SEO: Are Comments Under Articles Worth Anything?

Website comments are an essential part of the content that search engines take as further information about the page. They open up opportunities to improve the ranking of older articles and help boost the ranking of pages that fail to gain positions for the necessary keywords. But are comments under articles worth anything? How significant is their role in today’s SEO world? In this article, we’ll dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s.

One of the hallmarks of the current information environment is its interactivity. Hundreds of thousands of blogs exist on the World Wide Web, and an integral part of them is that anyone can leave a comment. In such a way, users indicate interest in a product, article, graphic, or video. They provide insight into the content being published and are a source of information about how the brand is perceived.

Blog comments come in various forms, from simple spam to insightful thoughts. Moderators often correct discussions of Internet users: remove rude content, texts not related to the page’s topic, and sometimes false or unflattering comments. Unfortunately, some sites don’t allow users to comment on their content. Is adopting such a strategy the right thing to do? 

Should You Get Rid Of Bad Comments

Comments affect the site’s promotion in search engines if they are relevant to the article’s topic and the material contained therein. Sometimes they may include key phrases that you just omitted in the content. Thus, such comments complement the article and positively affect the site’s positioning. But unfortunately, far from all comments benefit your content.

And search engine crawlers index all types of reviews left by users. Thus, it would help if you considered their meaning. When moderating comments, first of all, remove those that are rude or offensive. Also, pay attention to whether comments have any meaning or were left only to look for backlinks. So the final verdict is avoiding bad comments on your page.

How Does Google Respond To User Comments?

Google is constantly updating its algorithms to provide users with content that best matches the query typed into the search line. The Panda algorithm analyzes the content of websites in terms of quality. So it badly evaluates those websites with spam, i.e., low-quality content and non-unique texts. 

As a consequence, such sites get a lower position in search results. The Panda algorithm also pays attention to comments. If their meaning does not coincide with the site’s subject, it can be considered spam. Google’s algorithms are getting smarter, so you should not post comments that bring no value.

Blog commenting plays a vital role in SEO strategy. So when moderating and posting comments on websites, you should follow the tips below.

• Define clear rules for commenting and tell about them on the site. If you have defined the rules and everyone knows them, it would be easier to manage comments, and others can understand why a particular website didn’t accept their written opinions. If someone doesn’t follow the rules, they won’t be able to claim you.

• Leave comments signed by your real name or a nickname.

• Pay attention to comments left by people related to your industry. It will help you build business relationships and create an image as a professional.

• Take care of the quality of your comments. Both you and your readers are interested in comments that bring something to the table. Less critical are comments like “cool,” which in many cases aimed to promote your site rather than express an opinion.

• Respond to questions posed in comments.

Real reviews that look spontaneous or written under the influence of genuine emotion are valuable. When reading such a comment, other users will be sure that it was not published to order and that its author expressed their true thoughts.

As mentioned above, blog comments can contain anything, but, in general, we can distinguish several distinct types.

• Trash Сomments

Such comments don’t make any sense and are trash that pollutes your blog. So it’s better to get rid of them right away and not engage in dialogue with their authors because you’ll undoubtedly receive a boorish utterance in response. Fortunately, such comments occur less and less often. 

• Just Spam

This type of comment annoys many blog owners even more than trash comments. It’s one thing if people come in and sass you and quite another when they try to take advantage of you. That’s why you need to get rid of spam comments in the first place. They are usually sent out automatically by robots and can number from one to several dozen links.

• Hidden Spam

Links in such comments are absent. Moreover, they can include words of ecstatic admiration for your site. Everything would be ok, but for one detail. Instead of the user’s name in such comments is an anchor (the desired text of the link, which points to the advertised site). Such comments on blogs are insanely pleasant to read, and it’s insanely frustrating that robots also send them out on a template who have no idea what you’re writing.

• Sincere Gratitude

The structure of comments is similar to the previous one. The only difference is that the username can be usual, with or without a link to the site. Such comments are usually removed in DoFollow blogs (blogs with direct links in comments indexed by search engine crawlers) because they have no meaning. If you are a webmaster, it’s up to you to delete them or leave them. In any case, it’s always nice to read when someone speaks positively about the work you’ve done.

• Substantive Comments

The most valuable type of comment can express an individual reader’s point of view. This point of view manifests itself in:

• Criticism<
• Suggestions
• Personal experiences
• Opinions
• Additional information, etc.

