say no. Be confident in yourself.

  8. Carl said,

    Saturday, March 20. 2010 at 09:30 (Reply)

    Guest blogging is something I struggled with as well, until I realized I'm not a bad writer, and frankly I'm only shooting myself in the foot if I don't connect with other bloggers.

    Totally agree with being confident. What's the worst that can happen, the other blogger declines your offer. What's the best that can happen, you get an inpost anchor link back to your own website, and that's worth a lot more than a comment link or a bunch of forum posts.

  9. Omaha Homes said,

    Sunday, March 21. 2010 at 13:06 (Reply)

    Hi this is nice article on blog traffic and backlinks building. I like commenting on blog and I see some good improvement on my backlinks.

  10. Carl said,

    Sunday, March 21. 2010 at 13:29 (Reply)

    Blog commenting can be a really good way to increase traffic if you write interesting comments so that other people want to read more of your articles. I don't think blog commenting is very good for backlinks unless the site also has a top commenters widget or the article has lots of comments.

  11. Lisa Ontvangst said,

    Monday, March 22. 2010 at 12:26 (Reply)

    Hey Carl,

    I just wanted to boost your ego with this comment and help you increase the amount of content. ^^

  12. Carl said,

    Monday, March 22. 2010 at 12:32 (Reply)

    Thank you Lisa, that makes me feel fantastic, although you didn't really help me increase content very much so now I'm going to have to write a long comment to compensate.

    Folks, this is what you do when someone leaves a short (yet ego boosting) comment, you thank them, then add a bit more so the next person who comes along has something relevant to read :)

    I've always thought even a short comment from a reader can be used to my advantage by simply writing about why I appreciate their comment, of course I try to keep it relevant to my article, so Lisa got a backlink, and I get to showoff my knowledge again, and that boosts my ego even more, and also means there is more content for search engine spiders to see, which is always a good thing.

  13. Carrie said,

    Tuesday, March 23. 2010 at 19:05 (Reply)

    So my question would be, what if its a good comment but the link on the name is spammy. Aren't you afraid that the big G penalises your blog for linking to spammy sites?

  14. Carl said,

    Tuesday, March 23. 2010 at 19:16 (Reply)

    It's an excellent question, but it doesn't worry me too much because the search engines seem to quite intelligent at discounting links in comments anyway.

    I think Google certainly know the difference between a link in a post, and a link to the commenters website. My feeling is that they don't give as much emphasis to comments as people think, so it probably isn't all that much of an issue.

    You might however worry about the link you give in a recent commenters widget, but if you get enough comments the likelihood of a spammy link URL staying in your widget for more than a few days is not high.

    With that said, if Google's spider visits your site and sees a link to a spammy site in your recent commenters widget and then they return a few days later and its gone, they are highly UNLIKELY to penalize you.

    Overall I'd say it is worth taking the risk if the comment is worth having. You'll get more benefit from increased content on page than you'd lose from the spammy link.

  15. timex heart rate monitor said,

    Tuesday, March 23. 2010 at 19:30 (Reply)

    i try to make comments on blogs that on topic and i often take my time and write something of value. I often get frustrated though, because i try to get a good anchor text in and just because of that many people dont approve my comment when it is on topic and will definitely improve the conversation.

  16. Carl said,

    Thursday, March 25. 2010 at 10:08 (Reply)

    The problem is that you are abusing the privilege of commenting on other people's blogs. I've published your comment to make a point, but I certainly won't be publishing any more of your comments unless you take heed of my article.

    Specifically, I don't know who you are. How can I have a conversation with you if you won't even give me the courtesy of leaving your name?

    In my article I suggest being polite and giving your name, and contributing to the discussion as the two ways to ensure your comment is approved, yet even after reading my article you have still ignored what many bloggers consider the most important rule. Give me your name.

    You can either sign off with your first name so I know who to address my reply to, or you can add your name before your anchor text, but leaving nothing is disrespectful and frankly I understand why so many people decline your comments, even if the comment is valid.

    Please, get a life, this is MY blog, I don't give a damn about your website, I care about my website. If you want to contribute to the discussion leave your name!!!

  17. Glasgow Leaflet Delivery said,

    Thursday, March 25. 2010 at 01:46 (Reply)

    I always find blog comments can lead to spam so I am very careful how I moderate my network of blog sites with only my personal and main business sites allowing blog commenting.

