How to Leverage Blog Comments to Increase Search Rank

This guest post is by Jonathan Solis of NutraSol Natural Center.

When the topic of getting blog comments for SEO comes up, your first thought would probably be to get links to your site by commenting on other blogs.

Well, I usually don’t waste my time with that technique, because most comment links are no-follow anyway.

And I want to bring focus to the comments on my own blog.

Having user-generated content on your site has always been an easy way to gain search engine traffic from long-tail keyword queries.  Comments are a good source of user-generated content containing those keyword phrases.

For the last two years, I’ve been conducting SEO experiments for all types of websites, ranging from my blogs to local business directories, and I have found that user-generated content from the comments section in my health blogs has increased my traffic tremendously.

The site that’s producing the best results for me right now is the Spanish health blog, Informe Natural. I apologize for using a site in a foreign language as an example, but this is the site I reached my conclusions from, and the idea will apply no matter what language you’re blogging in.

It all started when I began marketing Alpiste Seeds for sale online and featured an article about where to buy them on the Spanish health and nutrition blog.  As people found the page, they began to ask questions in the comments section.

Without realizing it, they were adding to my on-page search engine optimization efforts.

They would ask questions with keyword phrases like, “where can I buy the alpiste seeds in Georgia?” and I would reply with another comment answering the question in a complete sentence that contained the keyword phrase.

For example, I would write “you can order the alpiste seeds by the phone and we would be happy to ship it to you in Georgia”.  I would continue this technique with all the comments and the results were very rewarding.

I ended up getting a high ranking for the Spanish keyword phrase of where to buy alpiste seeds and also the long tail keywords derived from the conversations in the comments section of my blogs.

This technique made that page the second-most popular page on the entire site after my home page.

How can you do it? Let’s see.

Some people will not comment unless you entice them to.  A good technique is to write a call to action at the end of your article that tells readers to feel free to leave any questions or feedback in the comments section of your post.

If you give a prompt response and reply to the comments, other users will see that you are involved in the conversation and they will be more likely to ask questions too.

Make sure you know what your target keyword is before you respond with your comment.  This may seem obvious but it can easily be overlooked.  Do keyword research to find the words that are used more often by searchers.

As I stated earlier, answering in complete sentences gives you a reason to use your keyword phrases more often naturally, which helps you avoid making it look like a spammy attempt to increase keyword density.

When you reply to the comments, try to reply with questions so that you will get another response and, therefore, more user-generated content.

Leveraging blog comments is an effective way to get more traffic from search engines.  They are a great source of long tail keywords which account for about 85% of search engine traffic. And best of all, they are acquired from the users directly.

Do you use your blog comments to boost the search rank of your posts? Let me know in the comments.

Jonathan Solis is the owner of NutraSol Natural Center and Director of marketing for Expert Building Services, inc.  He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and he also has a blog where he often writes about professional business strategies – Professional Tactics.

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Want More Comments? Let ProBlogger Help!

To be honest with you, I can’t remember much about the first comment I ever received on a blog post I’d written. It was back sometime in 2000, after all!

What I do remember is the thrill. When that first reader comments on your blog, you know you’ve finally reached someone. Your writing has moved one of the people who’s arrived at your blog to respond.

Whether the comment’s long or short, detailed or simple, it doesn’t much matter: that first real (non-spam) comment is a milestone for any blogger.

Comments are always an issue for bloggers.

When you’re waiting for that first-ever comment, you dream of the days when your blog’s swamped with thoughtful comments the way the A-list blogs are.

But experienced bloggers have other considerations to tackle—and they’re not just about finding time to sift through spam or respond to commenters. As your blog grows, and attracts more comments, you’ll probably find yourself wanting to create the right kind of culture around comments, and that’ll dictate the kinds of comments you send to trash, respond to, and maybe even highlight in posts you write.

So all of us—not just those starting out—need ideas that we can use to generate comments on our blogs, and comments of the right type (no trolls, please!). Recently, I asked some experienced bloggers if they’d share their wisdom with us in a series of posts on generating comments. I’ll be publishing their responses throughout the week, starting today, and I hope we’ll all find it useful!

For now, though, I’d love to hear where you’re at with comments on your blog. Are you still waiting for that all-important first one? Are you reaching a point where you’ve had to reduce the proportion of comments you respond to? Or have you turned comments off altogether? Share your experience with us … in the comments!

Get More Comments: Write Unfinished Blog Posts

This is a guest post by Jeff Goins of Goins, Writer.

Most bloggers want to know their words are leaving an impact. They want to know people are listening.

One of the best ways to measure this is to see who’s commenting.

Not all blogs have a comments section, but many do. Comments provide an opportunity for the reader to participate in the content, to give feedback and share his or her own ideas.

