Blog commenting is a simple yet effective way to increase your blog readership. The purpose is twofold: 1. to gain traffic from people clicking the links you left on other people’s blogs and 2. to obtain backlinks for SEO, provided that the blogs are dofollow. But because of these, some blog commenters are abusing this technique and leaving their spammy trademarks all over the blogosphere.

I know you just want to spread the word about your blog (or maybe do a whitehat link building for a client). But there are ways to attain this goal without having to associate yourself with these spammer’s activities. Here’s the list of blog commenting do’s and dont’s that I came up with.

Commenting Basics

1. Post only relevant comment. The comment field is an avenue for the blog’s readers to react in relation to what the author has posted and maybe, elicit a conversation with author or the other readers of the blog. Therefore, a good comment must always be pertinent to the topic of the post.

2. Read (not skim) the post before commenting. How would you know what the post is about if you won’t read it? And if you didn’t read it, what’s the purpose of making a comment?

3. Avoid overly short or overly long comments. “Ok“, “Nice post“, “Great article thanks for posting” and other similar comments do not really add value to the post and are sometimes considered as spam. If you really just want to appreciate the post, add a few more words or sentences that will show that you’ve actually read it. Conversely, comments that are too lengthy, even longer than the post itself is also not pleasing to the eyes.

4. Check spelling and grammar before hitting the submit button. Need I say more?

5. Don’t dominate the comment thread. Don’t answer every other comment posted on a blog that is not even yours.

Commenting for SEO

6. Don’t put self-serving links. If you have to put a link, make sure that the site that it points to is related to the topic of the post. Otherwise, the link is nothing but self-serving, especially if a website/URL field is already provided.

7. Avoid using generic comments. There are many comment-poster tools out there that allow you to search for related blogs (even dofollow and high PR blogs) and one of their feature is the option to create a generic comment to post to these blogs for speady link building. Generic comments are akin to spam– they are not relevant and purely self-serving. While I use some of these tools myself, I only use them to find blogs. I still read each post before I write relevant comments.

8. If you must use the keyword phrase as anchor text, personalize them. Some bloggers are put off when commenters use a keyword phrase instead of their own name. While the comments may be relevant and meaningful, they find it hard to reply to readers who call themselves “Make Money Online” or “Work From Home” or “Wedding Favors“. One way to address this without dropping your precious keyword is by personalizing them like this Justin @ MyOnlineJourney.com or Fei @ WorkAtHomeMom. You may also use other linking terms  such as at, from and of.

9. Use your name as your name and the keyword as your surname. I learned this technique from a client who was optimizing for the term “trucker” and “trucking”. He instructed me to disguise the keyword as a surname. For example, Pamela Trucker or John Trucking. But this technique is only effective for short, common-term keywords. Surely, a name Cristy Weight Loss Diet doesn’t look believable.

10. Avoid necro-commenting. In forums, there is such a thing a necroposting–posting on really old threads that are no longer relevant and can be considered “dead” already (hence the term necro). Commenters sometimes do this as well (even I am guilty of this). But making comments on an old post can be acceptable as long as the topic is still relevant. For example, you’re a bride-to-be and came across this old post from another bride whose dress you adore and you want to know who her designer is. But if you’re going to dig up old post for SEO purposes, it won’t do that much good because the post is probably not regularly indexed by spiders.

Commenting for Blog Promotion

10. Use gravatar to your advantage. If you want to come out as an ordinary commenter (no keywords or site to your name and no links within the comment either), but still want to promote your site in a subtle way, then a clever use of the gravatar may be the answer. You can create an icon that bears your site’s name and use it as gravatar. Or create an eye-catching image that will make people want to know who’s person behind the gravatar and click your link.

11. Avoid triggering Akismet or other comment filter plugins. Because if you do, your site with be flagged down as a spam and all the comments you make using that URL will be shoved into the spam folder (or worse, deleted right away). And all the other blogs with the same plugin will treat you this way. One way to trigger these spam comment busters is by making comments aggresively across a number of posts in the blog. Or by placing too many links in the comment. Or by using bad keywords (porn-,gambling-,viagra-related terms, etc).

12. If you can, please go back and see if anyone has responded to your comment. A conversation is always nice, just remember to stay within the topic. And if you go back, it will give the blog owner the impression that you’re indeed a reader of his/her blog and not just a one-time commenter.

Now, don’t be afraid to comment. If you have other tips and suggestions on how to comment properly and ethically, please share below.

blog commenting, non-spammy comments Link Building, SEO, Tips