In addition to the industry information present on colleague to colleague blogs, there is one very important reason not to just read blogs — you should comment on them as well. The reason is simple. Comments provide backlinks (a link from one site leading to your site, also known as an incoming link). A site lacking in backlinks is a site that has little or no chance of showing up in the search engine rankings. If you aren’t on the first page of a particular Google search, you don’t exist. If you are already reading blogs, why not comment on them to help optimize your home page? If you put up a website and fail to obtain backlinks, the only people visiting your site might just be you and your mom.
The good news is that backlinks can be obtained by commenting on blogs that you would read anyway. A steady two comments a day will result in hundreds of backlinks to your site at the end of the year. Realize that going on a comment spree where you post 75 comments in one day could actually hurt your search engine rankings because Google will see those backlinks as spam, designed to monkey with the search rankings. Google is looking for organically-driven backlinks, the kind that result from commenting on forums and blogs steadily over time.
When you comment on a blog, there are often four fields: your name, email, URL and the comment field itself. The “your name” field is the field that will generate anchor text. Anchor text is the words that you see with a hyper linked URL behind. “Click here” is a commonly seen use of anchor text, where “Click Here” is the anchor text that will take you to my website, in this example. However, “click here” or “Ed Somebody” is very poor anchor text for SEO purposes. The Google algorithm doesn’t just look at links to your site; it looks at the anchor text too. When commenting on blogs, use relevant anchor text in the “your name” field of comment boxes. Put “Detroit Mortgage Broker” instead of “Ed,” for example. If you make hundreds or even thousands of blog comments over time with the anchor text “Detroit Mortgage Broker,” Google will start to think, “Hmm, the words ‘Detroit Mortgage Broker’ always point to this particular URL. Maybe this guy is a Detroit mortgage broker.” If enough links are pointing to your URL, you have a good shot at ranking for that term.
Now the question is: how do you select your “handle,” or the nickname that you will use when commenting on blogs and forums?
First, go to Backlink Watch and type in your domain name to find out how many backlinks you have. This will tell you where you are starting from, and how much work it will take to rank for a particular term. Don’t be disheartened if you have zero backlinks. They can be built more quickly than you would think.
Next, check out the competition. Select a keyword term for which you would like to rank, let’s say “YourTown Mortgage Broker.” Run that phrase through the Niche Watch tool, and you will see a list of the top 20 rankings for that search term. The first column of numbers will tell you how many backlinks the sites have that are ranking for that term. The number one slot almost always has tens of thousands of backlinks (like mortgageloan.com). However, you will find many sites ranking for competitive terms that only have a few hundred backlinks. This is because Google looks at a lot of factors other than just backlinks, such as the age of your domain, the percentage of keywords, page titles and other factors.
The next step is to make sure that people are actually searching for the terms that you are thinking about using as your “handle.” Open a trial account at Keyword Discovery. Put in your search term, and make sure to select “Historical Global” in the drop box below the search field. The results will display an estimated annual search volume for any particular term.
Using Keyword Discovery and Niche Watch, you are trying to strike a balance between finding a search term that isn’t too competitive but that still has sufficient search volume. Once you’ve found a term that isn’t too competitive and that gets adequate annual search volume, that’s your new nickname. Use that term in the “your name” field anytime that you comment on a blog. Also use that phrase as anchor text in the signature of forum posts.
Another thing to consider is to throw the research out the window and just use a common sense search term for your anchor text. This is much better than just using your name. If you don’t want to do the research, use “Michigan Mortgage Broker” sometimes and “Michigan Refinance” other times. Pick some keyword search terms that make sense, and start using them for your anchor text.
There is one caveat that you need to know about. Some blogs are friendly; some not so much. There are two types of blogs: “do follow” blogs and “no follow” blogs. “No follow” blogs put a chigger in their html that tells the Google spiders not to follow your link, hence the link does not generate a backlink. The link is out there, but Google doesn’t follow it, so it doesn’t really count. The good news is that there are a lot of “Do follow” blogs out there, so just read and comment on those. Lenderama is a good example of a friendly, “do follow” blog. Every comment that you make here will create one backlink to your site.
