Have you noticed how some of the people who comment here, do so without using their name? The reason you are seeing this, is because they are trying to build links back to their websites or blogs, which contain anchor text, that will help their SEO.
From an SEO perspective, this can be effective, however, by commenting with a marketing phrase, which does not include their name at all, it makes the comments seem impersonal.
It’s hard for the readers or myself to build a dialogue or connect with someone in the comments, who calls himself “Cheap PC Spares!”
I like to see commenters here include their name or nickname in the anchor text they use when commenting, not just a SEO friendly phrase. Especially as this blog uses CommentLuv, which will include a contextual hyperlink back to your blog or website, every time you comment here anyway!
In future, if you want a comment published here, please include your name or even a nickname or your company name. Feel free to include some SEO friendly words if you want to, but let the readers know there’s a real person there too.
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When I read this I didn’t realise that people didn’t use their name on blogs. I’m still a bit new to SEO, anchor text etc. So I don’t know the tricks of trade or short cuts. I much prefer it if someone leaves their name, it makes it much more personal.
If you were to comment here Liz, using something like:
Liz Scott | Coaching Development
It would make the link from here contextually relevant to Google, for coaches looking for “coaching development.”
However, like you say, it’s important that there’s ALSO the human element.
Hope that helps Liz and thanks for the comment.
That is a really good point. A lot of the times I comment as ‘Tom | Build That List’ because it gives the blogger a name to start a conversation with and helps build the brand of my blog.
.-= Tom´s last blog ..The 4 Reasons People Unsubscribe Mailing Lists =-.
Absolutely Tom.
I’m a marketing guy and WANT people to get the most from commenting here – But I don’t want the comment section to turn into something impersonal.
I think it looks really spammy when people comment using SEO phrases. Checking them out you find they are usually shallow comments, done exclusively to get Google juice.
They add nothing to the conversation at all.
Good point Grant. Thanks for sharing.
In my opinion the SEO effect is very little nowadays. I’m even tempted to call the SEO as a dying instrument. So my tip for all those “SEO spammers”:
Try commenting without the link sometimes. Just add value to the post and do it unselfish
Interesting point Martin.
I’d be interested to hear what others have to say about it.
Thanks!
In reply to Martin’s point, I would have to disagree, but only from the POV of someone who does not really have a hold on SEO.
I say this, because there are still lots of big firms offering SEO optimization, as the number 1 marketing method. (Do you think this is true Jim?)
If SEO didn;t work, then why would they invest their money into SEO programs, albeit to sell on to consumers such as ourselves. If they’ve made the investment, then surely they had reason to do so?
Onto my next point – Grant Forrest, that is a very good point. Sometimes people make the blog as a whole very untidy and messy, which is a shame.
Excellent blog Jim, shall become a die-hard supporter and newsletter subscriber!
Hi Tristan. Yes, I agree SEO is very much alive and kicking. Maybe one difference between today and a couple of years ago, is that social media / social bookmarking sites have allowed a “human powered web” alternative to develop.
Today, I get more people finding this blog via human-based recommendations (Twitter, Facebook, BusinessWeek etc), than from search engines.
However, I think its right to embrace both. Why limit yourself to one form of growth?
By commenting on other blogs you are taking the opportunity to network with other like minded individuals, Build relationships and your reputation in your field. As an accountant I have found a huge amount of my business comes from building relationships rather than simple advertising. Purely focusing on ‘link-juice’ isnt the right answer.
Ralph
Hi Ralph. You make an excellent point. The bottom line here, is that business is all about PEOPLE.
Thanks for the comment sir!
So Ralph, you would recommend building relationships with similar business-people through blogs such as this? By doing exactly what we’re doing here, by commenting and dicussing?
I am very new to the whole marketing farce, and so am open to any low-budget marketing methods.
Jim, you know I changed my signature to include more information about what I do.
But I really comment more for people than SEO. I can’t build relationships with SEO and that’s how my clients all come to me. Sure, some come through traditional advertising but in order for them to actually use my services, they either talk to me, hear about me from someone else, or read what I have written and decide they like me.
I help people and helping is very personal… I suppose if I was selling a widget it might be different. So for now, I will leave my signature as it is and see what happens…
.-= Julie Walraven | Resume Services´s last blog ..Building Community Wherever You Go =-.
I think that the best method of advertising depends on your what youn are trying to sell. For me, I think that SEO might be the best option, only because I sell products in a shop.
For you Julie, as a service provider, will get more valued clients who have heard of you through recommendations, and word of mouth. Your way does require more B2C interaction, whihc is important for a service-based business.
