There is a common theory that you must go out and comment on blogs and forums so you can get more links to your site and this will somehow increase your PageRank or rankings in SERP’s. While this is not completely untrue, it is not a main factor that you should be worrying about. There is many reasons to go out and comment on blogs, getting links should be the last thing on your mind when doing it.
I used to think this was the way to get PR and higher rankings in the SERP’s and would continuously work on getting backlinks in this manner. It even got to the point that I was spending more time commenting than I was writing my own content. I have been testing and re-testing ways to get better SERP’s for my products and services sites over the last two years, and my findings are that these links, while they are not useless, serve a different purpose.
I comment on a lot of blogs in many niches on a near daily basis. This started because I thought that these links were the end all of getting PR. It became a habit, and then later something I just enjoyed doing because I like to write and I like to express my opinion (yes I can be opinionated).
Through lots of research, I realized that these links I would “drop”, whether in forums or on blogs were actually of great benefit to me, but not necessarily for the reasons I thought. I was generating traffic though these links, and gaining regular readers, but it was not helping my SERP rankings very much.
Before I started this site, I went out and found a bunch of blogs in this niche and started commenting regularly on them, leaving value added comments, replying to other comments, and returning to reply to those that replied to my comments. I was building up to the launch of this site, and I was building a community around it before it even launched.
By doing this, I immediately had traffic when my site went live. I also immediately began getting comments, from day one. That is not something I had been able to accomplish with my past site launches because I would go live and then go and promote it.
There are many theories about links for SEO, I personally don’t think of anything that happens off page to be SEO, so I don’t consider links to be part of SEO. I look at them as advertising, because when I drop a link on your comment section I am hoping that my comment will be good enough to get a click through not just from you, but maybe your readers too.
Please don’t misunderstand me, links are an important part of building and maintaining your website, but linkbuilding is another topic altogether. I have seen people write that links are what gets you ranked, but I have seen those same sites have 50k backlinks and still be a PR3 or 4, so I don’t believe that a link is a link, and I don’t think that links in comment sections or in sidebars are valued by Google at all, but they do represent a good amount of traffic, to be more specific, referral traffic.
Kelly at FMSSEO wrote a great article on Links For SEO, and she refers to the links that are surrounded by text in the body of the article having greater value. I agree with this 100%, and it is why when I write Link Roundup articles anymore, I changed the format to be more natural reading and not just a list of links. I think this type of article will give more weight to the sites/articles I am linking to, in essence show more trust.
Comment because you have something to add or a question to ask FIRST, the rest is all smoke filled. Commenting on blogs in your niche is a great way to promote yourself if done properly, but be careful you don’t appear to be a spammer because you are only promoting yourself.
Happy Commenting 
Related posts:
I’ve just got an ‘alert’ about this article. Thank you for the link and the mention.
Best wishes,
Kelly-Anne
.-= Kelly-Anne Foxley´s last blog ..Google Page Rank Score Too Low? Keep Your Links Thank You =-.
@Kelly-Anne Foxley, I re-wrote this a little and moved it over from my old site Kelly, I linked to you originally though too…
.-= Keith Bloemendaal´s last blog ..Does Your Twitter Account Suffer From Erectile Dysfunction? =-.
@Keith Bloemendaal, I remember, Karl beat me to the punch on the original post.
.-= Kelly-Anne Foxley´s last blog ..Guest Blogging For Fresh Content And Optimised Backlinks =-.
@Keith Bloemendaal, Ahh OK, that explains the starter line, “Before I started this site…..” be careful transferring articles. lol
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..I’m Looking For Launch Partners – $20 OR Three DoFollow Links For You! =-.
I would have to agree with your point about people worrying too much about it, it’s like anything else in life… if you hate doing it you will only do it for so long, if you truly enjoy it you will do it and do it well.
.-= Extreme John´s last blog ..A Day in the Life of.. Episode 2 [video] =-.
@Extreme John, Kinda like blogging huh? LOL
.-= Keith Bloemendaal´s last blog ..Does Your Twitter Account Suffer From Erectile Dysfunction? =-.