How do you know if a blog is “Do follow?” Some sites are listed on the Do Follow Blogs Directory. A few other “do follow” blogs and forums are: Agent Genius, Sellsius, Pat Kitano’s blog, Bloodhound, Wanna Network, Phoenix Real Estate Guy, The Housechick Blog … and there are many others. In contrast, Active Rain is “no follow.”
There is also an easy way to find out if a blog is “do follow” or “no follow.” Go to a page that has the comments displayed for viewing. Click the name of one of the commenters to be directed to their website. Make note of the name of their website. Go back to the comments page of the blog in question and click View / Page Source on your browser tool bar. Now do an Edit / Find on your browser tool bar, and type in the name of the URL that you wrote down. If you see the words “nofollow” anywhere near that URL, the blog is “no follow.”
One more thing to note is that Google places more importance on incoming links from relevant sites. If you are a real estate professional, for example, the comments that you make on your favorite fly fishing blog won’t help to optimize your site as much as comments that you make on sites in your field.
To make this strategy work, you need to make sure that the title of your home page contains the keyword term that you plan to use as anchor text. The page title is the text in blue at the top of your browser. If you need to have your page title changed, it will probably cost you $15-$25. I recommend Katasidy.com for website work.
And to see the actual use of this strategy on a blog, read the closing line of this post:
Posted by: Wade Young, Denver Mortgage Broker
This is an excellent post Wade. Lenderama is all about sharing the Google love. There is one caveat though. Comments to this blog actually have to add to the conversation at hand. I delete about 20% of all comments because they are basically spam comments to generate the links you wrote about . “Nice Post” is going to get deleted. “Check out this site” as well. But tell us your opinion, or add additional information, and you’ll be good!
Those are very good tools and that’s great advice, Wade.
Thanks for the shout out to Sellsius.
You’re right, Todd. I wouldn’t have thought that Lenderama would get spammed that hard, but I guess spam is a significant problem for all blogs. I do think, however, that being a Do Follow blog is a competitive advantage because more and more people are going to start figuring out the importance of backlinks and gravitating to Do Follow blogs. Another important point is that as the competition to rank stiffens over the next few years, the age of links is going to be a major factor. When people figure out the importance of commenting on blogs in the upcoming years, all of us here will already have links that have aged like a good red wine. I also suspect that some of the big lead generating sites that rank so well because they have tens of thousands of links might suffer in the upcoming years. These guys go out and spend $100k building links over a couple of years and leave it at that. Because they are at the top of the rankings, they stop their link building efforts. If I were a Google mathematician, I would penalize sites that had gaps in their link acquisition or reward sites that had steady link acquisition, two sides of the same coin. If I have figured this out, so will the big boys at Google.
Wade,
Thanks for the thorough explanation, so I can better understand how this whole process works. I’m taking you up on the title of your post.
Hi Wade – Housechick blog is happy to share the love, but I’d repeat Todd’s caveat: I have no problem deleting any comment that resembles advertising or doesn’t add to the conversation. I like dofollow as a little “thanks for stopping by”, but am not using it as a strategy to attract commenters who wouldn’t have otherwise commented. I came pretty close to deleting your comment on deed restrictions on my blog today. If you had used your name instead of “colorado online mortgage”, I would have approved it immediately. If you had used “colorado online mortgage” as your name, but not included the link back to your blog within the comment, I would have approved it immediately. But having the link back to your own blog within the comment text AND your name listed as colorado online mortgage, well, that came close to my limits for other people advertising on my site. Since there was a good story within the comment itself, I let it stand.
Me wonders if Jaco Bay is reading this post? lol
Seriously,though, great post Wade! And another plug for WannaNetwork.com – Mark & Tony are doing some great things with their site.
GREAT post wade. As you and others have mentioned, posting something that adds to the dialogue is important as well.