Comments are a blogger’s best friend.

But the biggest struggle, especially for bloggers just starting out, is getting the first few comments. It feels like a grueling task, akin to pulling teeth.

“How do you get so many comments?” people have asked me. It didn’t always used to be like this, I tell them.

So what changed?

I started employing one simple, but overlooked tactic. You can do the same, if you want to see more comments. Here it is:

That’s right. The best way to get readers to comment on your post is to write a half-finished article.

It sounds counter-intuitive, but it works. Here are three reasons why.

Whenever I write a completely formed thought and share it on my blog, it rarely gets as much traction and feedback as an off-the-cuff rant.

Why is this? It’s not because readers don’t appreciate quality. They do.

It’s because they want to be part of the process.

That’s the magic of social media: we aren’t just consumers of content, anymore. We’re co-creators.

When you don’t finish a post and ask readers to help you complete it, you’re giving them a sense of purpose. They now have a significant role to play. And most take that role very seriously.

There’s a reason why news sites that offer comments don’t get as much response as a lot of blogs do:

People want more than information. They want interaction.

One of the best ways to encourage community on a blog is to be imperfect, to show your scars and share your flaws. To have an honest conversation.

Be conversational. I try to write in a pretty informal tone to invite readers to engage with the content. My blog posts don’t have to be perfect. Usually, it helps if they’re not.

This is a challenge for me, though, because I’m such a perfectionist. But a blog is not about perfection. It’s about community.

I don’t want to deliver a monologue. I want to engage in a conversation. Turns out, that’s what other people are looking for, too. If you aspire to build a tribe, to say something people want to hear, this is a non-negotiable: it has to be a two-way street.

Good ideas spread. Big parties usually get bigger. In everything, there is a tipping point.

The same is true for blogging.

Once you start getting ten comments on your blog, it’s pretty easy to get 20, then 30—even 50 or 100. Of course, those first few comments are the hardest. But once you build momentum, it gets easier and easier to continue.

The cool part about having an active community of commenters is that conversations can quickly go viral. A question you asked or challenge you posed can turn into a whole new source of content in the comments.

Usually, when I write a post that gets a lot of comments, it also gets a lot of tweets and shares on Facebook. If you are generous with your platform, your readers will reciprocate.

There is an important concept at work here: the more social your blog is, the more your content will spread.

If you create opportunities for conversation on your blog, you’ll see the fruit. But you have to leave room in your articles for dialogue.

If you do this, you’ll be surprised by how much people will brag on you. They’ll tell their friends, who will, in turn, join the conversation.

This is the secret to most successful blogging communities: it begins with one, but is finished by many.

Start building your community today by publishing half-finished work. It’s so crazy, it just might work. Try it out and see what happens.

What do you think? Is there anything I missed? Share your own tricks and secret weapons in the comments.

Jeff Goins is a writer, speaker, and blogger. You can get his widely shared eBook, The Writer’s Manifesto, for free when you sign up for his newsletter. You can also follow Jeff on Twitter (@jeffgoins) and Facebook.

Get More Comments: Focus on the First Comment

This guest post is by Danny Iny of Firepole Marketing.

Remember the first time you realized that you’ve actually got traffic?

Suddenly, you aren’t blogging to an empty void—real people are consuming and engaging with your content!

Or are they? That’s when you begin to wonder … why isn’t anybody leaving a comment?

This can be a frustrating challenge for bloggers, and some blogs never get past it. There are blogs with readerships in the hundreds of thousands with barely a handful of comments per post.

Odds are you don’t want that to be you. You want people to read and interact!

This may come as a bit of a shock if you’ve been navigating the blogosphere for any length of time, but commenting on a blog is not a natural or intuitive behavior.

Blogs are new, publishing is old.

Outside of an extremely small circle of blogosphere denizens, most people are new to blogs, and accustomed to traditional media; television, newspapers, magazines, and books. These are all uni-directional media; the publisher publishes, and the audience has the choice of consuming the content (watching or reading), or not.

Just a few years back, those were the only two options. Engaging in dialogue was difficult (writing a letter to the editor of a newspaper), or impossible. When most people visit a blog, their perceived options are to read, and if they love it, to bookmark or subscribe. They might even share.

But for commenting to happen, they must understand it as an option.

The easiest way for readers to know they can comment is to see the comments of other readers. Except for two things:

If your blog is new, there aren’t any other readers.Even if there are, many readers will see blog commenting as one of those things “other people” do.

The solution is a change in focus: it’s not about getting people to comment on an ongoing basis.

Instead, focus on getting people to leave their first comment on your blog. Just one—because after leaving one comment, it’s far more likely they’ll leave more.

That first comment is the tipping point.

So … how do you get it?

