Boost Your Traffic Through Blog Comments

The benefits of blogging for business are obvious. It will help drive traffic to your website, allow you to get your views and opinions ‘out there’, give you a method of conversing with your customers and establish you as an expert in your industry.

But are you spending time reading other people’s blogs?

The benefits of taking time out of your busy schedule to read what others are talking about are numerous. Not least because it keeps you up to date with current thinking and trends in your field and those associated with your business.

It will also help keep you up to date with the ever changing world of search engine optimisation so you can ensure your online marketing activities are always at their optimum.

But more than that, reading and commenting on other people’s blogs will help drive traffic back to your website. However, that doesn’t mean you should merrily write any old thing in the hope of people tracking you down over the web.

If you are going to set up a blog commenting strategy, make sure you do it well.

How not to comment on blogs

A lot of people are beginning to understand the benefits of commenting on other’s blogs, but many are doing it badly.

You may think that commenting is simple – any fool can do it. Well, you’d be wrong because below are some common pitfalls that people constantly slip into:

• Trying to be clever can offend

If there is one thing that doesn’t convey well in the written word it is intonation and irony (OK, yes I know that’s two things). When we speak to someone face to face our body language and voice patterns show when we are being ‘funny’. Try and convey the same kind of message on a blog comment and you could come across as rude or offensive. Not a good thing.

However tempted you are at making a quip about someone else’s post, keep your comments professional at all times.

• Don’t hide behind your keywords

Sometimes you’ll see people reply using their keywords as their name rather than their real name. So, for example, if I was to leave a comment I’d put it was written by copywriter Suffolk rather than Sally Ormond.

Firstly it looks awful and secondly it takes away the personal nature of your comment. You wouldn’t introduce yourself as ‘copywriter Suffolk’ if you were meeting someone face to face so don’t sign yourself as that.

• Please, please, proofread before hitting send

This one pretty much speaks for itself. As with everything you publish on the net (and with other marketing materials) always proofread. Think how sloppy you’ll look if your comment is crowded with spelling or grammatical errors.

Yes, we are all time limited, but it doesn’t take long to read what you’ve written before hitting send.

• “Me too!”

This type of comment is a complete waste of space. If you are going to take the time to reply to someone’s post at least think of something to say. Even if you do agree with everything they’ve said try to expand on it. Give examples of why you agree – write something that adds value to the post.

• Read it before you comment

A lot of people with comment strategies simply look for the blogs in their field with the highest page rank and comment on everything – quite often without actually reading the post in the first place.

This type of ‘blanket commenting’ is of no value whatsoever. No one will be impressed. If you are going to use blog commenting as a traffic building strategy at least take the time to read the post, evaluate what’s being said and then write a considered, thoughtful comment.

• Don’t spam

This is the lowest form of comment known to man. I get loads of spam comments on both my blogs. A spam comment is where someone writes a comment that contains links to their own website – a thinly veiled advert.

This is not good practice and will result in you being labelled a spammer. And once you have that reputation it will be very difficult to shake it off.

Why do you need to know this?

Reputations can be built and broken in the blink of an eye on the internet. If you get blog commenting wrong, the word will be out in seconds and we all know how quickly information can pass from person to person on the internet.

• Make sure you have a plan
• Make sure you read posts carefully before commenting
• Make sure you read your comments before hitting send
• Be professional at all times