Although anchor text is vital, I’m always personally a bit uneasy leaving my “name” field as my intended anchor text… (mortgage website design instead of “Trace”) and I sort of feel the same way about leaving a link in my post for the sake of a link…..that’s just me though…
Kelley-
I understand being protective of your blog. It takes a lot of work to keep a blog going, so protecting its integrity is important. I differ in my opinion, however, on using backlinks as a strategy to attract people who would not otherwise have commented. Just this week, I picked up a one sentence nugget on a blog post. The commenter said, “Friday is motions day for attorneys.” For a referral partner guy like me, that’s a great tip that will save me time because I will know to contact attorneys on Fridays (a day I would not normally make calls to potential referral partners). Now, did this guy post that comment because he wanted the backlink, or did he post because of altruistic reasons? The answer is: I don’t care. I was just happy to pick up that very nice nugget of advice. As long as a person adds something constructive, I care not about their reasons for posting. I’m just glad they joined the blog party.
Trace-
I understand your hesitance in using keyword-rich text instead of your name. However, business is business, and most of us are primarily engaged in the web during business hours for business reasons. The way I have chosen to do things is this. When commenting where people know me (like Lenderama), I use my real name. To heck with SEO; I think it’s more appropriate to use my name where people know me. However, where people don’t know me, I use my page titles.
Excellent article Wade. Looks like you spent quite a bit of time on this. Then again, you always put 125% into your work.
I agree that link juice is important to be aware of if you are spending time reading and commenting on blogs. It is one of those hidden benefits of participating and sharing in online communities such as Lenderama.
You’re right on, Wade. My entire following on Radical was built by commenting on other blogs. Since it was born with a mission – to protect title insurance by explaining the product and what was happening in the industry, I searched every evening for ANYTHING discussing title insurance and threw my two cents in.
This is a powerful medium and speaking is the only way to create an audience
If you use Firefox, there is a nifty add-on that will highlight DoFollows. It is at:
http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/seo-for-firefox.html
DoFollow is nice, but getting a link back isn’t the only reason to read and comment on a blog. You left a comment today on my blog regarding another blogger I had written about. In your comment it said:
“Why read blogs that are no follow when there are a lot of great blogs that are DO follow?”
Because that blog may offer you far more than what a simple back link is worth. I read a blog to learn something, not get a back link.
A *lot* of people have no clue about do and nofollow. But if they write good stuff that helps me learn something, I’m going to read their blog and if I have a comment, I’m going to leave it regardless of whether they do or don’t follow.
Jay, I completely agree. I’m writing a post write now about the social value of comments. Should be up in an hour or so.
Jay-
It goes without saying that backlinks aren’t the only reason to comment, but we are all in this to make a living, so indeed they are important.
I visit one particular site very frequently that is NO follow because of the content. I comment there even though I do not receive backlinks just because of my personal moral code. If I can help someone, I’m going to do so even though I don’t get a personal reward. However, I do not need to add blogs to my viewing roster that are NO follow unless I have a very compelling reason to do so.
So yes, my position is: why read blogs that are no follow when there are so many good blogs that are do follow? To every rule there is an exception, of course.
I think it’s important that the new blog that you were promoting (Mike Farmer, I believe) understands that he will lose viewers to DO follow blogs.
There are other ways to combat spam other than NO follow. There are a couple of plugins I know of — one removes no follow after a link has seasoned; the other removes the no follow after a certain number of comments have been made. I’m sure there are others.
The truth is that commenting takes work — a lot of work, as all of us here know. I believe a “thank you” backlink is deserved for a well thought out comment.
Here’s my post
Great article! Tons of information added to favs. Hope I get the math problem correct…..lol
Helpful and informative posts like this are why visiting Lenderama is one of my favorite morning rituals.
I am *@%$ bent and determined to get my arms around the brave new world of SEO and other tech related business applications.
Thanks for taking the time to share your experience and knowledge.
OK, well now I feel like a freakin prehistoric mammoth. What the heck is a DO follow and a NO follow blog?
[All I can think of is Romper Room and DO be a DO bee and DON'T be a DON'T bee. If you don't get that, you aren't a mammoth.]
Diane, it’s sort of a WordPress thing. There’s a plugin that allows this blog to share in the Google love. Check out this post from Dave Smith for more information.
