As you may already know, all web pages, including blog pages, are assigned what is called a “page rank” by Google. In a nutshell, a page rank is a rating system. All things equal, if you are competing for a particular keyword with another blog, your page rank will determine which blog is served up higher as a relevant result on the search engines.

I say “all things equal” because your paticular post about a subject could rank higher on Google against a better ranked blog if your article happens to have better optimization (aka keywords used in the right areas, proportionately and relevant to the article). But this post is not about ranking or how to rank higher. I mention ranking because it goes with the lesson in this post, which is to show you “One simple way to easily increase your blog’s visibility”.

That simple way is: VALUE ADDED COMMENTING ON OTHER RELEVANT BLOGS.

Before you run for the hills to comment like crazy on other blogs, please read these few lines first as they will save you some grief and possibly hours of non-relevant work. (Not that commenting is ever a waste as it does increase the blogger’s ranking you are commenting on…. but this lesson is for YOU, the commenter, even though you are likely also a blogger, so learn from both sides here… :-)).

First know that there are two types of blog atttributes that affect a blog’s comments and their value to its user base (the commenters). Interstingly enough, most people have no idea if their own blog is either one of these. So, note to self… CHECK! You will see why below.

These types of blogs are: Nofollow and Dofollow blogs. Briefly stated,these are attributes that refer to the comments left of the blog. Nofollow blogs do not allow search engines to recognize any links external to the blog. This means that if you are looking at commenting as an opportunity to also create a high quality backlink (backlink= a link back to YOUR website or blog), then N0follow blogs will NOT help you.

Your link may be readable and even clickable by other visitors reading your comment and it may very well increase visitors to your blog, however, for the purpose of that being a high quality link, nofollow blogs don’t provide that. The positive impact that relevant and high quality links can do for your blog rank and visibility of your own blog content to the search engines to should not be ignored. It is crucial to know if you want to encourage commenting.

Tip: It doesn’t matter how many “backlinks” you create back to your blog from other blogs as far as ranking is concerned. What matters is how “relevant” to your content those backlinks are (meaning from a cooking blog to a cookie recipe blog), and also how high the blog rhank is of the blog you are linking from. So don’t go nutty backlinking or paying for backlinks mindlessly. They must be relevant and they must come from a well ranked blog. Anything above a Rank 2 makes a difference, although personally, I don’t pay a lot of attention to a blog’s rank when I am going to comment. I pay attention to content relevancy and audience.

Now back to benefits of commenting. My tip above is only for reference. The fact is that at some point we were all brand new in this business of online marketing, and completely ignoring commenting on blogs just because they have a low rank is just kind of silly. The very essence of your commenting on that blog could very well increase their rank! The same goes for YOUR blog. 

What I would focus on instead is that THEIR content is valuable and relevant to YOU, and that YOUR commenting also ads value to their post (rather than writing “cool”, or “good stuff” just to get a link back). In addition, never ever offer up a self promoting link to your business on someone else’s blog (without permission). Not only will it not be approved but you could get banned, and believe me when I tell you that other bloggers will not like to see it there either. Social media is all about Etiquette. You can spot a self serving comment instantly!

Ok, so the SECOND type of blog  is the one that uses the Dofollow attribute. As you can now guess, dofollow blogs are the opposite of nofollow blogs. These blogs recognize where you are linking to and search enginges count it. Bonus!

You may be wondering what links I mean if I just mentioned you shouldn’t link to your business? The links that I am referring to are either those requested by the blogger as optional links when you attempt to comment on their blog (such as asking for your website URL, even if it doesn’t show up), and also any links that link directly back to your blog automatically because of a plug in installed in that blog (such as commentluv).

Have you ever notice that under some people’s comments there is a link back to “their” last post on their blog? This, by the way, is an EXCELLENT way to engage your readers and promote commenting. You comment on my blog, I will show a link back to YOUR latest post :-) . You can actually see this feature on MY blog below in the comment section so go ahead and comment to see it in action! (You must provide your blog URL, of course).

A couple of things happen when you comment on other blogs:

1- When commenting on Dofollow blogs, you are increasing the value of your own web page or blog to the search engines by providing a backlink from a relevant website back to yours

2- You are providing value to the blogger with your comment content as well as with the comment itself! Search engines assume people commenting on blogs means the subject has value and relevancy so it increases its visibility

3- You are visibly creating a link back to your blog that other visitors of the blog you are commenting on may want to check out. Again, if your comment is valuable and interesting, the more other people will want to know more about you!

What YOU can do with this information:

1- Check if your own blog is Dofollow or not. If it is not, then MAKE IT a Dofollow blog so others will feel more compelled to participate and comment. Go read my good friend (and amazing) Marketing Strategist Scott Ewart’s video tutorial on his blog on how to make your blog a dofollow blog 

2- Make sure your comments on other blogs are value-add and relevant, and do NOT use commenting content to self serve

3- You could install the CommentLuv plug in so others will be even more encouraged to add a comment since that will provide a link back to their posts. It’s a win-win solution and it’s completely free. Google it :-)

4- You can check if a blog is nofollow blog. There are different ways to do this from different web browsers. Here is a link to an article I found on Google on how to find out if a blog is do-follow or not.

In general if you are hosting your own blog and you have NOT physically installed a plug in to disable the nofollow attribute (as it was in MY case… yikes), then your blog is most likely a nofollow blog. There is nothing “wrong” with this by the way. It really only affects the commenting and how that creates value for others. However, consider the possibility that creating win-win solutions also generates more participation.

All that said, I encourage you to go follow the steps above to take care of your blog first (myself included), and then go find relevant blogs to comment on. Also feel free to comment below and leave me your feedback :-) .

PS: Last time I checked my blog here was a Rank 4 blog, so that’s a pretty good high quality backlink opportunity for you. Make sure you include your blog in the URL field provided. 

I hope this was new to you and helpful to your online marketing efforts.