Image courtesy of Timothy Muza via Unsplash

The term “online marketing” encompasses everything from pay-per-click advertising to reputation management and even the most complicated email drip campaigns, and that is not even the tip of the iceberg. One thing that all methods of digital marketing have in common, though, is that they are all about your image and the relationships you form (…or fail to form, as the case may be). In the modern world, whether you are a multi-million dollar corporation or a single freelancer, you will be expected to constantly prove your worth and expertise. Here’s how blog commenting can help you accomplish that:

Slowly, but Surely, Expand Your Professional Network

If there is one thing that professional writers love, it is acknowledgment. It takes time and effort to craft the message they have written for your consumption, and your comment tells them that you are listening. As an added bonus, other readers will also notice that you are an engaged member of your professional community.

Pro Tip: When you leave a comment on another writer’s work, remember your purpose for doing so. Stay focused on relationship building, and write a comment that will resonate with them.

Nothing says “I did not read your post,” like a comment that says, “Great post!”

Give Your Own Blog a Boost

There are two ways that your own blog will benefit from your engagement with others. First, it will drive traffic back to your website. Again, this is contingent upon the quality of your comment. An insightful, well-crafted comment will pique the curiosity of other readers and encourage them to visit your site. Second, writers have a way of responding to one another in kind. In most cases, leaving feedback on the blog of another writer will lead to them doing the same on an article that you have written. This is the kind of engagement that you should be working toward.

Pro Tip: For optimal engagement, make your blog commenting rounds on the same day that you publish a new post. This way, when you drive new traffic back to your website, they will have something fresh and exciting to read.

Talk to Your Other Audience

Web publishing is worlds apart from its paper-and-ink predecessor. Not only is your content fed to your audience in real-time, but sometimes, your audience is not even human. Search engines use crawlers (also known as spiders or bots) to gather information from all over the web, and that data is fed into an algorithm that determines your placement in a search index. Your blog comments will include links to your website, which is just one more way to tell those search engine crawlers what your content is all about. While former Googler, Matt Cutts, warns against making this your sole backlinking strategy, he does admit that it can be beneficial when carried out appropriately.

Pro Tip: In 2013, Cutts offered a few pieces of advice to blog commenters that we still stand by today. First and foremost, every aspect of SEO depends on relevance. If the link and the anchor text don’t match, search engines will notice. The same is true for links in the comments section of a totally off-topic website. Stick to commenting on blogs in your niche or those that belong to businesses in your local area. It needs to make sense.

Another pearl of wisdom offered up by Cutts is that you should avoid using keywords or your business name when you leave comments on other blogs. “Spammy” is the only way to describe that practice. Instead, leave your name (or even a nickname, if you’re more comfortable with that).

Blog commenting adds a kind of depth to your online presence that cannot be achieved through other means of web marketing. This is natural and organic, and it takes us back to basics: person-to-person engagement.

If you’re interested in developing an appropriate and effective blog commenting strategy for your business, contact a member of our team to get started today.