Follow or not follow – that’s been the question for me recently. I really cant make up my mind. Your post is helpful but I am not surethat I am any further forward. I can see why I wouudl want to comment on a blog that does follow because it acts as a properly weighted link back to my site. I guess that blogs that do allow follow get more comments but I am worried tyhat I will just end up getting a lot of spammy comments and have to spend a lot of time moderating them.
I have followed you advice above and put the relevant keywords for my site in where my name should be – is that what you were suggesting?
UK Homeowner-
Yes, you did it correctly. “UK Homeowner” is your page title, and the words are also in your domain name.
Wade – thank you for a very informative post. I’m in the process of Backlink Watch crunching my backlinks, but I also went to Niche Watch and typed in the keyword phrase related to a high profile subdivision that I market to.
I had done this before just with Google and noticed that the name/domain that came up first was something I’d never heard of before. I don’t know if I should, or am allowed to type the name – harmonhomes.com – but when I go there they say it’s a division of homes.com.
They have 85,600 backlinks to the domain while the second ranking domain for this keyword search has only 510. They seemingly have no presence of any kind in our market as when I click on “Search for a Realtor” and “Search for a Builder” it says that there is no Realtor or Builder found in our market.
How, and why, does a company like this go to the top of Google for a “name of community homes for sale” search – when it would appear that they have no obvious reason to make that happen? Is it for future purposes only? Also it appears to be a stagnant website, so I can’t see where you can comment at all and thus get backlinks. How can a stagnant website get so many backlinks?
South Walton Living-
This could happen for a lot of reasons. The number of backlinks to their domain is huge. Internal linking is another factor, meaning their own web pages that link to that page. The age of their domain is a factor. It’s probably not brand new. Their page title is probably spot on for the search query. They are probably using keywords on the page that apply to the search. They may have used keywords in the actual page name, such as http://www.nameofdomain.com/your-neighborhood.htm.
There are lots of factors when it comes to SEO, but in my opinion, from what I have read, the popularity of backlinks to the domain (in this case 85,000+) is probably the biggest factor.
Even the age of a particular page is thought to hold weight in Google’s algorithm. And yes, they are probably using it as a place card, leaving the page in place to age until they decide to use it at some point.
I have seen this in my own market. For one particular mortgage search in my area, a company comes up stating that they do NOT do loans in that area! That’s frustrating, but the search spiders can only see keywords, domain age, etc. They cannot think, so they cannot see that the page you are referencing doesn’t really have content of value.
I wrote the following article on SEO that you might want to read:
http://blog.mariah.com/2007/11/optimizing-your-mortgage-website/
Great post Wade! It is indeed about reciprocal linking and the almighty one-way incoming links. I’m sure the web savy Realtors will no doubt dominate in the search engines.
I fell asleep last night before Backlink Watch finished crunching. But I noticed this morning that out of my 544 back links that about 475 of them was from one blog.
It’s another Realtor’s blog and seems to be a nice blog, although I’ve never read it albeit I might have gone to it once to look at it – but have never commented on it.
My question is – is it a negative to have that many backlinks from one source?
South Walton Living-
I’ve never seen anything like this before, and I’ve ran a lot of sites through the link checker. When you go to the site linking to your site, your site does not show up anywhere that I can tell when I do an edit/find. Even when I do a view/page source (to look at the code) and then do an edit/find, I still cannot find your URL. However, the links are legit because I ran them through a second link checker – http://www.domain-pop.com/backlink-check.php
The domain-pop.com link checker tends to also return no follow links, so the numbers are a bit inflated. It shows 680 links to your site from 30 different domains.
Intrigued, I ran your site through http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/, which is another link checker, and the links popped up there too. The marketleap link checker is the most rigorous link checker, and I haven’t been able to find out why. Some of the links you mentioned showed up there too.
I would encourage you to open a Google webmaster tools account. ALL of my links show up in my webmaster tools account, and since it’s from Google, I consider it to be from the horse’s mouth.
I do not know how to explain how you are getting links from this site, but just be pleased that you are. Until the search engines make a change, they do not penalize you for sites that link to you, presumably because that is out of your control. I wonder about that changing in the future to curb the buying of links, but that’s another subject. Be thankful for these links and unless something drastic changes in the way search engines rank, these links are good for your site.