I’ve found commenting has brought in more traffic than rankings. I would prefer just to buy some links on high traffic sites (and also high PR) than use comments as a way to increase rankings. That being said, if they do eventually improve the SEO, I will be grateful.
.-= Anthony Feint@Lifestyle Design´s last blog ..It’s Time to Think About Income =-.
@Anthony Feint@Lifestyle Design, Buying links is a shady practice, I would never recommend that…
If Google catches you paying for high PR links they will straight up ban you from their index.
That’s not only poor practice, it’s unethical. Instead of building organic links from people who genuinely enjoy your material, you are paying people to pretend that they like it in the eyes of Google in an effort to drive more people your way.
How about we just increase the quality of our material and we work to build relationships so that people want to link to our stuff? That would be a good way to build back links, wouldn’t it?
@Nicholas Cardot, I think that is the best way to get backlinks Nick, but I am also of the belief that commenting on blogs, if you add value, is a great way to promote your site/blog. This has done wonders for me, but if you don’t actually add value, you probably won’t get noticed….
Keith,
Do you know if Commentluv counts towards do follow? No one has been able to answer this for me.
.-= TheInfoPreneur´s last blog ..Why You Need To Work With Someone Stronger Than You =-.
@TheInfoPreneur, The links can be do-follow, but I have not been able to get a definitive answer whether they carry any weight or not.
I have heard arguments for both sides so I don’t really know. I guess that helped a lot! LOL
@Keith Bloemendaal,
On my blog, the com luv links are do follow because I have a plugin that makes them do-follow. By default, they are no follow. ALso, if you comment on a post that is do-follow but has 100 comments on it, then the link juice is spread amongst everyone and is watered down… so it doesn’t count very much.
Now, comment links on Do-follow blogs CAN be worth a lot! But you have to know how and why. I can’t go into the whole thing now, but the key is to be the ONLY commenter on the post and the post itself (not the main page) needs to be PR4 or PR5 or higher. Get a couple of these, you are are golden baby!
Do they exist? betcher bottom they exist, but they are difficult to find. But it only takes a couple.
Now, as far as the 5000 links and low PR comment you made in your article,… you have to realize that on the flip side, there are sites that have one link and are PR6.
There are lots of factors that go into it.
AL
.-= Allyn´s last blog ..Introduction To BackLink Stacking And Why =-.
@Allyn, The links here are all do-follow too (after 3 comments).
I have a site I am watching that is doing exactly what you are talking about with very few links in, but is gaining high PR, it is still a test right now but is getting great results with some internal pages (with literally no backlinks) already reaching a PR4, so the ever remaining questions remain, do we really know the formula? I think it has way too many variables, and can differ from site to site as well as from niche to niche.
.-= Keith Bloemendaal´s last blog ..Comment Links: Are They SEO? =-.
@Keith Bloemendaal, exactly, we don’t know the formula. But we can make some simple assumptions based on the competition.
And that is where the fun is IMO. It’s like a race to number 1 !! 
As a rule, I just try to get quality, high authority links, and use crappy ones to balance and hide them.
.-= Allyn´s last blog ..Introduction To BackLink Stacking And Why =-.
@Allyn, Allyn, I watched your linkstacking video, and it makes sense about comment links getting watered down.
I use commenting more for branding myself than the PR.
.-= Brian Inman´s last blog ..Save Your Best Gaming Blog Articles For Friday =-.
I took a similar journey as you did Keith. I started out commenting for links, but found that the traffic I was generating a lot of traffic but the people were not coming from the search engines as much as from the blogs I was commenting on.
.-= Tom@Free Squeeze Page´s last blog ..The Aweber Code….And Why You Need To Promote It! =-.
@Tom@Free Squeeze Page, I like the referral traffic too, it is really good to get your name out there.
Ultimately, the community and conversation is great though, if done properly.
.-= Keith Bloemendaal´s last blog ..Comment Links: Are They SEO? =-.
There is a lot of truth in what you say. It can be all too easy to chase links and forget about the important stuff, the content.
I comment on other music blogs, because I have something to say, not because they are music blogs. That and trying to write interesting content has seen my traffic increase month on month.
@Phil, Sounds like you are on the right track Phil!
.-= Keith Bloemendaal´s last blog ..A-List Bloggers =-.
