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<abbr>Writer Dads last blog post..Just Pay Attention</abbr>
Anyone that comments just for SEO value has already shot themselves in the foot because if that is all they are doing, then the comment is probably of little value. They are not commenting because they are motivated by the subject, they are commenting for the SEO value.
I will tell you that commenting on dofollow blogs SEO has value. You can all see I know that. However, the link is like a link in a blog post. It ages and is of little value in as little as a day, just like blogsearch, you have a life span of as little as hours, depending on the topic.
I have left nofollow in place and that is my personal choice. However, comments are about interaction and I follow 30 blogs where I can ask questions of people like Andy Beard who will ALWAYS gets back to you and answers your questions or if you request something of him he will email you back, say no and tell you why. That was what initially got me following Andy, before I realized he was tops.
The relationships you can foster thru comments are probably some of the best results that can come from social marketing. I have pulled three guest blogger gigs from commenting very intelligently and thoroughly.
I have gotten sales from my participation on email delivery blogs. People have emailed me saying they bought because no matter where the went trying to solve their email problems, there was a Chris Lang comment.
Comments can bring all kinds of good things to you, SEO is just one and a minor one. Commenting just for SEO benefits? Well, it's kind of like masturbation, it may not last long, it only does you good and you should be arrested for doing it in public.
<abbr>social marketings last blog post..How to Create a Google Profile for Google Social Bookmarking</abbr>
I comment everywhere I go if I find the post interesting. I couldn't tell you if no follow is on or off on any blog that I visit.
What I do know is that I get a lot of visitors from blogs where I left a comment.
They don't call me The Masked Millionaire for nothing!!
Ok, they don't call me The Masked Millionaire...
Great thoughts Chris!
Good attitude Masked!
<abbr>Nick Stamouliss last blog post..Are SEO Friendly Themes Really Friendly?</abbr>
Is it possible that Google created more crap content on the web by introducing no follow to the masses? Hmm... methinks so.
John O'Hara
United Kingdom
<abbr>Tribute Band Reviewss last blog post..Barry White Tribute Acts: Cleveland Walker</abbr>
Not sure what set me off on this post now, but it must have been seeing someone talking about it in a forum or blog. Really can't remember.
But if I see another crap piece of software being hustled that spiders for "follow" links only I'm going to go off again! :)
Excellent point. It's true. Exactly the opposite of what Google even intended by the whole thing in the first place.
Just look at splogger, I mean Blogger.com.
My old boss used to say "He who lies first is gospel" There are so many differing opinions out there on SEO and other tactics to market your blog, it is very confusing and you aren't sure which direction to pursue.
One of the bloggers i have been reading informed everyone not to waste your time on "no comment" blogs. Thank you for exposiing the other side.
I think I'm going to experiment with shutting nofollow off, and see if things change for my sites comments. I'll just keep doing what I do now, and delete any comments that are blatant promotions not designed to add to the conversation.
I do worry about SEO, probably because I'm a beginner and don't know any better.
<abbr>Nimics last blog post..Tyler Durden’s Guide To Fighting Consumerism</abbr>
Surfing, learning and participating is a much better path to be on. Do I really want to spend my time trying to figure out what to say on a whole lot of blogs that aren't interesting? The real payoff seems to come from commenting on every decent post that I read or at least one post on every decent blog I read.
If I left a comment on every good post of Jack's I wouldn't have enough time to write for myself.
Nofollow or dofollow, I still moderate all comments and off the ones that do not add to the conversation or at least ask a legitimate question.
<abbr>Laurel Bowens last blog post..Alone Again</abbr>
Personally all I want is TARGETED TRAFFIC so the no-follow thing has never entered my equation. I need to comment to get others to come to my site - it's that simple - BUT ONLY IF IT'S RELEVANT! and that's the real point isn't it?.
Keep up the great work - love the updates which let me choose which articles I want to read.
Dave - The Confessions Guy 8)
I get lots of spammers hitting my blog comments because I leave the follow on, however my friends comment because they want to get the link love.
When that software came out to find blogs mine got belted. (Still do).
I publish any comments that are not spam and I never check to see when I make comments on blogs like yours. People waste such a lot of time trying to be clever when they could just spread a wider net.
It is not about the links for SEO, it is about links for people to come and visit because they like your comments and want to socialize! The extra traffic and visits will help your site get noticed.
The SEO part takes care of itself.
Regards
James
<abbr>Warner Carters last blog post..Free Internet Marketing Ebooks That Make You Money</abbr>
I just left you a sweet review on stumble in reference to my comment on that excellent interview with Heather.I could of been more positive;)
As far as do follow and the fact that I'm on the front page of google 2x's I will just say that I got involved not for the comment,links or seo benefit etc.
I was falsely lead to believe that I would be opening myself up to all these cool people that would be active with each other and it would be a love feast.
Nothing could be further from the truth. I found the main bloggers involved to be just as selfish and self centered as the rest. I even put a huge banner on my ustream channel for a guy who runs a dofollow directory. Told him about it and didn't hear BOO. Well that's all good. I was prowling around your blog and come to find out I had a wrong impression about you and your information. I find that your topics are right on point and that your not just some sales guru. I was getting the emails over the last few months. This just shows you that we can be wrong and wrong often in the Blogging world.