Your concern about having almost all your links from one place is valid. It’s much better for links to come from multiple domains, so try to build links elsewhere.
One link that can hurt your site is an outgoing link from your site to a site in a “bad neighborhood,” such as a link to an invalid domain or to a porn or gambling site. Do a search for the Xenu link checker and run your site through it to make sure that you do not have any invalid (meaning the site is gone) outgoing links.
Wade – I really appreciate you researching what I was telling you about related to my backlinks. I never knew any of these programs that you have mentioned existed, so it’s all new and good stuff to me.
Good suggestion on opening a Google webmaster tools account – I’ll look into that presently. Thanks again for the education and suggestions.
Ronnie
I also suggest getting an account with KeywordSpy. This site promises to show you your competitors’ keywords.
thanks for the link!
Wade:
I have used the links (and bookmarked them) and chosen a term for my anchor text from all the research. Previously I was using my name to comment so this was extremely useful. Thanks so much. I play with my SEO all the time and come up high on google for a few search terms but I can see how this will take me to a new level.
It’s amazing how much I don’t know about the technical side of blogging. There is so much I need to learn — and this post has helped. Thanks
Great article this is and so much info . I tired the anchor text way on this comment but I wonder how many bloggers out there will allow you to comment like this. Like Kelly said above..I wonder how many would delete shuch a comment signature.
Fort Lauderdale Real Estate–
As far as I know, I’ve never had a comment deleted. I do check periodically just to make sure that my comments are sticking. If you say something substantive, I think the risk is extremely low.
Great post Wade. You inspired me to start leaving comments!
Hi Wade,
I never realized that my links on Active Rain were doing nothing for me. I also tried to link to a post on my Active Rain Blog on a wikipedia entry only to find out that the ACTIVE RAIN was flagged as spam by the wiki gods. What is the best way to find good blog sites to comment and publish a backlink on?
Kenosha–
The blogs I read I have found by accident. If I were you, I would look at the blogrolls on some of the popular real estate blogs (like Lenderama, Bloodhoung Blog, Agent Genius, etc). A blog roll is a list of blogs — basically one blogger recommending other blogs. Their blogrolls should point you in the direction of some good blogs.
“What is the best way to find good blog sites to comment and publish a backlink on?”
I said it before (comment #11), and I’ll say it again, commenting for the purpose of getting a backlink is the wrong reason to comment.
The best way to get backlinks is to write compelling content others will link to. And LINK OUT to others, often they will return the favor, and/or you’ll pick up a reader that blogs that will link to you at some point.
I use “dofollow”, not to encourage “fly by” comments as much as to reward readers who contribute by commenting regularly.
It is virtually impossible for any blog to get a link on wikipedia, it’s not just AR. Last I heard, links on Wikipedia were nofollow anyway.
Link out liberally, contribute comments that add to the conversation, and your readership will build. Write content others will link to, and you’ll begin to accumulate links.
“I said it before (comment #11), and I’ll say it again, commenting for the purpose of getting a backlink is the wrong reason to comment.”
Kenosha never said that the purpose of getting the backlink was the reason to comment — not the sole purpose, anyway. However, surely you can understand that putting a ton of effort into writing Active Rain posts and commenting like crazy on Active Rain only to find that you aren’t going to get anything out of it would be disheartening. That has happened to a lot of people. Owning a real estate web site or blog is quite straightforwardly NOT altruistic. Everyone is in it to make money. I will also point out, Jay, that most people don’t comment very much. I know I don’t. Since I’m not commenting that much to begin with, I want to make sure that the bulk of my comments are Do Follow. It probably doesn’t matter as much to you because you comment a lot, and by doing so, you’re gonna get a bunch of Do Follow links just by being everywhere.
“The best way to get backlinks is to write compelling content others will link to. And LINK OUT to others, often they will return the favor, and/or you’ll pick up a reader that blogs that will link to you at some point.”