    BTW, are you native English speaker? I see you live in Spain but your English is so good :)

  18. Carl said,

    Thursday, March 25. 2010 at 10:23 (Reply)

    Another person who hasn't left their name. Did you actually read my article, or were you just spamming for a backlink? :)

    Look, I agree that allowing commenting can lead to spam, heck look at all the comments on this post and tell me they're all genuine readers, but my point in the article is that comments, even with spammy anchor text are still good for me if they lead to discussion. Take a look at the length of the article, and then the length of the comment section, notice how my page is now more that twice as long as it was when there were no comments.

    Search engine spiders regularly visit, and when the see the page being updated with all these great comments they see everything, the added content, and the spammy anchors. But as the owner of this website should I be concerned about the spammy links? Probably not because I get more from them than they take away. It's a win/win, but I win even more because I get content. You should take the same approach on your own blogs.

  19. Aggelies said,

    Thursday, March 25. 2010 at 04:47 (Reply)

    Totally agree with the most already being said. From my experience over the past years, a backlink is just a link. Google gives juice to the site, but that what makes the link a great backlink (besides the anchor text) is relevancy.
    The ideal backlink from this post is pointing to another site or article about SEO or link building.
    You probably heard about LSI - no it has nothing to do with LSD :) - Latent Semantic Indexing.
    The same concept applies for backlinks.
    Maybe Carl could write an article about that?

  20. Carl said,

    Thursday, March 25. 2010 at 10:32 (Reply)

    Aggelies I agree with your comment. No doubt about it latent semantic indexing is where all search engines will eventually head. Most websites however offer very little that would cause them to rank in the serps, and in the long term the quality of the site as well as the LSI will be important.

    For my purposes, I target long tail keywords where there is very little search competition, this means that almost any backlink is enough to get me to the top of page one, but if the competition is stronger, then one relevant backlink will trump 100 non-relevant backlinks any day.

  21. Rondi said,

    Monday, March 29. 2010 at 01:56 (Reply)

    I am still trying to understand backlinks from commenting. I never thought of commenting on my own blog as a way to actually increase the amount of content on my page. I will be doing this in the future. So the more content you have on your blog is better for search engine spiders? I have always read- write shorter post to make sure the reader does not loose interest in between the post but the commenting will make up for the content. Thanks for sharing Carl!

  22. Carl said,

    Monday, March 29. 2010 at 09:15 (Reply)

    The rules change all the time, but I am not a great believer in short posts working for readers. A lot won't read a long post, but typically they are the people who also don't look around.

    I prefer readers who do read my article, and then get involved with the conversation. It really depends on your goals. If you want people to read a short article and then they've got their answer and they disappear - great, but chances are you won't make any money from these people.

  23. Acai Beere said,

    Monday, March 29. 2010 at 19:53 (Reply)

    Well in general I just look at blog commenting at an effective way to do seo for a newer site.

    Its a good start you get some initial link juice and helps you with indexing your pages. But after that I think there are more effective ways of buildings links. Guest post are ok but in the end I think you want to score some high quality links from authority sites in your niche.

  24. AudreyRose said,

    Thursday, April 1. 2010 at 08:04 (Reply)

    Thanks for this post, it helps me understand the relevance of commenting your own blog. Of course aside from encouraging your readers and making a community with them. Well, didn't know about search spider revisit and new comments are considered new update :D and the likes. Thanks for it.

    Well, I always leave comments to blog post that interest me. And also to show my support to the owner.

  25. Carl said,

    Thursday, April 1. 2010 at 16:48 (Reply)

    ;-)

    It's a wonderful technique and doesn't require a lot of research time or effort to do, and if you've already targeted a low competition keyword it makes it more difficult for someone else to come in with a new page. Thanks for commenting

  26. Tipi hire said,

    Thursday, April 1. 2010 at 17:58 (Reply)

    Im new to Seo so when I first started commenting on blogs I used my name as the anchor text, I then got really annoyed when ever I logged into webmaster tools to be told that my site was optimised for my name (which would be great if I was famous or made such an impression on people when I met them that they had to type my name into google but unfortunelty neither is the case - perhaps it was more so when I had more hair) I do find that now I have switched less comments are approved regardless of the content of my post but I find this strange because why would you make your blog dofollow and then penalise people for not using it to its full advantage? I can understand people that block the one liners 'nice site' 'yep I hadnt thought of that' and all the other exceptionally benial points that people spam but blocking relevent anchor text on a dofollow blog doesnt seem to make sense. Ive found in the short time I have been doing Seo that the best backlinks I have got are from article submission sites - I also look for people in relevent fields who created their site using a drop and drag proggramme called 'Mr site' I find that these people are more keen to give me a dofollow (rather than nofollow) backlink as the programme they use to build their pages doesnt allow html.

