I just noticed that a blog I have for my local business has over 3,000+ comments that I haven't approved. This may be a stupid question, but would approving these comments help build links to my site? Is there any way I can use these to my advantage, or do they only help the people posting them?
Yes, actually when you approve those comments, people usually have keywords relevant to your content. When you have 3000 comments, your are guaranteed some keywords in those comments which google then picks up as a back link. Comments are unique because of this. Make sure to approve comments that have good quality keywords in them. P.S. Another reason to approve the comments is because you could find some people that have similar content like yours and you can get a hold of them and exchange links.
It doesn't. Approving the comments would help the people posting them and not your site. But idirectly, you might benefit by approving some of those comments (establishing a relationship with the other blogger, establishing yourself as an authority in the field so more people may link to you in the future - which may have some medium to long term SEO benefits for you).
comments increase content on your site. It can bring some traffic to your site. Make sure those comments are not spam, and you can approve them. Use Akismet plugin to filter spam comments.
I agree with aap. I use Akismet and this filters much of the spammy comments. I only approve comments with keywords related closely to my site. The fresh content is good, this also includes responding to a comment -again it's fresh, relevant content which the search engines love. Also to answer questions builds a relationship with your visitors and lets them know you interact. All things that will help increase your rankings over time. Regards Catherine
Yes, allowing comments on your blog will improve your visibility within search engines since relevant keywords are posted within the comments. Also, when comments are left through the Facebook pluggin they are usually also posted to the Facebook profile of the person that left the comments and your site will be linked back. This will for sure increase the reach of your site and allow other people to click through and visit your site. Make sure that when you are writing a blog post that you use some very good and solid keywords which will then cause users to post back comments on those keywords. This will be great when you get picked up by the search engines.
yes, its really helps to increase the traffic on your website.the comment should be proper and have relevant keywords.the allowing comments on your blog will increase your visibility.
If the comment adds to the discussion of your post, then it works both ways. It helps your blog as those comments *may* contain relevant keywords to your post and your blog gains more relevance because there are people going in there to discuss your post. The visitors who leaves comments with a link back to their website gains a backlink from your site if you approve their comments. Sadly, not all comments are valid and helpful. You need to check the comments for spam and any unrelated content.
If the comments have a link to a known spam site and the content is the same thing posted on many, many sites, then I would not expect them to help much and they may hurt your site because it looks like you don't care what trash is dumped on your blog. GOOD comments that are real should help your blog. What I have started doing is editing spam comments. I replace the spammers links with links to MY sites, and make the spammer say different, interesting, or just plain more stupid stuff that is unique. The comments are content and if the content is good, it should help a site.
Yes it can help your website as well if you approve the comments other than helping the person's website who is commenting. But there are some criteria 1) Comments need to be related to your website content. 2) If they link to any website, see if those websites are spam website or legit website. It will help your website in two ways 1) Will add the site content percentage. 2) The website will be updated more often, and Google loves updated page. You will notice blog post which are in top 10 has considerable numbers of comments to the post.
Quality comments will always improve the content of your site if they are relevant. Unfortunately most comments are spam. I use a wpspam plugin that helps reduce spam to manageble levels. I also generally like the quality of comments received from disqus.com (the above tip about 'Publish to Facebook' is also excellent)
Absolutely... related comments not only increase content on the page but also helps page rank better... just ensure that you don't approve all the SB spam comments like "you site is good", "I have bookmarked your site" etc
You will have to manually evaluate all comments. good content = good. ...... Bad content and bad links = bad. Just keep that in mind as you evaluate comments.
Big fan of the Facebook comments plugin. Not only does it cut down on spam (because people have to use their real names) but it can lead to some great discussion. I think people are more willing to communicate in the open if the other people commenting with them have real names. The cross engagement on Facebook is certainly a plus, and as of a week or two ago it was reported that Google is now indexing Facebook comments.
Approving comments (as long as they are not spam) gives the search engines that the blog is constantly updated and being monitored by a real person