Does commenting on relevant articles positively impact our seo?

[mbelsito]

I have read conflicting perspectives on whether or not businesses should partake in relevant conversations on blogs' or articles' comments sections. Does anyone have insight on this?

[SDSLaw]

My feeling is that, when I am logged in using a commenting platform, like Wordpress or-- better yet-- Google, is that it does help.

Google hosts blogs. If you are logged in as a Google user and you write relevant comments on Google blogs, I would think you are demonstrating that you are an active member of Google's web, which is the kind of user they want. If your own websites are tied in with your actively-participating-in-Google, Google profile, I personally think it makes sense.

Other people will tell you that when you comment on blogs you get "no follow" links, which are worthless. This is not true. They are not worth as much, but they are not worthless by any means.

So Google and Wordpress accounts notwithstanding, I still think commenting on blogs is a good idea to create backlinks, even if they are no follow links. If no follow links were "no good" SEOmoz wouldn't measure them right?

So the short answer: Yes, commenting on blogs helps.

[KevinBudzynski]

As long as the blogs are contextual relevant to what you are doing. I would not expect a big boost in organics by the majority of these, but could help in different ways.

An example may be a plumber commenting on a topic. A prospect may be researching on that topic, saw the post and goes to the plumber's site (that happens to be local) and hire them.

[bronxpad]

There are a couple of things to look for. Does the link in the comment area have a no follow or do follow attribute? Also how many links are in the comment area? Google factors this in when determining how much link juice it'll pass along. You might benefit regardless if potential clients of yours are looking at those blog posts and then click your link. Example, I have a real estate website and I also comment on the Trulia blog that has a no follow attribute but those looking for an Agent might see my comment on the trulia blog click my link and I now have a lead.

[ThompsonPaul]

My opinion - if you're posting on blogs/articles purely for SEO value, you're wasting your time.

• most comment sections provide only "nofollow" links
• most good comment sections have so many comments that even if the link is "dofollow" the share of influence passed will be negligible

However! If you're posting good, useful comments on blogs that are relevant to your business, you are contributing to the process of making yourself a subject matter expert/influential. Others will see your helpful contribution and perhaps follow you back to your own site/blog. If you're lucky, you may even be able to generate some interaction with the blog owner, resulting in new promotional opportunities (guest posting?) or social media interaction.

The one SEO side benefit that you do get from good blog commenting is your backlink profile will be more natural with quality nofollow backlinks to go with all your dofollow links. As we've just seen with the Penguin update, the best backlinks aren't just the ones made to "look" natural, but that actually "are" natural!

So - focusing your commenting efforts on a smaller number of relevant blogs and designed to help build your reputation (rather than a huge "spray and pray" approach) will be a better use of your time.

Paul