  27. Carl said,

    Friday, April 2. 2010 at 15:50 (Reply)

    You're making the same mistake others make, you assume because comments are enabled that people should accept your anchor text.

    Really, stop treating other people's blogs as a place where you can get a backlink - the problem is that I would be willing to bet you'll never visit my blog ever again, so why should I or any other blog owner give you the respect you're demanding?

    At no point in your comment did you mention your name, and I'm left wondering if you actually read my article. Please, be a little more social in your commenting, I've said it before, leave your name so I can reply to you, maybe subscribe to my feed so you can add your comment to my next article.

    But thanks for mentioning 'Mr site', I'll go check that out and see if I can find any sites worth commenting on, maybe I'll write my next article on finding blogs to comment on.

  28. Student Resume Help said,

    Sunday, April 4. 2010 at 14:14 (Reply)

    Hi Carl, Roger here... clearly many of the people commenting here haven't read your post and just trying to get cheap backlinks.

    Your views on blog commenting are enlighteneded and should be welcomed by bloggers who are trying to add real value to the post concerned.

    I never begrudge anyone a link in their comments, but they should at least have the manners to read my post first, say who they are and have something useful to say.

    Thank you
    Roger

  29. Carl said,

    Sunday, April 4. 2010 at 14:37 (Reply)

    Thank you Roger, I really appreciate reading your comment, and I wish more people would take the approach to commenting that you do, it really would make maintaining this blog a lot more fun.

    I'm not sure that my views are enlightened, most of the opinions I have are shared by other Internet Marketers, but it's great to have someone acknowledge that I've written something helpful.

    Also, I'm really pleased to hear from another site owner who is happy to accept comments even if the anchor doesn't appeal to them, I really believe we both win, I get content, and you get a comment that links back to your website, who knows, maybe some of my readers will even be tempted to visit your website and order a resume.

    Thanks for stopping by, hope to see you around again.

  30. Joey said,

    Sunday, April 18. 2010 at 20:32 (Reply)

    Yep fair enough - criticisum, accepted that was a rant for a bad mood.

    However I did get accepted so perhaps me annoying you enough was on this occasion the reason for the "blog owner to accept my comment" so that you could then comment on it?

    The Mr. Site are mostly websites rather than blogs. Its a drop and drag web package so easy to use and mostly used by people with hobby sites so less worried about linking out to other people, (Mr. Site is included as the anchor text on the footer) sometimes just for fun I like just to type in Mr. Site and then a random word becuase you get some wonderfully quirky websites that you would never have otherwise found.

    Any way I do read your blog and have just subscribed.

  31. Carl said,

    Sunday, April 18. 2010 at 20:47 (Reply)

    Thanks for coming back, I really appreciate that, and I'm sorry I also has a rant, I probably decline around 70% or more of all comments because it's obvious where the people have come from and what they're here for.

    I love when people comment, and if they leave a great comment there is a really strong chance it's going to be published. Good to have you following, I hope I don't disappoint with the articles I write.

  32. Joey said,

    Sunday, April 18. 2010 at 20:47 (Reply)

    Scratch that- I type into google: Random word and then:
    "created at www.mrsite.com"

  33. Nick said,

    Monday, April 5. 2010 at 11:50 (Reply)

    I've always kinda wondered about the motivations for a blog to actively seek out comments - though adding more content and getting some long-tail love does make sense. BTW, the first "A" of your article appears to be orphaned on the top right of your adsense, at least on my monitor.

  34. Carl said,

    Thursday, April 8. 2010 at 12:10 (Reply)

    Funny thing about the orphan A, I tried a few months ago to fix it then got distracted by something else and never went back to it, it should be a 30second fix but now I don't have the motivation to do anything - oh well, maybe before the end of 2010.

    The motivation to get comments for most bloggers is an ego thing, they want to fee like people are reading their articles, I guess that is a valid reason, others actually generate comments because a discussion ensues, personally any of these reasons are good enough for me :)

  35. Self Sagacity said,

    Friday, April 9. 2010 at 22:38 (Reply)

    Wow! Just wanted to stop and say thanks for the article. It's certainly something new I've just read. My fellow blogger friends and I have been trying to improve our PageRank and your article is very helpful. I didn't know about the comments increasing the contents. I did not even know that it counted as anything but the links back to the person who posted the comments. So thanks for the details. I also thought your comment about guest posts is easy to understand to, because you took it a step further in explaining how it works to help you, not just for publicity. I don't have a blog in your niche, but wished I did. Have a wonderful weekend. Again, thanks and I enjoyed your article tremendously.

