Your competitors have blogs. People in industries related to yours have blogs. Are you reading them and taking the time to add a comment?
If you want to increase exposure for your own business, you should. Every time you comment you have the opportunity to invite people back to your site, and on many blogs you’ll even have a live link back to your site. As you know, the more relevant links to your site, the better for your own search engine optimization.
Note that I said “relevant.” That means the blogs you comment on should be in your line of business or one that compliments your line of business.
For instance, it makes sense for a Realtor to comment on a blog about mortgage lending, home inspections, or staging. Even a blog about landscaping or building construction would make sense.
But if you’re a Realtor, don’t try to increase your Google rankings by commenting on a blog about a movie star (unless he or she was talking about buying a home). Your comment there won’t add to your standing. Neither would a comment on a blog about car racing or stamp collecting.
Note that not all sites allow live links. But if you’ve said something interesting, your web address can lead that site’s visitors back to you.
When you comment, say something that adds to the conversation. My blogs get a lot of comments that are clearly there just for the links. Right now I’m being bombarded by brief comments with links to sunglasses sites. There’s nothing offensive about the comments so they don’t prompt me to label them as spam, but that’s what they really are.
Those folks should instead be seeking out sites about sunglasses, sunscreen, eye health, or summer recreation. Then they should be making comments about the topics in those blog posts – NOT just saying “I like this blog.”
So stop and think about the kinds of blogs that would offer you the opportunity to add a thoughtful comment. Every business has other businesses that are complimentary to it, so seek them out.
Adding to the conversation isn’t that difficult. You and I do it every day when we’re conversing with friends and family. They say something that sparks a relevant thought in our minds, and we offer that thought for their consideration. As long the thought isn’t offensive, that’s a fine way to go about adding comments to blogs.
For instance, if I write a blog post about writing home page copy you might disagree with one of my points. Or you might agree but think I’ve failed to mention a point or two. Either thought is fodder for a blog comment, and either will show readers that you know enough about the subject matter to give a thoughtful response.
On the other hand, you might have learned something new, so might want to say thanks and tell me how you’re going to use the information. Doing that can also raise your standing with the reading public, because they’ll see that you’re open to growing and considering new ideas.
