Blog/Article comment linking to rich content sites

[Roolio]

Hello,

I am in the process of starting a link building campaign on sites I worked on for a period of time. These sites all have original, legitimate, super-relevant content and most pages on the sites are 500-1000+ word pages. The sites are all user-friendly, easy to navigate, branded and designed well.

The question is; Does Google mind comment links in blogs and articles to relevant sites like these? I know it's considered a form of spamming to rank higher due to comment-linking but what if the site is relevant to the terms it ranks for? What if the site gives Google visitors what they are looking for, plus more?

Your thoughts on this? Anyone with experience with this?

[wheel]

Getting in content links from relevant blogs I would expect would work well. In fact, removing the word 'relevant' may also work well.

I'm considerably less enthusiastic about getting links from comments on blogs. I think you'll find that for the most part they'll be nofollowed (useless) links.

In other words, getting articles published on blogs may be a viable strategy. Getting comments published on blogs is likely to work less well.

[Roolio]

Thank you wheel for your answer. It still didn't answer my initial question though, which was if Google still considers it spam if the website is a legitimate, relevant, content-rich website which gives Google searchers what they are looking for?

Although blog commenting is considered to be a form of spam will they still penalize or remove it if the site isn't a spam site?

[wheel]

There's no firm answer, but I suspect the answer is you'll be OK if you do it in moderation.

[Planet13]

No matter where you get the links from, having a good mix of anchor text APPEARS to be very important if you wish to avoid a Minus 50 penalty (often called an Over Optimization Penalty).

It would be good to take a close look at the back links of the top ten competitors in your niche and see what types of links they have, and whether they have benefited from the types of links which you hope to obtain.

It might be a good idea to take a look at the competitors in the 50 to 60 range and see if there is a consistent patter of spammy back links.

I believe (no scientific data) that google will be more likely to IGNORE spammy back links in certain niches and PUNISH spammy backlinks in other niches, depending on how competitive they are and how many searches the keywords get in a given month.

This is based on looking at the posts in this and other forums from people claiming to have received a minus 50 penalty.

[CainIV]

Diverse set of inbound links from relevant sources, in my opinion, coupled with strong content wins most times.

There are always exceptions, and eventually that is what position 60+ is for.

[Cruxo]

Inbound contextual links from blogs with strong domain authority and very on-topic content do work very well for me. But I'll be careful in using blog comments as a link building method simply because of bad neighborhood. You have no control over the outbound links in the comments following yours.

[Planet13]

Inbound contextual links from blogs with strong domain authority and very on-topic content do work very well for me.

I wonder, if you are going to do guest blogging, it might be better to do it on a post that DOESN'T allow comments.

If I remember correctly, comment links that are nofollowed still diminish page rank that flows through the links that ARE followed.

I'm guessing that while one might have the only follow link on the page, if there are a hundred nofollow comment links, well, it might not be of much benefit...

[Cruxo]

Planet13, you might have a point about the link juice being diminished. After all, it is arguable that Google still follow and pass on some link juice on nofollow links. Think Wikipedia.

[Planet13]

After all, it is arguable that Google still follow and pass on some link juice on nofollow links. Think Wikipedia.

Hmmm...

I don't know about link juice being passed to nofollow links (although in one video I swear Matt Cutts said that ALMOST no page rank is passed in nofollow links).

But what has been stated by Matt Cutts is that putting nofollow links on a page make that Page Rank go into a black hole.

So, for argument's sake, if you have one DOFOLLOW link and 99 nofollow links, the one dofollow link will still only get 1/100th of the available page rank that can flow from that page. The other 99% is wasted, pure and simple.

I guess if I were a black hatter I could find all the guest blog posts of my competitors who received a backlink and spam the comments section (even if they are nofollow) so to make the page rank flow into a black hole.

fortunately for them, I am too busy shooting myself in the foot with all my other nonsense to do this to my competitors...

[martinibuster]

My understanding is that the PageRank is divided among all the links, including the nofollowed links. The nofollowed links do not pass pagerank, but they are still used in calculating how much is passed for the dofollow links.

[CainIV]

To be honest I think the lines are being blurred daily in this regard. I would agree that "for the most part" nofollow links absorb juice and those links do not pass page rank.

I don't believe this is always the case, and believe that depending on the authority of the source, those outbound nofollow links might actually increase your hub score, or weight of the link to you, from an article or blog post.

It is really starting to become more site dependent.

[mhansen]

I like to look at backlinks, equal to money! Woohoo, green hard cash money!

When a .edu, .gov, or even a high authority .any site links to your page or site within the first few paragraphs of a killer, well authored article, that's highly relevant to you and the visitors... cha-ching, that's a buck, and equals "1" full-credit-backlink!

On the other hand... when you can get a blog comment or directory link that any other 3-p (#*$!, pills, poker link [en.wikipedia.org]]) can just as easily get, well... that's .01 penny, and you would need 100 of these to equal "1" full-credit-backlink!

EVERY other backlink falls somewhere in the middle of that chain to me, and I try to stay as close to $1 as often as I can.

IMHO... blog comments, even on VERY relevant blogs, are only worth a penny or two at most in backlink value, nofollowed or not!

Just my .02 cents...