  36. Carl said,

    Tuesday, April 13. 2010 at 12:20 (Reply)

    Thanks Dude,

    I've been working on this for a few years and you start to see trends when you do link building. Of course it doesn't work like this all the time, sometimes your site is just crap, or a Google employee reads your website and decides it doesn't deserve to be in the serps, that does happen, but if you have a good site that adds value to the reader then following these tips should make a huge difference to your search results and income.

  37. Mark Slater said,

    Monday, April 12. 2010 at 07:39 (Reply)

    Interesting comments and intelligent questions related to the post always help the blog and the articles to improve socially and also helps in sharing the important information among the readers. Increasing the backlinks and traffic through commenting is always a good option as it helps the readers to get an impression about you before deciding to visit your blog. One should try to give most useful information through least number of words in the comments as it encourages the users to read less and learn more.

  38. Carl said,

    Tuesday, April 13. 2010 at 12:27 (Reply)

    That's an interesting comment about less words in a comment, I guess you're talking about commenting on other people's blogs, but regardless, I disagree.

    I really believe the best comment is the comment that has an opinion and explains itself. That might mean a comment of only a few words (doubtful), or it might mean a comment of several paragraphs, either way the reader of the comment should feel you didn't waste their time, and the owner of the blog should feel that you have taken the time to add something valuable to their discussion.

    A lot of people only ask questions, some answer questions that other people had, some debate with the blog owner, I like all of those comments, and notice that this post has 35 comments now, that wouldn't happen if people just left a minimal comment. Sure I've made around half the comments, but go back to the article and read what I said about comments adding content, then check the serps for increasing backlinks and you see this article a few pages deep. That also wouldn't happen if there weren't as many comments and if I didn't reply to them all.

  39. Andy said,

    Tuesday, April 13. 2010 at 20:12 (Reply)

    Comments on blogs have become so ridiculous. I mean bloggers do not write anything special (in most cases), but still they pull people into a discussion.

    A blogger should be innovative, fun, challenging others... well, that is only my opinion

  40. Carl said,

    Wednesday, April 14. 2010 at 08:44 (Reply)

    Thanks for the comment but what is your point. are you saying that your own comment was a waste of time, and that my article is nothing special?

    I don't think I understand why you would make a comment like that - obviously you left a comment so that you could get a link to your website, yet you say that commenting is ridiculous. I'd be willing to bet you'll never return to justify your comment, so you frankly come across as a spammer, and how can I answer your comment in any meaningful way, everything I'd like to say to respond has already been said.

  41. Scaune said,

    Friday, April 16. 2010 at 16:34 (Reply)

    Do you mean that even i make a comment on do follow blogs, with PR greater then 5 or 6 , that's nothing for Google. Doesn't it take this link serious ?

  42. Carl said,

    Saturday, April 17. 2010 at 13:46 (Reply)

    Not necessarily, and the link is still worth having, but your comment with your link is VERY unlikely to appear on the PR5 or PR6 homepage, more likely it will appear on a PR0 page within the site. Remember that pagerank is not per site, it is per page, so every page in a website will have it's own pagerank, and most blog article pages are PR0 - you don't get any more benefit from those links than you do from any other link. But I really appreciate you making a comment anyway. Thanks.

  43. SEO translator said,

    Wednesday, December 21. 2011 at 04:52 (Reply)

    Hello, Carl, my name is Ramon, and like you, I also live in Spain.

    You have a very interesting post here, and for exactly the same reasons that you mention I invite people to comment on my own blog. I have do-follow links enabled because if people provide valuable contributions then I also think it is worth to provide them a link. But, this must be said, I ruthlessly delete any generic statements ("cut and paste") they some people provide. If they do not contribute to the discussion, why should I give them such a link? That only adds to the global spamming...

    I also offer guest posts - please feel free to write one for my blog if you're interested, just make sure you check out first my guidelines. BTW, I have not seen yours, except a statement that they must be in good English... ;)

    However, there is one thing that I have missed in your post - you did not highlight that the link somebody might get by posting a comment is not only good for the search engines. I get quite a lot of traffic from some important sites not because of the search engines, but rather because people thought my comment was interesting and wanted to know more about me... and that is absolutely the best traffic one can hope for!

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