Blog Commenting as a Link Building Strategy
One of the easiest automated methods of acquiring links these days is using software to auto-fill comments on related blogs, forums, Pligg sites, etc. (Note: MorePro does not use automated methods of building links; we build all links manually). There are many blog commenting tools to choose from, including Comment Kahuna, which has a pretty simple interface and good reporting tools. Kahuna is not an auto-filling blog comment tool, but it does walk you through each blog step-by-step as you attempt to build incoming links to your website.
“Nofollow”
The problems that occur, of course, are that most of the blogs that get identified are using “nofollow” tags in their commenting systems. To some, including the creator of the Kahuna program, links are valuable regardless of where they are placed or if the nofollow tag is being used. While I have some belief that this is accurate, I don’t feel that submitting to nofollowed blogs is a good use of time & resources. I believe that all references to a domain, nofollowed or not, can help to build the authority of that website (or author) and that at some point, the authority may help factor into the site’s rankings. But in the interest of client’s money and the work that we complete, our intentions are always to target high-quality, relevant links.
Driving Additional Traffic To Your Website
The argument also exists that commenting on blogs with the nofollow tags enabled will help drive additional traffic to your website (via browsing readers). While not completely far fetched, the amount of traffic you could get from something like this is minimal at best.
Ultimately, the process of acquiring good blog links (comments or other) boils down to participation and community involvement. If you add value to an existing conversation and slowly build yourself up as a contributor, it becomes more likely that links you include in your comments and/or relationships you build with the blog owner will develop into something tangible.
Cory Howell
SEO Strategist