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The Negative Hype About Blog Comment Keyword-Rich Links

Written by: Mark Brimm

Article Overview: Why some SEOistas Don't Know SEO

The Negative Hype About Blog Comment Keyword-Rich Links

There is a myth making the rounds--from about 10,000 screaming little internet mouths who started reading internet SEO articles and then immediately started consulting on SEO a few days later...that social media links don't matter. That they are short term. That they are quick-fix. A throw-away tactic that lives right on the border of Black Hatsville (somebody put on the scary Halloween record now...), soon to be found out and then penalized by the big G. "OMG...ALL the articles say it!" The truth is that nothing could be further from the truth. Social links probably last longer than perm links. There, I said it. they're just more titilating. They are the award winning NYT article of the internet, in just so many words.

Most social media are the ideal internet content in Google's eyes, IF they are truley "social". Social media is timely, relevant, not particularly strong-armed and ages well, because it captures and reflects a moment in history. Ever noticed that you find old blogs interesting? It's the caviar of internet content, unlike those billions of static company websites where nothing has changed beyond the press release page (if they have one). If there is one social media format that is dying a painful death, it's perhaps press releases for SEO purposes. Why? I think we all know the reason. It died about three months ago because...it's an ad. A press release telss people an official story. An ad. Why should Google push your ads for free? That's what AdWords are for...There isn't usually even any good content in a press release, so there's no argument anymore for the organically searchable content of a press release, either. Yet I still see article after article coming out to support it by "SEO"s who don't often practice what they preach.

Most blog comment links stay on the pages they were originally posted on not for days, or months, but for years, even decades in many cases. And while no-follow blog comments can help bring targeted traffic (wow, 2-3 people!), the direct traffic is generally worthless in impact. Use a program to find which blogs are do-follow and don't waste time on low-profile blogs that are not do-follow.

Comment links, called "spam" by the "victimized" owners of sites who receive nonsensical comments with site-pointing links stuffed in "unobtrusively", they're also called gold by the site owners for whom this was done the RIGHT way, as well as for the comment receiving site owners (can you say viable content?). Some blog owners are more than a little crazy and self-important, so caution is important! I've seen first-hand how some disgruntled person or entity can impersonate your company and piss off the very least important blogs on the internet. Not all mental asylums have tight security these days. In fact many of them may very well have internet connections, by the looks of things on some rather delusional and crapulent little unpopular European and Asian "blogs" out there today...

Blog comment links are remarkably easier to obtain than permanent links (which require work of the webmaster or site owner) and the key points of PageRank and popularity only increase the perks in terms of ranking on Google (not so much on Yahoo, which unlike the more financially viable Google, is trying to provide better search results). This is partly due to the fact that most sites with blogs, A) want comments, and B) are perfectly willing to reward their commenters with a free link opportunity--if the content doesn't suck.

The trick with social media is to either make your story blend in with your best interests, or to make your best interests the story itself. Either way works fine and gets results. Of course, the comments must be relevant and add value, and the content on the target site must be optimized and constantly tweaked to remain viable from a ranking point of view, just as it would from a human point of view.

Take a current SEO client of mine. He wanted to take on the titans of a super-competitive industry, the ticketing industry, within 6 months. The top player in his industry creates special relationships with Google, as well as with all the professional sports teams and biggest local venues directly. It's nearly impossible to compete with them in over half the cities in the US. It's just not done, frankly. Nobody beats THAT big boy.

We utilized social media links heavily, in combination with the usual host of pragmatic SEO methods, to beat the competition in many instances, and to outwit them in others to save time, like by utilizing local business listings while they're still free and easy. This worked like gangbusters and client sales suddenly soared, and why? Because even the internet titans of their respective industries do not really understand Google's business model or why SEO must benefit from it, not even when they have a relationship with Google itself.

And did we do all this by referring to the myriad so-called "SEO experts" out there who spew the A-B-C's of SEO to an adoring crowd of blissfully ignorant corporate executive types? No. The REAL SEO experts are not telling their "secret" but why not? Google gives preferential treatment to viable free content. That's no secret if you've been able to use a computer keyboard in the past 15 years. For Google NOT to favor blog comment links would be like every cable TV channel requiring an added fee to see their advertising-divided programming. The advertisers would stop advertising. Likewise with the internet, the advertisers would stop advertising of Google tried to penalize blog comment links, and all the other exploited content out there, because there is no reasonable way to police content proting something subtly, and no sense in trying.

The moral of this story is that it pays to have an experienced, marketing-savvy SEO talent on your team, someone who knows how Google operates, not someone who "knows Google" personally. The doorman for the building knows the execs at Google, too? Does he know how to get your site onto Top 10?

Trust no one unless they can show you verifiable results. Ask for a trial. At least followup on their existing case studies. In the end, you'll need a practical SEO mechanic with a few interesting failures and lots of spectacular successes under his belt, not a picturesque Abercrombie and Fitch Friday-attire techie with rolled up sleeves but nothing under the hood.

Related Articles
  Comment Spamming - Just Say No!
  Dofollow Blog Comments Increasing SERPS for Your SEO Campaign
  Business Blog Step 24 - Interacting Using Your Blog
  WARNING: If You Have A Blog, Beware Of The Comment Spammers
  Commenting etiquette

Article Tags: blog comment links, grey hat seo, seo techniques



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Re: Using Craigslist SEO to Promote Your Website - [quote:372g7ueu]2) Trent: could you explain more about building solid backlinks? What constitutes as solid? Do you go to relevant articles and try to set up a link to your content that relates to that topic?[/quote:372g7ueu] Article marketing Guest blogging Blog commenting Link exchanges Directories Forums Link wheels Social bookmarking Link bait Quality content Also, you want your links to be keyword anchored if at all possible. Links from sites relevant to yours are better too.
Re: Best Internet Marketing Strategy - Hi David, I agree about the Blogosphere. You have a smaller group that Blog, but do so on the premise that they think they should, but have never really considered the purpose of their Blog. Then I think there are a few SEO or Internet Marketing types that see Blogging as just another link building strategy. But the largest group of Bloggers, tend to be people who enjoy writing and discussing their topics of interest. Blogging is good for link building, but the true Blogger is a breed apart from the rest. They want to dialog, to debate, to have feedback and they are very willing to link to other worthwhile conversations that are relevant to their topic. I agree with you. These group of Bloggers obviously are passionate about their writing and together, they create huge conversation trails interactive and travel from Blog to Blog. But the evidence is clear with this group that loves what they write about. With comments enabled on a Blog and having a Blog tuned to a specific purpose you already have the evidence of original Social Media.
Re: Tactics for Blog Traffic - Wow some really great advice for blogging here and just one more. Comment on other blogs with a link back to your own. Just don't spam, leave a comment that is relevant to the post that has been made. MichelleJ
Re: Alexa Ranking Goals - That's great GT! What method did you use to put up the Entrepreneur Blog Network in your Wordpress Blog? We're always looking for the easiest methods to help bloggers who are not techies get involved.
EvanCarmichael.com suggestion - Maybe I missed it but I would like to suggest that a Blog be created to support the Forum. The idea is that in the blog you put in snippets of some of the biggest conversations with a 'read more' link to the forum itself. Setting up the Blog and clipping some conversations onto it wouldn't take very long.


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