Hi Julie. Yes, you’re using an approach that wins on both counts; as can be seen by the fact that people, here in this thread, are calling you by your name. They “know” you as Julie.
Perfect!
Hi Tristan,
Firstly im not a marketing or sales expert but I run a few small business’s. I find that if someone makes an interesting point in a blog comment I will click on their website and see who they are and what they do. I sell my knowledge so if I am visibly seen to have tangible knowledge by posting on blogs and forums as an expert it brings me credibility. You are obviously selling products so its a different ball game.
I have another small business which trades successfully which I set up for €70 so business’s can be set up for minimal cost.
Ralph
Hi Jim
I had no idea that Commentluv gave a hypertext link back to my website every time it’s used!
Awesome
.-= Christine Livingston´s last blog ..The Virtual Office of Self-Selected Colleagues =-.
Some great comments and conversations here – THIS is what makes blogging so valuable to me!
Jim
Great reminder to be real.. That is what I like most about your posts.
If you can’t be real, authentic and market with integrity, sometime soon it will come back to get you.
Thanks for reminding all of us to keep integrity as the goal in everything we do.
Brent Pohlman
.-= Brent Pohlman´s last blog ..Refreshing to connect again on twitter =-.
It may be because spring has sprung and I’m surrounded by blue sky and sunshine, but I’m optimistic about “real” SEO. I’m no expert in SEO, or website building, or even more traditional marketing stuff, but I have a hope that, as Google and others refine their approach to creating search results, one thing will happen:
People who create, design and build authentic websites, and make authentic, interesting comments on blogs (their own and others) will rise to the top…
I built my site to let people know about my business, and to be representative of what we do. I’ve toyed with SEO, link-building and so on, but that to me is much less “real” than simple, high-quality content. As the web gets smarter, I live in hope that content will rise to the top, and tips, tricks and techniques for “convincing” others that you have good content will become less and less important!
Here’s hoping…
Simon
MD, trainingreality
An interesting comment, thanks Simon.
Google do try to bring the cream to the top, and in many ways they do – however, because it’s possible to massively boost your search engine rankings by using some basic SEO, the best does not always make it.
I had an interesting chat with the marketing guy at scribnia.com in New York yesterday – about a new service they will be offering, which will help blogs get noticed based on human powered recommendation.
Equally, Jason Calacanis and the guys at http://Mahalo.com are also trying to offer a human powered alternative.
Interesting times Simon!
OK, my first comment was about a dying SEO, now let me throw in something else
Having a link on a popular page pointing to your web site may significantly decrease the time needed for Google to index your page. (This is very useful for startups.)
As we are speaking about the “juice” here, links in the comments are pretty dry from this point of view: Google’s engine is being improved daily and the search engine is becoming more and more “blind” to the comments section, sidebars etc. So the real “juice” is really only in the body of your entry.
I also think you shouldn’t be writing for the search engines as the SEO rules may radically change in the flow of the time and your old SEO strategy won’t work anymore. Actually that is the reason why there are so many thriving SEO firms. If you have the money, don’t forget about them, but have your eyes open and measure if it brings something to the table.
So writing for real people and building your community is the key to success.
Tristan – you could probably write your own experience with the products on your page. Add unique descriptions or reviews to get the “juice”
If there are thousands or maybe millions of pages with the same description etc. what would you do? You will go for the price. If you add value, the price becomes unimportant. (As long as it stays in a reasonable range…)
Nowadays adding value for the real people seems to be a good way to add the SEO value to your blog, because the engine is becoming more “intelligent”.
I also agree with Grant, that adding a comment like “interesting article” adds no value and I even started to remove comments like that from my blog.
Martin, you have some good points, especially the value proposition one. That one is spot on!
Per SEO and writing for the search engines, I agree you should write for people first. However, using keywords effectively is integral to reaching these “people”. Knowing what people are searching for, and then using these searchable keywords tactically to achieve the rankings required for your words to be found, is writing for both SEO and people.
.-= Rob Mangiafico´s last blog ..How To Get The Most Out Of ShopSite – Free Download =-.
Comment & Keyword Luv are excellent tools but need to be used wisely as they really attract the worst kind of spammers.
.-= Carla @ Sorbet Digital´s last blog ..ThinkVisibility 2010 =-.
I’ve never had a problem with CommentLuv and spamming – Andy Bailey (the developer) has some great tools in place to combat this. And I have a lot less spam with simple WordPress comments and CommentLuv than I did with something like the Disqus comment system plug-in.
Great point Jim. I agree 100% that people should leave a name; that is the spirit of blog commenting.
If someone adds value with a spammy name I simply edit out the spam name. no value and a spam name leads to the spam button.
