What is blog commenting?
Under most articles there is a comment box, and most comment boxes let you include a website. For years that made blog comments one of the easiest ways to get a link: find posts on your topic, leave a remark, add your URL. At its best it was a conversation between people in the same field, and the links that came from it were earned. At its worst it was automated software posting "great article, check out my site" ten thousand times a night, which is why nearly every platform now adds a nofollow attribute to comment links and why comment sections are so often closed.
As a link building tactic it is close to spent. As a way of being present in your industry's conversation, it still has a place, and that is the only version of it worth a brand's time.
Why it matters
Why blog commenting matters
It matters mostly as a lesson in what a link is worth. A nofollow comment link passes little or no ranking value, so the SEO case for commenting at scale collapsed years ago. What remains is the human case: a thoughtful comment on a respected site is read by the author and by other readers, it can lead to a guest post or a mention, and it puts a name in front of people who matter in a niche.
It also matters as a risk. A brand's name attached to spammy comments across the web is a reputation problem, and a backlink profile full of comment links on low-quality sites is a pattern Google's spam systems recognize.
In practice
How blog commenting works in practice
- 01
Comment where you would read anyway. Pick a small number of sites your audience actually follows, read the article properly and add something: a counterpoint, a related example, an answer to a question in the thread. Sign with your real name and, where the form allows it, your site. Expect the link to be nofollow and treat any direct traffic or follow-up as the return.
- 02
Never automate it, never buy it and never outsource it to someone who has not read the post. If an agency lists "blog commenting" as a link building deliverable, ask to see the comments. The ones worth having are the ones you would be happy to have your name on.
Watch out
What people get wrong about blog commenting
Measuring it in links. The value of a good comment is the person who reads it, not the attribute on the URL. The other mistake is leaving comments that exist only to hold a link: platforms delete them, moderators ban the domain and the brand looks like a spammer. If the comment would not make sense without the link, do not post it.
Giving up on comments entirely. A founder or a creative lead who occasionally shows up in the comments of the trade press, saying something sharp, builds more recognition than a hundred automated posts ever did.
