The Importance of Blog Comments: The SEO Value Debate

SANTA MONICA – To allow blog comments, or not to allow blog comments… that is the question for many bloggers, this one included. While a blog is a great place to send ideas out into the world, the subject of exactly what we expect to get back from it is one that is constantly being discussed, especially when it comes to moderating blog comments. So, the question is this: do blog comments have SEO value?

I am not the first person to investigate this issue. The picture above, ”Paper Blogs”, by Bookwyrmish, was featured in a recent post on the same subject, by Alexander B. Howard, the Government 2.0 Correspondent for O’Reilly Media. Howard cited two different experts arguing two sides of the issue. One argued that it was a waste of time, while the other said that he enjoyed interacting with customers, but Howard took the time to emphasize his own valid opinion that a blog should be a chance to build a community, not just to preach, which is why comments are so important.

“From where I sit tonight, whether you choose to have comments or not speaks to whether you want to create an online community,” Howard says. “which requires a human’s touch to manage and moderate, or to simply publish your thoughts publicly online, without making the necessary commitment of time and patience.”

Ali Husayni, the CEO of the SEO service company, Master Google, agrees with the need for a quality blog with equally as useful comments. Without an interactive base, readers have no reason to read and comment on your posts, and that will leave you link-less, without the SEO opportunities that every business needs.

“You cannot just sit and wait for others to link their sites to yours,” Husayni says. “That simply won’t happen. In a world where there are thousands of new sites built everyday, your prospective site visitors have no way of finding you to read your content [without search engine optimization].”

As for just how often to moderate your comments and how many posts you need to put up per week, consider these things to be a part of your overall marketing efforts. Stay white hat with these for optimal SEO. What exactly is white hat marketing? It includes quality content, site optimization, guest blogging, internal linking, and more. In our recent post, we defined white hat marketing and compared it to other practices. Check it out: Best SEO Practices: Black Hat vs. White Hat Techniques and the Gray Hat Area.

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The SEO Value of Trackbacks and Pingbacks: A Blogger Asks and Master Google Answers

SANTA MONICA, CA — At Master Google, we always appreciate comments that let us know what we can do to answer your questions pertaining to SEO. Of course, the best way to get advice that is specifically tailored for your business is to fill out a contact us form, but we are always happy to share our general expertise.

A recent commenter posed this question: “Do Trackbacks and Pingbacks matter when it comes to SEO?” The short answer is yes, they most certainly do matter, to varying degrees. The long answer includes an explanation of what Trackbacks and Pingbacks are, and their overall place in your SEO efforts.

Let’s start with trackbacks. A trackback is simply an automated notifier sent to someone else’s blog any time you reference their blog in a post. By sending a trackback, you are creating a link back to your blog, which takes a very small amount of time to do when considering the benefits of it.

Image Courtesy of ITinfoOz.com

While displayed quite humorously in the image above from a recent post by ITinfoOz.com, the subject of trackbacks is a serious one, because the opportunity for generating traffic is there, and is being underutilized, according to entrepreneur Matthew Bredel. Bredel has seen the results of using trackbacks as part of his overall search engine optimization and social media marketing efforts on his blog.

“A trackback is a super comment. The way that a trackback works, is instead of a going to a blog and posting a comment on someone else’s blog, you post a reply on your own website and post a trackback comment. Unless they don’t allow follows, but you still establish authority,” Bredel says.

While trackbacks certainly are more limited with most blogs not allowing follows, Bredel is correct that doing so does help to establish your authority. Blogs also appreciate your interaction.

Now, on to Pingbacks. Pingbacks have more to do with author control and authenticity, as explained well by an SEO news reporter for Beanstalk-Inc.com in a recent blog post. Pingbacks were originally the response to trackbacks lacking authenticity. Pingbacks make it easy to notify a blog of your use of it just by posting its permalink in your blog post. Of course, there is some controversy over which is really better: pingbacks or trackbacks.

“Some feel that trackbacks are superior because the readers of Person A’s blog can at least see some of what Person B has to say before deciding if they want to read more and follow the link to the orginal blog source,” Beanstalk-Inc.com’s SEO News Reporter says. “Others feel that pingbacks are superior as they create a verifiable connection between posts. Pingbacks are akin to having remote comments.”