[martinibuster]

mhansen, well stated!

[Planet13]

IMHO... blog comments, even on VERY relevant blogs, are only worth a penny or two at most in backlink value, nofollowed or not!

Let me throw a "but what if..." at you here.

But what if those blog comments were on a moderated blog of PR6 / PR7 and the blog owner only allowed a select few comments in the first place (maybe 3 or 4 per post) and none of them were of the traditional spam variety.

Any benefit there?

[CainIV]

But what if those blog comments were on a moderated blog of PR6 / PR7 and the blog owner only allowed a select few comments in the first place (maybe 3 or 4 per post) and none of them were of the traditional spam variety.

Of course. It is the number of outbound links, the relevance of the outbound links (hub score / bad neighborhood) and authority of the root domain and website that dictate the trust and weight the link passes currently.

[zehrila]

The more authoritative the site becomes, the more immune it converts into, so since you said your site is pretty legit and steady in serps, getting few comments from relevant authoritative sites won't hurt at all, given that they moderate and weed out bad comments and bad neighbourhood links.

In all cases, do try to make a mention of your domain and wrap your link around with a relevant text, which match to both of your site and post topic. This shall provide some padding for your link.

[Planet13]

Thank you, Zehrila:

It's probably not the best use of my time, but when commenting on blogs, I only post on sites that are very strict with their comments, and on topics which I am deeply familiar with and have a (somewhat) controversial opinion upon which I can write at least three or four paragraphs. Then I usually just link to my home page.

I might be putting the cart before the horse though. It might be a good idea that after I find a blog from which I would like to receive a comment from, then create a post on my blog that is related to that blog post, and then make a smaller comment that references my own (highly related) blog post.

[simonbuzz12]

Blog commenting is one of the best thing to do when it comes to building backlinks...cheer

[wheel]

Really?

If you were working at Google and did a hand review of a site that was ranking due to large amounts of blog comments, what would you think of that?

[wheel]

I don't believe this is always the case, and believe that depending on the authority of the source, those outbound nofollow links might actually increase your hub score, or weight of the link to you, from an article or blog post.

Based on one data point, I have to disagree.

I have a website that has 54,000 backlinks showing in Yahoo. They are all run of site links. They are all on high authority, relevant sites. And they are all nofollow.

And the site doesn't rank worth a dang on anything. It'll show up for very specific long tail terms, but I'd say that's just as the result of having the content on the page.

[Roolio]

If you were working at Google and did a hand review of a site that was ranking due to large amounts of blog comments, what would you think of that?

I think after all these years of SEO you are now misinterpreting and missing the point(and I can join you in this sometimes) on what Google really wants; sites in their rankings which give their users what they want.

Although I personally prefer to go for the more white hat route, I've seen sites with a massive amount of hidden backlinks rank for the top 5 keywords in the business. Many of those hidden backlinks even show up in the first page results of Google URL Link search or Yahoo Site Explorer, out in the open for anyone to see. BUT, and here it comes, the sites have EVERYTHING that a user could look for. They're legit, relevant, easy to navigate, well-designed sites with the content on it that Google users search for. Do you think Google wants a worse site to have higher rankings as a much better site, just because the worse site uses legitimate backlinking methods? Do you think ANY Google user will complain except for other webmasters who're into SEO?

[Planet13]

They're legit, relevant, easy to navigate, well-designed sites with the content on it that Google users search for.

In the niche I watch closely, there are sites that are MUCH better than those in the top ten - and I will admit they are better than mine as well. Better design, better photos of the products, better navigation, better text content, and better prices.

They usually hang out on page 3 of the SERPs. Not a whole lot of google love being thrown their way.

On the other hand, I have seen some crap sites link with really bad crap links. I saw a site that was ONLY an under construction home page rank top five for a two word recipe keyword. They decided to get backlinks before putting ANY content on the site.

In a perfect world, you would have exactly what the users wanted and awesome backlinks. Know your strengths and weaknesses. I've got better content and better prices than my competitors. They have more links than me, I have better links than them. I've been getting more and more links lately, and surprise, surprise, I am climbing up the rankings.

[Roolio]

In the niche I watch closely, there are sites that are MUCH better than those in the top ten - and I will admit they are better than mine as well. Better design, better photos of the products, better navigation, better text content, and better prices.

Yes there are, not the point I was making. I'm not saying Google is giving love to the quality sites over worse sites.

[Planet13]

Back to the original question:

The question is; Does Google mind comment links in blogs and articles to relevant sites like these?

I would say, looking at a particular niche for about 6 months now, that having those kinds of comments CAN help a site rank better.

However, if that site DOESN'T ALREADY HAVE A LOT OF HEALTHY LINKS, then there is a possibility those comment links from blogs can HURT your site instead.

Also, make sure that the site you are commenting on is RELEVANT to your topic and only accepts comments that are relevant and on topic. And also make sure that they are dofollow links.

These sites all have original, legitimate, super-relevant content and most pages on the sites are 500-1000+ word pages. The sites are all user-friendly, easy to navigate, branded and designed well.

Good. Then it would probably be better to just contact relevant sites that are NOT blogs and tell them about your site and ask them if they would kindly link to your site.

I hope this helps. Having great content is 90% of the battle.