I keep comments do follow and open and now look it as a place to connect with people and I often HOOK up people that comment on my blog with some serious do follow backlinks but I don't tell them. To me this system had worked very well. Basically I look at it as "pure juice". I never get negative feedback or comments that aren't related to the post.So all is well.I'm going to sign up for the affiliate program and taking a closer more accurate look at your work ;)
Thanks
John S
<abbr>John Sullivans last blog post..I like Obama but he’s an idiot on this one</abbr>
Now about this Obama bashing... :)
Michelle Macphearson did a test on a new domain and only commenting on nofollow blogs and got onto the 1st page of SERPS.
Granted it was a lower comp term but the results remain.
Getting everyone off the nofollow bandwagon is an uphill battle. So you can take advantage of it by turning on dofollow so the guys looking for blogs to comment on will find and comment on yours. Less competing blogs mean more comments for you.
Spot on observation!
I too have been guilty of only posting on nofollow blogs, but eventually it sunk home that IF your comment adds value, you'll get visitors to your blog anyway - from those who read your post and are interested to know more about you and your viewpoint.
I have earned thousands of dollars in consulting fees over time, just for commenting on forums and blogs, so at the end of the day, it's the moolah that interests me WAYYYY more than the link, so I'm happy to continue commenting, regardless of the follow/no-follow situation.
I can see why Google introduced nofollow (blog spam is unavoidable these days), but everyone has gotten their knickers in a knot over it! Time to take a step back and go back to basics.
Thanks for your great post. As always ;-)
Eran
<abbr>Eran Malloch - Google AdWords Management Servicess last blog post..7 Ways To Make Money With Your Blog (Free Video)</abbr>
<abbr>Tom At The Home Business Archives last blog post..How To Write Emails That Get Read And Make Sales</abbr>
The back link might be the reward, but legitimate conversation must come first
Getting involved in conversations has had an amazing effect on our traffic.
We now have inbound links from Gizmodo, Slashgear, notebookreviews.com and the top forum in our niche. These are huge sites, some of which are now referring to US as the Authority!
Thats all happened in 6 months, just because we 'engage' in conversations!
And the conversations have started to really kick in on our site as well.
And we have never bothered about no follow or follow. We just get involved in conversations as much as we can.
Cheers, Ian Orford - Editor, ThinkPadToday.com
<abbr>Ian Orfords last blog post..Thinkpad SL300, the Ultraportable Bargain of the Year?</abbr>
If you do this very prudently and tactfully you can make contact with the decision makers on blogs that do not offer contact information of the blogger.
Done wrong, this can label you as a spammer. If you can find major blogs with quickie articles (like copied and pasted from a press release) on a subject of breaking news you can add a comment that at times is better than the blog post.
You may even get picked up by the blog to produce a better article or at least a link in a follow up post.
<abbr>Chris Langs last blog post..Google Reader Interview With Chris Lang</abbr>
http://www.keywebdata.com/?p=128
<abbr>Chris Langs last blog post..Google Reader Interview With Chris Lang</abbr>
If you comment adds to the discussion, post it. Period.
But even if you don't believe all the logic and don't want to "waste your time" commenting on nofollow blogs, why are you looking at the source code? Use a real web browser like Firefox and have it highlight the nofollow links for you. I forget which method I used, but just hit the big G with something like : highlight nofollow Firefox.
Truly nofollow or not, it seems to help to focus the PR on my sites, so I still like to see/use it sometimes on sites, but not blogs.... and to sort of laugh at all the blogs that insist on using it.
<abbr>John Martels last blog post..Your Prosperity Paradigm - Do You Qualify?</abbr>
While I agree that there can be a lot of value in commenting on default nofollowed blogs that have traffic, there's still something to be said for good old fashioned link juice as an enticement to get people to comment... and I presume that's why you've still left it in place here... ;)
Ian, the tech guy has seen good results from his comments in nofollow areas. And Chris Lang I've talked to on the phone many times and he knows this stuff inside and out.
P.S. Do what Jack Humphrey recommends and get the dofollow plugin onto your blog. You can 'corner' the market for comments in your niche by being one of the 'Last Blogs Standing' which allows dofollow comments.
Remember your posts are moving off your homepage pretty soon anyway. The increased content you get from your reader's comments will far outweigh and page rank bleed off.
<abbr>Justin Wrights last blog post..A Drive Along The Apache Trail</abbr>
Great rant..!
I have to admit that I don't comment as much as I should, but that had nothing to do with the no follow issue - it was purely my lack of organisation.
However, the point you make about commenting for SEO being the wrong focus exactly mirrors the principle of 'write for your readers, not the search engines'.
At the end of the day I want real people who like reading what I write to bookmark me and keep coming back.
I was in Bangkok last week helping to set up a new site for a company there and there were 3 of us discussing how to do the SEO for this site. Apart from all the basic on-site stuff that we know we need to do, we all 3 agreed that the best thing we could do would be to fill the site with as much good content as we possibly could. And I mean PACK the site with content.
