Anyone can set up a scraper tool and spam the world with dofollow blog comments, but the real value in a comment is measured by what is added to the conversation. Take the time to say something meaningful and you’ll have more than link juice. You’ll also build relationships and increase traffic to your site.
Just how much do these tactics pay off? That’s what I set to find out in a recent commenting case study.
An A/B Test of Commenting Techniques
In preparation for this article, I executed a A/B commenting test with two different types of articles.
On one set of sites I used a scraping tool to send out generic comments that read, “Thanks for the tips, I’ll use these for my website marketing.” On the other set I used an iPhone timer and gave myself 5 minutes to leave the best, most relevant comment possible. Then I set out to determine which would bring me more value.
The Results: Real Comments Pay Off
After one week, just more than half of my auto-generated “Thanks” comments had been approved and no one had visited my site as a result of the comments. My thoughtful comments, on the other hand, had much more success.
Not only were all of my legitimate comments approved, but readers actually came to (and spent legitimate time on) my site. Here are some of the key takeaways:
- More Traffic– When it was possible to track article readership, I compared the number of total people who had viewed an article with the number of people who clicked through to my site.As it turned out, .4 percent of the total number of people who were exposed to my comment actually visited (and spent legitimate time on) my site. That’s 400 new visitors for every 100,000 people who read the pages where you’ve commented.
- Increased Relationships – No one reached out to me about my spam comments, but three people contacted me as a result of the comments I took time to write. In one case a reader who saw one of my comments ended up filling out a contact form on my website. Another reader found me on Twitter and an author reached out as well. This represents huge opportunity, all because I took the time to write something meaningful.
Want to learn more about the tactical side of blog commenting? I’m in the process of writing an article about the steps you can take to increase traffic to your site through blog commenting. I’ll let you know when it’s posted.