Comment Links: How Many Can You Use?

I received a good question from our colleague Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound:

Q.  When I post a comment at someone else’s blog and they ask for my URL, is it OK to offer both my website URL as well as the URL for my blog? If so, do I separate them with a comma? Obviously, the more inbound links to the website and the blog, the better.

A.  If you read and comment on other blogs (and you should be!), you know that you can leave your name and URL for your site.  We always advise our clients to be commenting frequently on blogs of similar topics in order to get known in the blogosphere and to create inbound links to your own blog or website.  There is generally one field to put your URL. 

Some people do put their URLs in the body of the comment and though I don't think there is a hard and fast rule on this, many bloggers consider this to be spam, especially if it doesn't contribute to the conversation or provide a resource related to the topic of the post.

Yes, you want inbound links from the blogs you're commenting on, and you want to be respectful of the blogger.  Some bloggers may delete or not approve your comment if you stuff it with extra URLs.  Personally, I'd stick to putting one URL in the field provided unless I was including a link the comment box that added to the conversation.  A link to your own website probably doesn't do that.  But a link to a free report on your site,if relevant, could be considered OK.

The other thing to consider is that some blogging platforms to not allow you to have an active hyperlink in the body of the comment.  And in TypePad you can choose to have them active or not.

Anyone like to weigh in on this issue?  I'd be curious to know how other bloggers deal with this and how you feel about extra URLs being placed in the comments.  Thanks for the question, Joan!

Comments

[Marios Alexandrou]

Links in blog comments are often tagged with an extra parameter in the HTML that marks them as "nofollow". This parameter tells search engines to ignore this link and therefore there is unlikely to be any benefit from such a link from an SEO perspective.

This "nofollow" setting is automatically applied by most blogging systems including the one that powers Build a Better Blog.

[Denise aka The Blog Squad]

Marios, thanks for your clarification. I checked the source code on this page and indeed, there is a "no follow" tag in the comments. I know this was a topic of discussion nearly 2 years ago and frankly, I just didn't pay attention. So I decided to do a little research and found a post by John Battelle (author of The Search)from January 2005, about the "no follow" controversy: http://battellemedia.com/archives/001198.php

Then I read an article on cnet about Google's attempt to outwit comment spammers: http://news.com.com/Google+aims+to+outsmart+search+tricksters/2100-1024_3-5540740.html?tag=nefd.top

This is how I understand it: from an SEO perspective, leaving your URL in the comment field does nothing for you in terms of establishing page rank.

But, it can help drive traffic to your site from real, live human beings. And this is the point Patsi and I have always made: by leaving comments and your URL, you are alerting the blog's author about who you are and inviting her/him to visit your blog, as well as other readers who may be following the comments. This is a way of getting known in the blogosphere and that will only help you, not hurt.

Here's a quote (the best I can decipher it from my notes) by Jason Calacanis who gave the opening keynote at the Blog Business Summit last week, "You could write one blog [post] a week and comment on 10 a day and you'd become known in the blogosphere."

Comments, anyone?

[Denise aka The Blog Squad]

For more on "nofollow" here's info on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nofollow

[Margaret Saizan]

I think the key issue is intent. If someone posts a really relevant or interesting comment to my blog, I am more than happy to include a link back to the commenter's own blog, regardless of whether that blog is relevant to my topic (Katrina recovery). I make the distinction because some commenters will say something like, "nice blog" period, end of story and then include a link back to a poker site or runescape something or other! These I delete in their entirety because they are obvious spam. But I would never consider a link left by a bonafide commenter to be spam - In fact, I feel those links in a way function as avatars - they help you get to know the person who is actually leaving the comment. The blogosphere is after all about networking. Done tastefully and with positive intent then, I see nothing wrong with including a link back to your blog following feedback that actually lends to the conversation. Hope this helps!

Margaret Saizan
Beyond Katrina: The Voice of Hurricane & Disaster Recovery

[Denise aka The Blog Squad]

Margaret, you are right on about "intent." Joan's question was about whether or not it is OK to include more than one link in a comment: one to her blog and one to her website. Since we now know that there is no SEO benefit for the link in the URL field for the comments, it's important to look at it as a traffic driver and identifier of the author. Your following statement is absolutely reflects how comments should be used, IMHO:

"In fact, I feel those links in a way function as avatars - they help you get to know the person who is actually leaving the comment. The blogosphere is after all about networking. Done tastefully and with positive intent then, I see nothing wrong with including a link back to your blog following feedback that actually lends to the conversation."

[Kevin O'Keefe]

You're spot on Denise. When I get comments with multiple url's, it's clear to me they're looking for incoming links rather than engaging in a discussion. Of course there's exceptions when people point out things via url's.

Also take note that professional blog platform's like LexBlog's use comment spam filters. Multiple url's are flagged for spam.

[Love Ask]

This is how I understand it: from an SEO perspective, leaving your URL in the comment field does nothing for you in terms of establishing page rank.