The search engines are getting smart enough to find the good sites without all the SEO tricks that have been used previously.
Cheers,
Martin.
<abbr>Martin Maldens last blog post..6 Ways To Establish Trust</abbr>
Nofollow keeps out the spammers from my experience. I've subscribed to your blog and look forward to participating as I follow in my Google reader.
I have about 1600 spams in my Akismet right now - I don't think that kind of spamming gives a hoot about follow/nofollow. The other spam, where people write "great post!" and nothing else, really isn't that bad around here at least.
Is it in your book?
I would definitely like an answer to this great debate. Of course, I have been commenting on blogs and such because I've seen various evidence showing it does help your google ranking whether it's nofollow or not. And it just gets people to your site which is the main reason to do so anyway.
I've set up a Facebook group about Google Social Marketing and maybe you and Jack could contribute to the discussion there.
http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=24443...
Of course, anyone else who wants to weigh in on this can.
You already know this but for the less WordPress skilled, here is why comment spam exists and their goal.
In WordPress, the default setting is this: Get approved on your first or any comment and then you will be OK'd by default for all future comments. Once they get you to mistakenly OK one, then the rest appear without challenge.
Also, NEVER click a link in that spam crap. Most are coded with malicious JavaScript that will destroy your machine.
DoFollow blogs are the few that require approval every time and if that is handled with diligence by the blog owner then that only improves the blog. If getting a short lived link is attractive, then being approved for addition to a relevant conversation is even better.
I have made most of my reputation in comments on blogs, whatever that reputation might be.
I do have to say Jack, yours is one of the few blogs that carry on a decent thread. Not to mention my contributions really help things too....
In my prior comment I mentioned that I figured out why NoFollow is followed at times. I don't want to explain why here so as not to tip off the spammers, but Michelle MacPhearson is totally wrong! True there is a way around nofollow in comments but it is not Google deciding to bypass NoFollow.
NoFollow still applies and Google still observes it.
Also, the link from a comment ages just like a blog post and only has weight while the post is above the fold in Blogsearch. If blog post does not pull social links and other blog links then it will sink via age. Hence the comments made sink with it.
I have always said that Digg weighs comments there heavily into the algorithm and Google does the same on blog posts. Many say I am full of crap on the comment thing but they said that when I wrote that Google could see how many Diggs a post got and that Google would buy Digg.
I looked up the Michelle MacPhearson test of the nofollow use in comments and it is totally flawed and should not be used for reference. Just wanted to let you know.
<abbr>Chris Langs last blog post..Does Google Give Any Weight to NoFollow and MacPherason’s Test is Flawed.</abbr>
I'll be interested to learn how NoFollow is followed at times as you say. Very interesting to see if there's a backdoor around what most people consider the 'dreaded' NoFollow links.
I am at best an seo intermediate skilled guy and there seems to be much conflicting info about what exactly NoFollow means and does.
No one really knows what Google is really doing. In fact I am taking a day off from my birthday week just to write about some of the new things.
At the same time, trying to figure out Google in the never ending game of "Chase Your Tale" will cost you.
However, what Google is doing right now is probably the what will be called Web 4.0 and the most revolutionary developments in the Internet since Google destroyed all the competition 5 years ago.
First of all Google is breaking most SEO software to hide what is coming and of course I believe that is the new Google social platform. I contacted my SEO top dogs and they told me, that yes, Google is breaking most tracking software and has SEO developers pulling their hair out.
Keep your eyes open, this is going to blow you away.
<abbr>Endys last blog post..Sony Vaio laptop massive recall</abbr>
Thank you.
<abbr>Self Improvements last blog post..Clickbank Earnings With Screen Shot Proof?</abbr>
I generally don't just devalue their comments, though. More importantly, I frequently follow the link, visit their site and make a mental note of who was responsible. Then I never forgive! (LOL)
ADG
<abbr>andrew gouldings last blog post..Xango Mangosteen Juice Tips: #8 Keep It In The Fridge</abbr>
That's pretty funny...never forgive. Many times even if they are wanting an seo boost the comment still has merit.
I look at it on a case-by-case basis to determine the value of the content and then how greatly I want to punish the commenting offender.
<abbr>alexander-socail media guys last blog post..30DC - Thirty Day Challenge Internet Marketing Recap</abbr>
I took your advice and made a post on a nofollow forum and within a week I received an email asking for (paid) consulting help from the person who had initially asked for help!
So, it DOES work! :-)
Forget follow/nofollow and just ADD VALUE with your comments/posts.
Eran
<abbr>Eran Malloch - No B.S. Search Engine Marketing blogs last blog post..5 Top AdWords Landing Page Tips</abbr>
I recently wrote a piece on getting links back from the angle of using Google in the form of leaving valuable comments potentially making it on Top Commentators lists for sitewide exposure...I don't think there's anything wrong with that as long as -again- the comments have some type of value.
<abbr></abbr><abbr>Caleb - Market Secrets Bloggers last blog post..What To Do When You Don’t Get A Link Back</abbr>