I understand the SEO components for building links through comments. However my question here is let's say you are not able to add a link inside the text box, but you are able to add a link to your name. Is it more beneficial to have your keyword as your "name" with the linking back to your site, or is it more beneficial to have (and less fishy) to have a name in the box and then a link of the page you want to build? Thoughts are appreciated!
A small number of links from commenting is helpful, but large number of those type of links will backfire.
Webmaster related Sites where daily unique thousands of visitors came & do engaged via blog comments, you should contribute there good stuff with your expertise. Real name as keyword (with your site Link) in comments are sure appreciated by Google panda. Its my experience and my sites many times got good ranking by doing so.
Just try to post on those blog only which gives you Dofollow links. Also some blogs allows you to put keywords as username you can prefer those also for commenting.
Certainly it can be beneficial, but I know I never accept comments with keywords as the persons name. I'm sure many people look at that in a negative way, so try not to do it too much. Its more beneficial to build your links in a way that looks natural, and I don't believe that keywords in the name field looks natural.
The same here, I only accept comments that doesn't have the name of their site which is obviously being promoted through that comment UNLESS, they give really valuable content or comment. Not those comment with just one short paragraph but very useful information whatever the subject is. Because if it's a very useful information, then most likely visitors can also find that which is posted in my site.
I don't get the point of building links through comments. Sites with dofollow attribute are so crowded the 'link juice' is divided among all the participants. And as you know, sites with nofollow are just worthless 'link juice'-wise. My recommendation is to actually drive traffic with the comment you post, regardless of the name you associate with the actual link. How can you do that? I've seen the following techniques work: Being attentive to new content in order to post the first comment. Having a very different avatar/gravatar. If all the avatars are faces, put a logo or a eye-cathing drawing. If all the avatars are let's say gray overall, use a colorful avatar. If most people don't use avatar, just having one will do the trick. Polarizing your comment. State a very strong opinion in favor or against the author's approach or the prevalent opinion. Make a high-value (I mean REALLY high-value) contribution to the post with your comment. I doesn't have to be long, but useful (although sometimes useful implies some lenght). Obviously if you combine some of those techniques consistently you'll get even more good targeted traffic.
Blog commenting is not for building back links purposes. It is just one benefit out of it. Though comment-links are not given any link authority by search engines, they still can be used to promote a site and spreading brand awareness for free.
It would be great if you can have your target keyword as an anchor text on your response, but if you can't, then don't push it. Write your actual name or your pen name/author name on the Name field, your email for your site, and then a link to a page on your site on the Site field, if there is one. That is a backlink already. Blog/forum commenting is not just about getting backlinks. It's about building a rep for your site and building trust with other sites in your site's niche. Hope that helps. Have a good day!
A lot of bloggers aren't accepting links in your name and while they may accept the comment they will remove your link or make it no-follow before approving it.