This type of comment generates lively discussions on blogs, which leads to the increased popularity of resources and gives authors quality feedback.

If you’ve carefully studied the previous material in this article, you’ve probably made sure that comments under articles matter. And now we’re going to talk about the secret of effective comments. So here, we’ll discuss comments on your blog and how you can benefit from leaving comments on other people’s blogs. But first things first. 

Comments As A Powerful Source Of Links On Your Site

Comments are part of the content, and working with them can be very effective. Having positive reviews is one of the elements of a company’s success. Consider that about 50-70% of people (depending on the niche) study information about the company to ensure that they can trust a particular company. Therefore, the earlier you include the work with feedback in your business process, the fewer clients you will lose because of their absence. 

So, you need to communicate with users through your content. It implies that the article’s content should answer most users’ questions. So, be sure to leave a call to action. Write that your experts will gladly answer any user questions in the comments, and they will do it for free. But don’t get too flattered, as it’s pretty hard to get increased engagement from users today.

Customers are not eager to describe excellent service in most niches (except beauty and restaurant-hotel business). But you can stimulate them with fantastic bonuses, such as a discount on their next purchase, putting money on the phone, or sending a promo code. Reviews should not hang “dead weight.” It would be best if you worked under them. Also, please pay attention to customer complaints, respond to negative and even angry comments, and thank them for their kind words. 

And, of course, follow the recommendations you receive: correct deficiencies, strengthen weaknesses, and optimize business processes to avoid repeating mistakes. You’ll get more relevant links to your site at the expense of review sites. And by the way, do not forget to pre-register a company card on the resource.

Buying Comments: To Be Or Not To Be

In some cases, it’s almost impossible to get comments. Is it then worth giving up this method? Categorically no, you can buy comments. Of course, it’s not the best method. However, you can order such comments through a specific service where real people perform the comment writing task. Be sure to ask that the performers add the necessary keyword to the comment. 

The fact is that many performers try to complete the task as quickly as possible, and they rarely read your article from start to finish.  A great move is to have the comment written in question form on the article’s topic. Then, you can respond to that comment and add desirable content to the content. Possible real visitors to your site will see this kind of activity and probably want to participate in discussing the issue.  

Few people talk about it, but today even the most popular social networks, such as Instagram or Facebook, have deficient levels of user engagement. It is due to the high level of competition for their attention. Almost everyone is fighting hard for it. If there are still no comments on your project, it’s very doubtful that people will suddenly start discussing your articles. So you have to do your best to make it happen. 

The Value Of Comments On Other People’s Blogs

Now let’s look at how you can use comments on other people’s blogs. On the one hand, you can start spamming comments left and right, hoping that someone interested will click on your name with a link and go to your site. But there’s very little chance of that happening. People don’t like spammers. Commenting on posts on other blogs can get you much more than clicks to your site. Strong new contacts are far more valuable than one-time conversions from random visitors.

A stereotype is a fear of being taken advantage of by a competitor. But, on the contrary, if you express your point of view under the articles that interest you, you can get reciprocal quality comments on your blog. And in addition, discover a lot of curious resources and exciting people.

By being active and participating in the life of other blogs, you not only generate affection for your resource from the community but also organize interaction at the systems level. The only nuance: to leave a quality comment on an article, you must first read what the article says. Of course, if you start flooding blogs with thousands of visitors with hundreds of comments, even if they are of the highest quality, the reaction will probably not be expressed. 

Why? Because systems of the same hierarchical level interact best.  So if you want your posts to get comments, take the first step, accompany other people’s material with quality comments on the point, and it will return you a hundredfold. Also, don’t forget that content tends to spread through Twitter, social media, and other channels, and you need connections to extend it.

So, does commenting on blogs help in your SEO strategy? Yes, comments are critical since creating a particular atmosphere makes the blog alive. Search engines are very good at determining how interesting an article is by the frequency, number, and volume of comments on it. Therefore, at the initial stage of blog promotion, the comment ability of posts is crucial.

People read comments and write them. Therefore, it increases the time spent on the site or blog. One of the best ways to achieve many comments is to write interesting articles and open links. But you should only remove links to commenters if you don’t need comments since they need your time to moderate and screen spam.

The number of comments is one of the essential indicators of the quality of Internet resources, which attract the attention of advertisers (when placing ads) and optimizers (when buying links).