Whether using both trackback and pingback methods, or not having tried either one on a conscious level yet, our CEO, Ali Husayni, has advice for the business owner who isn’t yet using Master Google’s services for their SEO efforts. Husayni recommends his book, Google SEO Secrets revealed, as a good starting point for your entire website, including your blog. Still, Husanyni recommends professional help.

“Engaging in all of these techniques requires months of hard labor, a complete understanding of SEO and, of course, cash. Nevertheless, we’ve been able to transform local, small businesses into large-international ones in a matter of a few months by practicing what we preach,” Husayni says. “Oftentimes, smart business people who have substantial financial backing will delegate important tasks to professionals, instead of spending years mastering what someone else already knows and taking away the focus from their business.”

Fill out our form and we’ll gladly look at your site to see if it qualifies for our Top of Google program.

Popularity: 4%

The SEO Value of Trackbacks and Pingbacks: A Blogger Asks and Master Google Answers

SANTA MONICA, CA — At Master Google, we always appreciate comments that let us know what we can do to answer your questions pertaining to SEO. Of course, the best way to get advice that is specifically tailored for your business is to fill out a contact us form, but we are always happy to share our general expertise.

A recent commenter posed this question: “Do Trackbacks and Pingbacks matter when it comes to SEO?” The short answer is yes, they most certainly do matter, to varying degrees. The long answer includes an explanation of what Trackbacks and Pingbacks are, and their overall place in your SEO efforts.

Let’s start with trackbacks. A trackback is simply an automated notifier sent to someone else’s blog any time you reference their blog in a post. By sending a trackback, you are creating a link back to your blog, which takes a very small amount of time to do when considering the benefits of it.

Image Courtesy of ITinfoOz.com

While displayed quite humorously in the image above from a recent post by ITinfoOz.com, the subject of trackbacks is a serious one, because the opportunity for generating traffic is there, and is being underutilized, according to entrepreneur Matthew Bredel. Bredel has seen the results of using trackbacks as part of his overall search engine optimization and social media marketing efforts on his blog.

“A trackback is a super comment. The way that a trackback works, is instead of a going to a blog and posting a comment on someone else’s blog, you post a reply on your own website and post a trackback comment. Unless they don’t allow follows, but you still establish authority,” Bredel says.

While trackbacks certainly are more limited with most blogs not allowing follows, Bredel is correct that doing so does help to establish your authority. Blogs also appreciate your interaction.

Now, on to Pingbacks. Pingbacks have more to do with author control and authenticity, as explained well by an SEO news reporter for Beanstalk-Inc.com in a recent blog post. Pingbacks were originally the response to trackbacks lacking authenticity. Pingbacks make it easy to notify a blog of your use of it just by posting its permalink in your blog post. Of course, there is some controversy over which is really better: pingbacks or trackbacks.

“Some feel that trackbacks are superior because the readers of Person A’s blog can at least see some of what Person B has to say before deciding if they want to read more and follow the link to the orginal blog source,” Beanstalk-Inc.com’s SEO News Reporter says. “Others feel that pingbacks are superior as they create a verifiable connection between posts. Pingbacks are akin to having remote comments.”

Whether using both trackback and pingback methods, or not having tried either one on a conscious level yet, our CEO, Ali Husayni, has advice for the business owner who isn’t yet using Master Google’s services for their SEO efforts. Husayni recommends his book, Google SEO Secrets revealed, as a good starting point for your entire website, including your blog. Still, Husanyni recommends professional help.

“Engaging in all of these techniques requires months of hard labor, a complete understanding of SEO and, of course, cash. Nevertheless, we’ve been able to transform local, small businesses into large-international ones in a matter of a few months by practicing what we preach,” Husayni says. “Oftentimes, smart business people who have substantial financial backing will delegate important tasks to professionals, instead of spending years mastering what someone else already knows and taking away the focus from their business.”

Fill out our form and we’ll gladly look at your site to see if it qualifies for our Top of Google program.

Popularity: 3%