Nikola Roza August 26, 2020 It’s the major hurdle newbie bloggers face when building their online empires.
And more often than not, these bloggers turn to followed blog comments as an easy and affordable source of links.
But is blog commenting for links worth it?
Or is it a waste of time?
I think it’s the latter and I have 5 reasons to support my argument.
5 Reasons Why Chasing Followed Blog Links is a Waste of Time
#1- Followed Blog Comments are Useless for SEO
Here’s the thing. In 2020 and beyond, Google has long figured out the structure of pretty much any page on the internet.
They know where your menu is, and where your footer lies. Sidebar and main content too.
They’re also easily able to distinguish between the main content and UGC area below it.
Image source- Nikola Roza; article source
Keep in mind that WordPress helps Google a lot by automatically labeling all comments with a UGC tag.
So even if the links are followed they do nothing with the UGC attribute applied to them.
#2- Followed Links Can Lead to Anchor Text Over Optimization
Take a look at this followed blog comment link.
Image source- Nikola Roza
That might sound good, but is actually bad for SEO.
The link on the image is obviously the title of the post turned into anchor text and delivered over the CommentLuv plugin.
The problem there is that it’s very easy to overoptimze anchor text. What if the blogger leaves 10 comments like that? Or 20? Or 50?
That can easily lead to overoptimization and then the post in question will never rank for the target keywords in that anchor text.
However, this is all if we assume that Google counts anchor texts from those links. But since those links are most probably discounted as UGC content, then the anchor text doesn’t even count.
It’s a complete waste of time for the blogger.
#3- Followed Blog Comments Bulk Expose You as a Link Builder
Even though those comment links don’t count, they still show up in backlink checkers (Moz, Ahrefs, SEMrush…) And they also show up over on Google’s side.
What do you think will happen if some Google manual reviewer spots a lot of these useless links in your link profile. They’ll obviously see you’ve been trying to manipulate your page’s rankings and might dig deeper into your link profile to see what else they can find.
This can be either neutral for you, or very bad, depending on the types of links you’ve built.
#4- Spammy Blog Commenting Makes You Burn Bridges With Other Webmasters
Here’s the thing:
there are only so many webmasters you can connect with in your niche. And you need to treat ever connection as a precious asset.
Because the last thing you want to do is alienate a bunch of them so they start ignoring you and never contribute to your success in any way.
When you’re commenting on someone else’s blog you’re contributing to their success. Even if you leave a link in the website field when filling out a comment , that’s good and ok. That’s what it’s there for.
But leaving URL’s within your comment is a red flag and a sign for the webmaster that you’re more interested in getting direct value for yourself then contributing to them.
That can appear tactless, grabby and desperate.
Not at all good signals to be sending to your peers who’re probably more successful than you and who could help you achieve success faster.
#5- Blog Commenting is an “Expensive” Link Building Technique
Blog commenting is actually free and it won’t cost you a dime to leave as many comments as you’d like.
But it will cost you your time.
Remember, webmasters won’t accept any comment on their pages and most have high standards for what they accept.
So your input will have to be insightful and valuable enough to be published. This means you’ll often need to read, or at least skim the spot so you know what to write.
We’re talking 10-15m per post, at least. And multiply that by dozens or hundreds comments, and you understand why chasing followed blog comment links is such a waste of time.
The time you invest there could’ve been better spent doing email outreach or making real friendship with other bloggers in your niche.
Because one real link editorially place is worth more that a thousand comment links.
What to Do Instead? Blog Commenting Done Right (Conclusion)
Leave comments to build friendships. Really, that is the answer.
It doesn’t matter that the link in the website field will be nofollow. It doesn’t matter that anchor text will be your brand or personal name instead of a target keyword.
What matters is that you’ll be building genuine bonds and friendships with the influencers and bloggers in your space.
Contribute to enough bloggers and over a meaningful chunk of time and you will see those same bloggers:
- visiting your posts and leaving comments there;
- sharing your great content on social media;
- asking you to participate in link roundups;
- linking to you spontaneously and unexpectedly.
They’ll be promoting you left, right and center and all because you contributed to their success first.
So in a way, by not focusing on links and by generously contributing value, you’ll be getting those coveted followed links editorially placed, and of highest value in Google’s eyes.
It’s an ironic twist many a comment spammer won’t ever get.
Don’t be one of them.
Leave me a comment below, let me know what you think!
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