Writing because you have something to say is the right answer. If you’re chasing links, then you’re going to be a fail. Work to provide awesome content and also to provide genuine value to the broader conversations taking place. This is the key to effectively commenting throughout the blogosphere. Link chasing through comments is amateur at best.
This is why at my site, I have dofollow links and commentluv enabled, but I don’t advertise it. I want to reward the people who comment because I think that it’s the right thing to do, but I don’t want them to comment just for the link. I want them to comment because they have value to add to the conversation.
.-= Nicholas Cardot´s last blog ..Valentine’s Day Winner Announced =-.
Whether the anchor text links from KeywordLuv or the CommentLuv Title post links do much for your SERP positions they do several things extremely well:
1) They create relationships with other bloggers who are likely to then write about and link to you.
2) They let everyone who reads them know a little bit more about you, your interests, and what you do so they can seek you out – and again, so they are more likely to link to you from the body of a post.
3) What you choose to share in your CommentLuv link and the anchor text you select invites anyone curious about those topics to click through to your blog bringing you more traffic and potential new subscribers and commentators. They also remind past readers to return and comment.
The dofollow CommentLuv KeywordLuv community is strong and has dozens of regulars if not more. In 2010 I expect we’ll see great growth for those regulars and I invite you all to participate in my new BizLuv MEME to benefit your blogs and your favorite online and small businesses and causes.
.-= Gail @ Do Follow Lists´s last blog ..MEME: BizLuv in Support of Small Businesses =-.
Yeah but have you noticed that the dofollow crowd seems to also be inviting a dumbed down version of commenting. I see thousands of “Great tips here” on worthless articles on dofollow blogs. Now don’t mistake what I’m saying. I have dofollow and commentluv on my site. But I’m not naive either and I know what it takes to create real conversation.
If your strategy at commenting is looking for dofollow sites, then you’re going to be missing out on some real conversation. What happened to commenting because you feel like you can add value to the conversation?
When I talk to my wife I do it because I think that I can add value by just sharing and talking with her. I don’t do it because I want her to do a favor for me. How selfish would that be?
But that’s what most commenters are doing. They’re basically saying that conversations are only relevant if they’re gaining a measurable benefit for their own website. I strongly disagree with that idea. It’s wrong.
.-= Nicholas Cardot´s last blog ..Valentine’s Day Winner Announced =-.
@Nicholas Cardot,
Hi Nicholas,
I believe my latest post addresses most of your comment here. While dofollow and KeywordLuv can attract people more interested in links than interacting if your content is compelling enough you can convert them.
Most of us in the dofollow CommentLuv KeywordLuv community find that the plugins are bringing us far stronger discussions – not dumbed down comments. That is directly because of the intelligence and high quality of many in our community.
.-= Gail @ Do Follow Lists´s last blog ..KeywordLuv: How Using It Benefits Us All =-.
@Gail @ Do Follow Lists, While I agree with both of you (Nick and Gail) I still think that comment links aren’t weighed as heavy, so commenting to get links is not the reason to comment.
I am think of removing do-follow from this site as a test to see if I continue to get comments from my readers…..
.-= Keith Bloemendaal´s last blog ..Does Your Twitter Account Suffer From Erectile Dysfunction? =-.
@Keith Bloemendaal,
I agree that comment links are not as heavily weighted as links within the main content of a post and that the links are not our primary purpose for commenting.
Time is the most valuable resource any of us has. That is why I made it the very first sentence in my post about the Dofollow CommentLuv KeywordLuv community.
I can tell you that many of us – myself included – have only so many hours in the day to comment and we have made the conscious decision to dedicate that time to only dofollow CommentLuv KeywordLuv bloggers.
That does not mean only commenting – it also means whose Tweets I choose to check more frequently using Twitter lists, whose content I share across Social Networks, and whose blogs I link to from both my primary blog and the many other blogs I contribute to or write entirely.
Unless a blogger feels that their content is so vastly superior that we will be making an exception for them they will be losing at least those of us who have decided to prioritize our time.
Note how frequently I comment in non-dofollow blogs = almost never even if I love their content. (Examples: CopyBlogger, ProBlogger)
Since I don’t intend to comment and they almost never respond to anything I do or say anywhere – whether that is in their blog or at Twitter or anywhere else – I also rarely read their blogs any more.