.-= Mark Simon´s last blog ..Tribute to Jim Rohn =-.
One of the reasons people do not use their real names is because it really is not safe to do so and be interesting. If you are trying to market on youtube and be political correct is next to impossible to get a lot of views and stay within the boundaries of politcal correctness. I would argue in most social sites, blogs, comments this is the case. If you want to market to the younger demographic you have to be edgy which means putting your job at risk. I have often felt we need to extend the acting genre to the web. After all blogs, video and even comments are a form of entertainment. This would allow people to express themselves through a character much like an actor does without risking there job.
Now I do understand the “troll” is the problem with this.. but there has to be some balance because if we don’t find a way for people to express their creativity, honestly online it becomes vanilla and boring..and who wants to see a boring movie..
Hey Guys (as my 11 year old keeps saying to her mates) this is all great stuff about what is essentially the same point (I think – sorry if I offend anyone): getting more connections with the right type of people.
I appreciate in these more enlightened times (Web 2.0 or whatever you care to name it) there is an inherent need to interact and move away from pipeline providers of information – newspapers and the like – but my real concern with all this is that are very few people on the web who are looking at provide things for free (time is never that) and it really shines through. If you go back only 20 years and look at some of the published works of the time then there is not a great deal of originality coming out – if you don’t believe me try reading in Search of Excellence or Thriving on Chaos by Tom Peters. There are a lot of people now looking for that elusive hook to sell their next best seller etc and it seems a lot of what is being produced just doesn’t feel as authentic as it should be. Content for sure is important but more attention needs to be paid to the sweet spot that you are trying to hit. To deal with Jim’s point: Frankly if someone can’t be honest enough to leave there name then they should be consigned to the great trash can in the sky (it still makes me smile when my trash bin gets emptied and the paper noise comes out …).
Best wishes
Julian
.-= Julian Summerhayes´s last blog ..Inner peace =-.
Hello Mr. Connolly,
I landed in your blog from Google while searching for some marketing tips.After reading your posts I like it so much that I have also subscribed to it.
Thank You
Ok, some very interesting points here.
So, I have an online shop, selling electronic accessories. How would I correctly market the shop, usinmg these more ‘personal’ techniques?
Martin mentioned writing a review on my products – would I write the review myself, or give others the opportunity to write about their experiences with it? I just think that if I write about my experienc with it, people may look read it and claim that I am just being bias towards my own products.
Your opinion, if you will!
A Quick Brainstorming
If you are worried about bias, you could make another blog pointing to your e-shop. To prevent your every post linking to your e-shop you could also review products you don’t sell and point to other e-shops via affiliate links.
You can also e-mail users a month or so after a purchase to write a review for you.
You can look for inspiration at sites like Amazon – they have both: Own description and readers’ opinions.
Just my thoughts. Possibilities are endless…
Don’t forget to do split testing. Maybe you will find out that your own reviews are selling better than other peoples’ reviews.
Remarks to your page: Try studying how colour affects people and maybe changing some of it. I mean adding some warm colours. Also making it look more like the most favourite shopping sites may improve your sales.
Martin, you are a genius!
I shall set up a blog as soon as possible. How would you suggest marketing the blog?
Because so far, for my shop, I have a Facebook group, and be adding Twitter at some point soon.
On the topic of colours, I have been trying to think of what colour to change it to – as you can see from the logo/banner at the top of the page, the company colours are red and grey. I was thinking about keeping the colours the same throughout the website, but admittedly the background seems very gloomy. What color would you suggest changing it to? Red? It used to be this weird red and white gradient when I first got it, but it just looked odd in my opinion.
Cheers
How to market something? I think you are in the best place here
Red is too aggressive, I would go for something milder
Hi Jim
I am awed by the amount of comments this post generated…seems you touched a very delicate issue. Basically I think it comes down to some basic needs people have of belonging, being seen and heard,authenticity and yes being loved. What differentiates us are the strategies or tactics that we choose to get these need met, no?
.-= Yael Brisker´s last blog ..10 things I can trust about myself -and like too! =-.
What a great point. I’ve been in SEO for a few months now and this is the first time I’ve seen this idea. I see that you like this strategy, but what have you noticed on other blogs and their comment policy? Do you think we can implement this comment strategy every time we comment?
Tom,
Did not know that people commented just to get link backs. Thanks for sharing as you always do!
Of course, all the SEO linking is made redundant if the blogger chooses to make comment links no-follow…
Link building is one of the best, if not the best, SEO methods for increasing the SERP of your site. You listed the best ways to do that. I, personally, think article marketing is the most effective since there are many directories that have a very high PR.