Judging by the number of spam comments I receive every day on my blogs, many people appear to be under the impression that adding comments to blogs is a great way to gather links for their own website.

Apart from it being very annoying for the blog owner, commenting doesn’t really have that kind of effect. The only way your comment will drive traffic to your website is if you have something interesting to say.

In my experience there are 2 types of spammers: those who don’t try and hide what they’re doing because they leave comments riddled with hyperlinks to other websites; and those who just leave total gibberish.

If you want to be seen as a good blog commenter and add value, here are a few tips for you.

1. Read

How can you leave a worthwhile comment if you haven’t actually read the blog post? A rather vague:

“Hi, I just found out about his blog by Bing, and found that it really informative. I’m going to pay attention to Brussels. I would be grateful if you continue this in the future. Many people will use your expression” (that was a comment I received as I was writing this post).

…is going to suggest that you’ve not even read the post, therefore you have spammed.

If you have enjoyed a post and want to leave a comment, think of something that’s relevant, interesting and, above all, intelligent to say.

2. Be seen

When you leave a comment, you’ll be asked for your name, so leave it and don’t use that field in a misguided attempt to get traffic by inserting your keyword.

3. Link juice

Blogs with high page ranks (PR) are normally inundated with comments because people think they will grab some link juice from it (i.e. some of the high page rank will trickle through to their website and, so, boost their own ranking).

Sorry to burst you bubble, but most blogging platforms only give nofollow links so there will be no swapping of ‘cyber fluids’ whatsoever.

You’ll only attract traffic if you have something relevant and intelligent to say.

This all comes down to one thing – blog commenting will not help your SEO strategy. What it will do is get your name in front of people who are interested in the same things as you are. So, if you add value with  your comments you could build relationships. But if you just spam, your name will be mud.

What should come first? Your website or your keyword research.

Unlike the chicken and the egg conundrum, this one is easy to answer – your keyword research should always come first.

Researching your keywords (not guessing) is vital if you are going to get the most out of your web presence. The words you target will have a big effect on your website’s structure, which is why it’s vital you do it before thinking about your design.

It’s not until you have your keywords that you can:

• Create your SEO Copywriting
• Plan your anchor text link building strategy
• Decide on your site’s navigation
• Create your title tags
• Decide on your URLs
• Write your META Descriptions

What keywords do you choose?

Choosing the right keywords/phrases is paramount, so here are a few tips on making sure you find the right ones.

1. Open your mind

First up, you’re looking for the words other people will use to find your products/services. They are not necessarily going to be the same ones you’d choose.

They must be relevant to what you do, after all, loads of traffic is useless unless is converts into buying customers.

Also think about using ‘long tail keywords’. For example, if you sold laptops, targeting ‘laptops’ would be very competitive, but it would also bring ‘browsing’ traffic. When people are ready to buy, they are more likely to use a term that includes the make and model of the specific laptop they want. Therefore it is important you also aim for these longer keywords too.

2. Word groups

Start off with words and phrases that relate to what you do. Then, add to that list words used within your industry. Expand it again to include words used in the media for your products and services. Then, for good measure, throw in some geographically specific phrases too.

Once you have your (long) list, use Google’s keyword research tool to refine your list.

3. Competition

Once you have your list, you then have to decide which are the best ones to target. That means looking at their relevancy and competition.

Basically you want a term  that brings lots of traffic, but not one that is highly competitive, because trying to rank for it will be a long hard slog.

You can use this table to help you identify which words are the best ones to go for:

As you can see, your whole website’s design and marketing campaigns are going to be focused around your keywords.

That’s why it is essential that, before you start any design or marketing, you research and find the keywords you want to target.