I encourage other serious bloggers to do the same because as we focus on which bloggers are generous to each other we uplift those blogs and allow them each to do more good in the world.
.-= Gail @ Do Follow Lists´s last blog ..KeywordLuv: How Using It Benefits Us All =-.
Still trying to understand links (thanks Allyn) but I comment to build relationships and my page views have grown through that process. I also get many hits on arcane posts which seem mostly to be bouncing.
Good post and you I see there is a good conversation surrounding this topic. Like you, I used to comment to build links but I have toned that down and only comment when I feel inspired to. I got a does of reality last pr update when I was commenting like a mad man and went from a pr 3 to pr 2 for the effort. Since then, I have chilled out a bit and no longer comment to build links.
@Tycoon Blogger@blog promote, That further proves my theory that comment links don’t hold much weight, and there may have been other factors involved in your drop as I saw plenty of quality blogs drop in the last update. I attribute that to various changes Google has been making to how they value a site (like linking out to authority sites, page load speed, etc..).
.-= Keith Bloemendaal´s last blog ..Does Your Twitter Account Suffer From Erectile Dysfunction? =-.
Now I put a proposal forward:
What if I offer a nice natural post about some other’s blog or post that certainly will have a couple of links back to her post, for some small money, is it against the ethics? Is it what nobody is doing? Won’t you be better interested to pay some money for this good opportunity to have genuine back link inside post surrounded by the text about your site or blog?
I was discussing about this topic in my post and some good bloggers commented on the post that
1. it is unethical
2. it is against google’s tos
3. it is against us law
and so on. I hope bloggers are selling lot of things through their blog and posts and what if somebody sells posts (sponsored posts)
The link to that post is in my signature (recent post)
.-= Suresh Khanal´s last blog ..Commenting on Other’s Post Won’t Increase Your Blog Ranking =-.
@Suresh Khanal, It is certainly against Google TOS, so I would call it unethical.
There used to be a time when I was commenting anywhere and everywhere, but never because I was interested in increasing my PR. My reason for leaving quality comments was to create a presence on the blogging world. The more comments I left the more people would see me, and as long as my comments were of good quality I could be assured that some people would be following those comments back to my blog.
It worked too
.-= Sire@WassupBlog´s last blog ..My First Squidoo Lens & About Bloody Time Too =-.
@Sire@WassupBlog, That is exactly my point here Sire, it is the reason I found your site, and probably the reason you found mine…
@Keith Bloemendaal, Yep, and it’s easy to tell which people want interaction and which want the juice. The first leave quality comments, the second crappy ones that will probably get deleted anyway.
.-= Sire@WassupBlog´s last blog ..My First Squidoo Lens & About Bloody Time Too =-.
It sounds like many are starting to get it, especially you Keith; this is good. I too started scouring the do follow blogs…then Commentluv was created and my traffic SKYROCKETED.
Add value in your comments with a nifty titled post and you can’t lose.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..I’m Looking For Launch Partners – $20 OR Three DoFollow Links For You! =-.
I have always looked at comments as relationships and advertising, and part of the reason for that is SEO is not my strongest suit, although I learn more everyday. I guess I always figured the relationships I build would help with some sort of SEO, although a small fraction in the long run.
.-= Jenny´s last blog ..Study On Posting Anxiety – I’ve Got It =-.
@Jenny, Jenny, you are doing just fine with your site and I am certain it will do well. If you have any questions about SEO just skype me…
i read in one of the comments above that tycoonblogger commented a lot and went from pr 3 to pr2, does commenting a lot can really harm your PR ???
will be interested to know your feedback
.-= Raj´s last blog ..Mutual Twitter Interview (Part 1) with: Life Coach and author of ‘The Eby Way’ – Gary Eby =-.
@Raj, I am sure there were other factors involved other than too many comment links.
Great post,
I look at comments as a way to advertise my blog and not really SEO. The better and the more I comment the better I market myself. But at the same time, I do not look at comment as a job or a tool. I do it because I like to do it and I want to be helpful to the blogging world.