You assume that people are trying to promote blogs, but many people are trying to promote consumer-focused traditional web sites. The real estate blog world is actually pretty small, as far as I can tell. The mortgage blog world is even smaller. Most people have regular websites, so they cannot make it on to other people’s blogs.
Wade -
Of course I understand the frustration of posting / commenting on AR. That’s why it concerns me that so many put so much effort into AR. If they just put that much effort on their own branded blog, they’d be far better off (IMHO).
“You assume that people are trying to promote blogs, but many people are trying to promote consumer-focused traditional web sites.”
Understood. I do tend to be “blog centric” because my blog blows away my static web site. And when commenting and reading on a blog, it’s hard for me not to focus on a blog vs. static site.
“It probably doesn’t matter as much to you because you comment a lot, and by doing so, you’re gonna get a bunch of Do Follow links just by being everywhere.”
I pay absolutely zero attention to whether or not a blog is dofollow. I comment wherever I feel a need/desire to contribute. I think Google places very little value on links obtained through commenting (just my opinion, I could be completely wrong). As much as I comment, the VAST majority of the thousands of linkbacks to my blog come from people linking to it, not from me commenting on dofollows.
Backlinks are essential and providing comments on blogs that are insightful, relevant and interesting generally improves the online experience for all users.
I don´t know how much “SEO Juice” dofollows produce, but if you are staying on subject and contributing, why would Google not count one of these links.
The truth is only Google knows how it calaculates.
It was fun reading the year’s worth of comments on this post.
I wonder how many people have actually implemented this valuable advice in the past 12 months and started building their own blog. My guess, probably not many…. which is encouraging news for my business.
In regards to anchor text vs my name – I always use my name, but maybe I’ll reconsider branding myself as the FHA Mortgage guy. Doubt it though, because next year I might be the VA Mortgage guy. Who knows what project I’ll have in the future.
I’ve always thought that it is important to use your personal name when commenting for the respect of the community and site owner.
I actually delete comments from people who don’t use their name, unless they have something really good to share. There are obvious exceptions in the world of real estate bloggers (Phoenix Real Estate Guy), but these are people who have remained consistent with their name and brand since the beginning. For the most part though, I network with people, not (city) + (real estate).
Good strategy Wade, however, I’m thinking that things have evolved a little since you first posted this.
While commenting on blogs for links / SEO is certainly an important part of the big picture, there are other reasons why I participate in online conversations such as this:
1. It helps keep me sharp and in-sync with new trends and strategies. By actually writing my thoughts down for others to debate / discuss, it forces me to learn quicker.
2. Networking – My online marketing agenda includes building strategic relationships with other high traffic site owners. This is my office place, and industry bloggers are my most important referral base.
3. Thought Leadership / Credibility – I frequently forward great articles that I find to my clients and real estate referral partners. Sending a link is a good start, but actually proving that I understand what I’m sending to them is way more powerful. Plus, if they forward the article to their sphere of influence, I want my name in front of them as well. Its an easy way of coat-tailing something that has the potential of going viral.
—-
I’m sure this topic has been beat up several times in the past year, but I would love to hear how others here have seen an improvement in their search rankings as a result of commenting on authority blogs.
Thanks,
FHA Mortgage Blog
(sorry, I had to throw that link in just for fun)
You're right, Todd. I wouldn't have thought that Lenderama would get spammed that hard, but I guess spam is a significant problem for all blogs. I do think, however, that being a Do Follow blog is a competitive advantage because more and more people are going to start figuring out the importance of backlinks and gravitating to Do Follow blogs. Another important point is that as the competition to rank stiffens over the next few years, the age of links is going to be a major factor. When people figure out the importance of commenting on blogs in the upcoming years, all of us here will already have links that have aged like a good red wine. I also suspect that some of the big lead generating sites that rank so well because they have tens of thousands of links might suffer in the upcoming years. These guys go out and spend $100k building links over a couple of years and leave it at that. Because they are at the top of the rankings, they stop their link building efforts. If I were a Google mathematician, I would penalize sites that had gaps in their link acquisition or reward sites that had steady link acquisition, two sides of the same coin. If I have figured this out, so will the big boys at Google.