Here are some ways you can people to make that very first comment:

Be interesting. This should go without saying, but we’ll say it anyway: if your content isn’t interesting, and people don’t make it to the bottom of your posts, they will never leave a comment.Tell people why they should. Make it clear why people should leave comments. Some blogs offer “do-follow” links (meaning the links going back to their blogs keep the “Google juice”), some use plug-ins like CommentLuv and KeywordLuv. On the bottom of my blog’s sidebar (around the bottom of posts), it clearly states why you should leave a comment: “We read all of our comments.”“We reply, and answer every question.”“We often click through to see commenter’s sites.”“We might invite you to guest post!”Tell your reader to comment. That’s right—the oldest rule of copywriting is to ask for the action you want. So be explicit, and ask!Ask a question. Sometimes your readers will want to join the conversation, but won’t know what to say. Help them out by asking a specific question at the end of your post, one they can answer; “How does this apply to you? When have you seen examples of this in your own life? Do you agree or disagree, and why? What advice would you give to someone with this problem?”Make it easy. My most commented-on post is the first guest post he wrote for Copyblogger, about 38 Critical Books Every Blogger Needs to Read. At the end of the post, I asked people to list any books they love, and would add to the list. This worked so well because everybody has a favorite book, and writing it down takes zero effort (as opposed to answering a question that takes more time and thought). In other words, I made it easy.Be awesome. My most popular post on Firepole Marketing received over 200 comments, and Firepole Marketing isn’t anywhere near the size of Copyblogger. But that post was awesome (and in fact, that post became the framework for a book that I’m co-authoring with Sean Platt!). It was continually linked to, new people kept reading it, and people felt the need to mention how helpful the post was to them.Be controversial. My second-most popular post on Firepole Marketing was a controversial take on the topic of social transactions, called Is the Bank of Social Capital… Broken? It was a post that demanded people to take a stand and have an opinion.

The key to making it all work is that very first comment.

Once people comment for the very first time, they realize that “this is something I can do”—and the next time is that much easier.

Create another opportunity, another reason, another excuse—and suddenly they’re up to two, three, four, or even more comments.

Before you know it, a habit is formed. And with it, an engaged, dynamic, actively commenting community.

Danny Iny (@DannyIny), a.k.a. the “Freddy Krueger of Blogging”, teaches marketing that works at Firepole Marketing. Together with Guy Kawasaki, Brian Clark and Mitch Joel, he wrote the book on building engaged audiences from scratch (available on Amazon, or as a free download).

Get More Comments: Know Which Posts Make Readers Talk

This guest post is by Caz Makepeace of y Travel Blog.

As a travel blogger, there are many different types of articles that we write. We like to help people to get inspired, get informed, and to get going. We know that not every article we write will get the same response in regards to social media sharing and comments.

You really need to understand which ones will get the better responses, and why. This will help you to know how to write your posts the most effectively.

After I have finished writing a post, I have a fairly good idea of the response I’ll get via the comments.

A lot of posts we write provide travel tips and information people need to go to a specific destination. These types of posts are therefore relevant to a specific group of people, and are time-sensitive to the point at which they want to travel there. As a result, the comments for these types of posts are low.

Our other styles of posts are my travel thoughts and inspiration posts. These usually target those issues that are relevant to all travellers and are designed to inspire my readers into action. These always get a great response.

I have been a traveller for many years, therefore I know how my readers think and feel. Travel has a certain culture attached to it. I write about that culture and my readers connect. They see a friend in me—someone who thinks like them. They become inspired and excited by this, and so want to comment and share their thoughts on the same topic.

To get a high comment response, you just have to think and feel like your reader. Allow them to see you as their friend who understands them, and talk about issues that are relevant to them.

Caz Makepeace believes that life is all about the memories and inspires others to travel and make their life a story to tell at her popular, y Travel Blog. She also owns Mojito Mother, a blog aimed at putting the mojo back into a mother’s life, where she shares her experiences as a mother and a woman following her own dreams.

Consumers Need Keep Social Comments Close to Chest to Avoid Identity Theft

Have you considered the unfortunate event of identity theft?  A Washington Post article directs attention to a recent report; 36 million people experienced ‘breaches’ in 2011.  A security breach doesn’t guarantee someone adopts your identity; but, it’s not a great situation to be in: “Those who suffer data breaches are 9.5 times more likely to be [...]

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How To Add Facebook Comments To Your Blog

02. Aug, 2010

I’ve received a lot of emails from people asking me how we integrated Facebook comments into our Perpetual Traffic Formula Blog during the launch of that product.

Well here’s a video from Facebook that shows you exactly how it’s done…

How To: Create a Comments Box with Facebook Connect in 5 Minutes from Pete Bratach on Vimeo.