.-= element321´s last blog ..How to Add a Facebook Fan Page Box To WordPress =-.
@element321, With that attitude you will (and are) do great with commenting on blogs.
I generally visit and comment on sites that provide me with some sort of good reading where I can do a bit of research on a subject and learn a little. If I am able to add a link in great, if it’s a keyword luv link even better. The point is we should use blogs correctly and make appropriate comments that add to the post. Personally, I belive blog comment links have some sort of bearing, after all – a link is a link.
@Paul@ Artificial Christmas Trees, A link is a link is not completely true, Matt Cutts even says that. But I do agree with you that adding value by commenting builds relationships.
Hi keith,
Yes you did a fantastic job in blog commenting. You created the community from blog commenting. People thinks blog commenting will help to your SERP’s ranking and traffic for your site but they forgot the important one is only QUALITY Blog Commenting is helpful for you to getting good things. Fully agree with Kelly at FMSSEO who know what links is good for SEO.
@data recovery software, Thanks! I like to think that building community on your blog is mainly in the comments.
I have to somewhat disagree with you about getting links back to your sites. You mentioned about a site that has 50k back links and is only a PR3 or 4.
I think that links pointing to your site count more than the on-page SEO, in my opinion. I have a couple blogs that are PR3’s, and I only have 200 or so back links to the blog.
If anyone does any kind of link building, the link that you get pointing back to the site has to be from a relevant site 100% related to the keyword you are trying to rank your site for. Relevancy is something that most people don’t really pay attention to nowadays. People think that just getting thousands of back links is going to do wonders for their site, and they could not be more wrong.
@Trevor Bandura@Make Money Today, I am not quite sure you actually disagreed with me, my point was that if the links mattered that much (quantity) then those 50k links would make that site a higher PR, and your 200 links would make your site a PR0 or 1. So I think that the links that have more authority and more relevance (same niche) matter more.
Hi Keith
Couple of points you have made, which I have found to be true.
Comments, which add to the discussion, can generate traffic and hence comments on your own site, and you become part of a community.
You can’t really be a lone blogger and the community thing has really helped and encouraged me.
I only comment on blogs that interest me but I guess by default I have become part of the CommentLuv community – great idea, great name and I love the little heart.
.-= Keith Davis@public speaking´s last blog ..Practice, practice, practice… =-.
@Keith Davis@public speaking, I really like CommentLuv too, but I look at it different than some bloggers, I like the fact that I can promote an article that may be on topic to what the article I am commenting on it (if you register you can choose from your last ten articles) and that might spark someone’s interest to click over to visit me.
.-= Keith Bloemendaal´s last blog ..Blogging Is Easy? =-.
It’s great you use KeywordLuv, Top commentator, Dofollow & Commentluv. These plugins really make it easy to spread the linkluv!
“I personally don’t think of anything that happens off page to be SEO, so I don’t consider links to be part of SEO.”
Finally, someone with the balls to say what we are all thinking. I fell into the same trap when I first started blogging [spending too much time leaving comments instead of working on producing better content], you end up with 1000 social media friends and there is no way you can leave a non-spam comment on all of them.
I now just comment where and whenever the content moves me, regardless of whether the blog is in my “niche” or not.
Back to your post hammer, Considering that only 1% of your blog traffic actually comments on your blog, its pretty easy to translate this over the four KAZZION blogs out there, meaning no one is gaining by commenting to exhaustion.
found you in Bloggers Den btw
.-= marcelino´s last blog ..Fattest man dies masturbating in Chatroulette =-.
i love to comment…giving my views..i really like the conclusion part of your article
“Comment because you have something to add or a question to ask FIRST…Commenting on blogs in your niche is a great way to promote yourself if done properly, but be careful you don’t appear to be a spammer because you are only promoting yourself”
a nice post over all
Yes, I completely agree with this article. Even as an SEO, it completely irks me to see other people commenting very randomly or directly promoting their products in the comment section. I think atleast a short post is necessary.
Personally I think the problem is less with promoted tweets and other ways Twitter chooses to monetize, and more with quality control. Spam is a growing problem. Just this morning I've had enough spam @ replies to frustrate me and make me consider scaling back my use of the platform.