What anchor text do you use when leaving a blog comment?

[bornstein75]

Hi Guys,

How do you leave comments on a blog.....I really want to use my anchor text as the name, for the keyword I'm ranking for, but I know that looks spammy...so how do you go about it, while at the same time making it beneficial for your keyword ranking?

[angienewton]

I wouldn't do it. I would just use your name (and I use my site name next to that) so mine looks like this

Angie (Losing It and Loving It)

I wouldn't worry too much about trying to rank when it comes to blog commenting. Best to write articles, add more content to your site/blog, do guest blog posts, etc. One thing you can do though when blog commenting is you can use the link section to put a link in there that goes back to a specific page on your site/blog that has to do with the blog post you're commenting on. Does that make sense?

Say I went to another weight loss/fitness forum and commented on a blog post where they were talking about walking workouts. I would then use my name like I posted above and the link I would put in the field would go to my specific walking page on my website.

Again, don't worry too much about the blog commenting thing. There are better ways to get ranked for your keyword phrases.

[TheWealthSquad]

Some blogs allow using keywords in the blog posts. Some will ban you for doing it. Take a few minutes and read their rules. See what other people are doing. If it is a blog you are going to on a lot , make sure you fit in the community.

You will get traffic from their blog based on the quality of your comments, not on your keyword. Blog commenting is breadcrumb marketing. It leaves a trail to your blog but won't blow your traffic through the roof.

Plus I have a feeling the search engines take into account blog commenting when looking at back links.

[jkgourmet]

I wouldn't do it. I would just use your name (and I use my site name next to that) so mine looks like this

Angie (Losing It and Loving It)

I wouldn't worry too much about trying to rank when it comes to blog commenting. Best to write articles, add more content to your site/blog, do guest blog posts, etc. One thing you can do though when blog commenting is you can use the link section to put a link in there that goes back to a specific page on your site/blog that has to do with the blog post you're commenting on. Does that make sense?

Say I went to another weight loss/fitness forum and commented on a blog post where they were talking about walking workouts. I would then use my name like I posted above and the link I would put in the field would go to my specific walking page on my website.

Again, don't worry too much about the blog commenting thing. There are better ways to get ranked for your keyword phrases.

Angie, I assume you hyperlink the "(Losing it and Loving it)" to your url, correct?

[AlexNewell]

Most bloggers will delete your comments without a second thought if you do this.

Apart from bloggers who have KeywordLuv installed. You might find this useful http://www.scratch99.com/wordpress-plugin-keywordluv/

[angienewton]

Angie, I assume you hyperlink the "(Losing it and Loving it)" to your url, correct?

Jeanette,
It automatically hyperlinks when you leave a blog comment. You know when you have to put in your name, email address and link? For the name field I put Angie (Losing It and Loving It). It automatically hyperlinks to what ever web address I put in the link field.

[jkgourmet]

Jeanette,
It automatically hyperlinks when you leave a blog comment. You know when you have to put in your name, email address and link? For the name field I put Angie (Losing It and Loving It). It automatically hyperlinks to what ever web address I put in the link field.

Angie, thanks for the clarification.

Is that true on all blogs? Dont' some blog owners block that?

What about forums? What would you link to there when you leave a comment (assuming the forum allows hyperlinks in the text or in your signature)?

[angienewton]

Angie, thanks for the clarification.

Is that true on all blogs? Dont' some blog owners block that?

What about forums? What would you link to there when you leave a comment (assuming the forum allows hyperlinks in the text or in your signature)?

I have never been blocked yet. It's not a keyword phrase but my website name. Mostly just started using it on weight loss/fitness and foodie blogs so they knew who I was but now I use it on all blogs. Haven't had a problem so far because I always leave legitimate comments, not one liners or anything.

As for forums, I use my keyword phrases BUT make it sound normal. For example, here on these forums I use My Weight Loss Journal (blog) and weight loss journal is a KW phrase. It really doesn't matter on this forum since this site has nothing to do with my niche but I still use it because it's one I use in a few other forums.

Does all that make sense?

[TheWealthSquad]

The easiest thing to do is to check the site out.

How have other people commented? Do they use keywords as their name? Some sites specifically state they do not allow keyword signatures and comments.

When you leave comments you are stepping into their playground. Be respectful. Leave good comments. Develop a relationship with the blogs that are in your market. The relationship with the owner of the site can be far more valuable than a few links in the comment section.

If you develop a good relationship, you can do a guest post which is much greater visibility and value than the links you leave in the comments section.

Put value in your comments. Give before you receive.

[Clay Franklin]

search do follow blogs. dofollow.com has a list of them. I have seen some blogs that allow name@keyword in the name field. blogs with comment luv work great too and I like Angies idea.

[Henrik Flensborg]

I have never been blocked yet. It's not a keyword phrase but my website name.

Yeah, there's a big difference between linking to brittany-murphy-fired.blogspot.com (current #2 Google Hot Trends) and linking to a keyword-rich, but naturally sounding domain name.

[lisahartwell]

This came up at Ed Dale's recent seminar because some investigation using Market Samurai showed that a drop in rankings for an attendee's website was mainly due to many of the backlinks (especially the high PR ones) to the site being hyperlinked using the site owner's name not the keywords.

So (as an example) in the eyes of the search engines this would look like the focus of the site was Lisa rather than Women's Business.

The site owner was an active blog commenter but didn't want to seem spammy by adding her keywords in the name field. Fair enough! Ed Dale actually said he was uncomfortable about people using keywords in this field, although others who were answering questions felt there was a fair compromise: if your company/website name has your keywords in it then you can add that in the name field as this is essentially who you are. Then sign your comment with your real name (AND offer a comment of good value - not just a "I love your site and will visit regularly")

Some blog owners will not have a problem with this as you are giving value. I personally think it's worth trying in order to get good backlinks from higher PR sites.

But, again, I would stress that it all depends on the comments you are making. If I see someone has made an effort to read the post and comment appropriately then I don't have a problem with this. If the person has left a lame comment and/or tried to add another link of their own into the comment then I hit the spam button.

Lisa

[AlexNewell]

Blog commenting is mostly about building a relationship with the blogger and perhaps getting traffic.

The limitations of a blog mean that it is not a sensible way to build links for SEO. That's why we do article marketing, create web 20 properties etc

[jkgourmet]

Blog commenting is mostly about building a relationship with the blogger and perhaps getting traffic.

The limitations of a blog mean that it is not a sensible way to build links for SEO. That's why we do article marketing, create web 20 properties etc

Alex, what's a "web 20 property ?????

[AlexNewell]

OK then maybe I should write it as web 2.0 but often it's written as web20, I guess out of laziness!

So that's squidoo, hub, twitter, facebook...all the user generated content and socal networking sites...

[jkgourmet]

Ah - that I understood. Primarily because about 2 months ago I asked "What's Web 2.0" :)

[AlexNewell]

"So just comment on blogs where you do have something to say."

Welcome to SSWT Steve and that's good advice for forums too

:-)

Alex

[lindastacy]

I've always commented just using my real name (and only when I have something to say - advice I totally agree with). But I also have a site at my real name dot com so I guess it's okay if my name ranks well.

If you Google me it's a bit creepy though... in position #5 is "In Loving Memory of Linda Stacy." :eek:

I have a "comment policy" on my blog that asks people to use their real names. I'm pretty lenient about it if it's someone I know or the comment is meaningful and thoughtful. But I just edited one today to take out the keyword link.