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5 Great Tips to Improve Your Blog Commenting

By Snap Agency September 13, 2016

Are you commenting on blogs? Blog comments are a simple and effective way to gain exposure for your brand. But in order to get the best results you need a specific strategy. Here are five great tips you should know:

1. Devote Time and Resources

You can’t just leave a few comments here and there and then expect to see results. Instead, you need to devote a significant amount of time posting comments around the internet in order to develop your brand. Many large brands employ a professional copywriter to craft blog comments five days a week.

If you’re a smaller brand who can’t afford such a service, that’s fine, too. The important thing is to create a schedule and stick to it. Even devoting just one hour every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to blog commenting should be enough to boost your brand over time.

2. Don’t Spam Your Company Name (Use Your Real One Instead)

Just seven years ago, commenting on a blog was an effective, if somewhat shady, way to earn backlinks. Today, search engines don’t look fondly on over-optimized keywords.

Don’t comment with your company name. Use your real name instead. In fact, you might not even want to include your brand name at all.

Over-optimization used to be such a problem that you’ll get better results for your brand if you concentrate on posting useful information. The less you try to promote yourself, the more brand awareness you’ll actually end up creating.

There’s another reason to use your real name. When you use your real name, you’re more likely to get a reply from the author. Generally, people like to respond to other people. A real name, and a photo, are great indicators that you’re a real person (i.e. not a troll or a bot).

If you and the blog author can start up an interesting dialogue, other people will notice. This can lead to an increase in brand awareness.

There’s an important part to all this, however. You want your real name to directly lead to your brand should anyone search for you online. After all, you’re not directly mentioning your brand in your blog comment. So you need the connection to appear quickly in the search engines.

3. Include an Up-to-Date Email Address

You want to include a working email address. This lets people – including potential customers – contact you directly.

I understand if this doesn’t sound like a great idea, however. This being the internet, if you put your email address out there publicly, you’re practically guaranteed to get spam.

Here’s a solution which works for me: I created a separate email address which I use for blog comments. This prevents any spam from flooding my main inbox while also letting me see legitimate leads.

Creating a second email address might sound a bit excessive. But consider this: According to Akismet, a spam control company, over 7.5 million spam comments are sent around the world every hour. Setting up a second email address can be a big benefit.

4. Leave High Effort Comments

Remember, you’re not leaving comments in order to generate backlinks. You’re attempting to connect with other people, and establish yourself as an expert in your field. This means you have to craft comments which are interesting, informative and engaging.

Avoid “low effort” comments. Some examples of this type of comment include:

  • “Great post!”
  • “Bookmarked to read later!”
  • “Interesting ideas!”

While everyone likes to hear some positive feedback, these low effort comments don’t really add anything to the discussion.

5. Ask Questions or Add Information

There are two main categories of blog comments which do garner positive attention. You can either ask a question or add information.

Try to avoid simple questions you can figure out on your own. Instead, ask the author for their opinion, or for additional information on a point made in the blog.

If you’re adding information, don’t go overboard. Nobody wants to read a long comment which attempts to completely overshadow the original post. Instead, offer up some helpful tidbits directly related to info provided in the article.

Blog comments are a great way to make a connection with people. Keep your comments friendly, informative and don’t try to blatantly promote your brand. This will increase your position in the SERP, help establish your authority in your industry and ultimately increase your visibility among potential customers.