Commenting for Links

I've got a linkbuilding campaign to work on today, for an artist who makes steampunk jewelry, a thing I'd never heard of a week ago.

Links are like votes for the trustworthiness and usefulness of your website, so of course we all want links. And one way people get links is by leaving comments at blogs and forums. Many of these places are nofollow (that is, they don't give a vote for your site), but not all of them are. So this can be a useful strategy for the linkbuilder.

There are three kinds of comments with links.

• Real comments. After all, blogs and forums are communities. We get to know one another and have things we want to say to each other. We read things and have an addition to make to the conversation. Leaving your website along with your name in real comments is entirely appropriate. You're a member of the community, people might want to know more about you, and these links can help people find you.
• Comments intentionally left for the sake of a link. This isn't necessarily bad. "Patroller" left this comment at my post on "Website Maintenance Without Tears": "Well, I think one of the best indicators if a website service provider really can provide the service you need is to check its own site--if its site is well-designed and well-optimized. " It's a useful suggestion, too. "Patroller" has a hidden profile and left a prominent link to his or her website, so it's an intentionally-dropped link, but it gets to stay. The link is relevant and might be useful to the people who visit here.
• Comment spam. "Susan" left this comment:"I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often." Along with this content-free comment is a link to a suspicious looking insurance brokerage site. I responded, gave "Susan" a chance to correct my false impression if it wasn't spam, and then deleted that comment.

So how can you get beneficial links with comments?

• First, consider actually becoming a contributing member of the community. I post comments in a variety of communities to which I actually belong. For example, I often post in educational communities. Sure, I leave my clients' web addresses when there's a spot for a URL, but I am a real-live educator and I am actually reading and adding to the discussions. I'm entitled. And my clients, who provide actual useful goods and services for educators, are also entitled to those links. It's the difference between giving your business card to an interested person you've met and connected with, and slipping it under a stranger's windshield wiper in the parking lot. Which do you think is more effective?
• Leave helpful comments. When you can answer a question, make a useful suggestion, or offer a valuable reference, do so. Then you've earned your link. While we do sometimes want to say, "Great post!", especially to people we know (see the point above), skipping all over the internet leaving "Great post! MY LINK" is spam. And you should leave helpful comments even when you don't get a link out of it, at least sometimes. Even including a link to someone else's website that would be more useful in that particular case. If you use your real name when you do this, you may even gain some name recognition from casting your bread upon the waters in this way.
• Drop your links where they will do some good. They should do some good for the visitors, certainly. "Patroller" offers a useful service which I might want to use sometime myself. But I think that a lot of comment spam is placed by low quality linkbuilders earning a penny a post. Even if I left the comment "Susan" posted, you're not going to go and sign up with her client's shady insurance service, are you? You need to place your links where your customers might be. For that kind of website, you need a much lower level of mental functioning than we're using here. Even if you have (as I'm sure you do) a respectable business, it doesn't make sense to leave links in places where your customers don't go. Search engines will only give you credit for relevant links, anyway.

We're back again to saying you need to be honest, upright, and true with your SEO. It isn't news, perhaps, but it's still true.

Stumble It!