Any online marketing professional that knows what they are talking about will tout the benefits of business blogging. It’s a great way to establish your business as a thought leader in a particular industry, drive traffic to your website, and improve link building efforts for SEO. While it’s obviously important to spend time writing content for your blog, it’s also important to promote the blog and get your name out there in the blogging community in your niche. Blog commenting is one of the strategies people often use to do this.
Blog commenting is still an effective strategy no matter what you may have heard! The current online marketing trend is that it’s ineffective, but that’s simply not true. The critics of this tactic think that it can look a little Spam my, so they avoid it. However, it isn’t Spam my as long as you do it correctly. In other words, we advocate for a white-hat method of commenting on other people’s blogs as a way to build links. While it is best practice that blog links are “no follow”, commenting is still a great tactic for naturally stimulating the link building process. Not only that, but commenting helps build your brand, increases your credibility, helps with social media, and can even enhance your SEO campaign.
Here are ways to blog comment in a white hat manner that benefits your inbound marketing:
Improve Visibility
People browsing blogs that are related to your industry might be looking for the products or services that you provide. Maybe they haven’t found your blog yet. Getting your name in front of them is an important first step. You never know who could be browsing the blog comments. Keep in mind that you always want to use a person’s name, which will help improve both visibility and credibility. If people see a company name, they usually think you only want the link. In actuality, you want to increase your visibility and exposure, so it’s best to use a name, instead.
Establish Credibility
When it comes to blog commenting it’s important to add to the conversation. Read the post thoroughly and contribute a thoughtful comment that will encourage additional comments from others. If it seems like you “know your stuff”, it’s a great way to market yourself or your brand or company.
Form Relationships
Commenting on blogs can help form relationships. When you consistently make blog comments, the relationships you form will be done over time, too. The more consistent you are, the more likely you are to build them. Over time, a friendly relationship may grow and lead to new business opportunities or even guest blog posting opportunities.
Build Links
Many blogs allow you to include a website link with your blog comment. Making blog comments can help build links over time. However, understand that since comment links are “no follow”, it’s important to understand that you’re not doing it for direct inbound links. Rather, natural links are built up over time as a result of the increased exposure.
Traffic
Blog commenting can bring direct traffic to your blog. If you select high profile blogs in your industry and leave intelligent and meaningful comments, people will click over to your site if they like what you are saying.
Use Disqus
Don’t be afraid to use Discus for commenting! These days, more and more blogs are using Discus for their commenting. Even though this doesn’t have a direct link to your blog, you will get some traffic for it. Not only that, but by building up your Discus portfolio you’ll increase your credibility over time.
Like blogging, blog commenting requires time and dedication. Set aside time to do it at least weekly. Spend an hour or two commenting on industry relevant blogs. In the beginning it will take more time to research these blogs, but create a spreadsheet and eventually you will have a list of quality blogs to visit on an ongoing basis.
Source: Brick Marketing
