What does the comments section do for you? Traditional thought is the more the better, speaking very generally. It’s an indication of blog popularity, can be helpful in regards to site backlinks, etc. But a few recent examples I’ve come across cast a different light on the traditional thought process. Bottom line: just because you’re not getting a ton of comments on each post doesn’t mean your blog isn’t working for you.
(First, let me point out that this post is in no way scientific. The minutia of comments in relation to SEO benefits, for example, will not be explored in this post.) Having said that, a few things to think about:
1) Speaking of SEO, there is more and more evidence that backlinks via blog post comments may not be that helpful and that “Do-Follow” comments aren’t necessarily carrying substantial SEO weight.
2) Researchers from the Warsaw University of Technology have a new study out that shows people who actually take the time to leave an online comment tend to leave a negative one. What’s more, the longer the comment; chances are the more likely it will be negative in nature. (Per this week’s inc.com tounge-in-cheek article, Permission To Dump Online Comments.)
3) Via Mack Collier’s October post (Something interesting is happening in Atlanta) that I’ve mentioned in a previous post, NCI outsources social media for upwards of 1200 clients and interestingly, the blog comments for each of their clients’ blogs are many times non-existent. Yet, the clients are extremely happy, why? Customer leads for clients.
4) Seth Godin has never and still doesn’t have a comments section on his ever-popular blog. (Take this point as you will, some readers still hold it against him.)
If comments are working for you and driving those inbound leads-fantastic. But if not, don’t fret over the traditional mindset that without a steady comment flow your blog is unnoticed/ineffective.
This blog being a case-in-point. As you can see from a quick perusal of The ANB’s comments section per post, we get one or two comments every fourth or fifth post. About every tenth or fifteenth we’ll hit the jackpot with three or four comments.
The numbers aren’t blowing you away are they? But Google Analytics and the open and click rates on our weekly newsletter tell a different story. Not a lot of comments left on our blog, but we consistently receive feedback via other channels from clients and prospects and can point to at least two clients that specifically attribute the thought leadership represented in The ANB to partnering with us as a client.
So sure, comments are still important (and personally I like reading them), but more importantly, keep consistently writing the content that shows your prospects how smart you are as an agency. You’ll see the benefits, even without a 50 comment string.
4 responses to "Why You Shouldn’t Worry If You Aren’t Getting Multiple Comments On Your Blog Posts."
-
Eric Hyman, Atlanta 03/12/2010 21:49 pm
Phew now I don't feel so bad, thanks, really. This is such a good topic, it is ironic there are so few comments on a post about few comments. I think you can chalk that up to the simple fact that not enough new biz people are engaging in social media.
-
Ha, thanks Eric. i though the few comments thing could go either way. Very few would prove my point (maybe) or several would get us more traffic, so either way I guess.
-
Let's not forget that many commenters leave said comments for self-serving, i.e., link bait reasons. So the absence of those types of responses isn't a bad thing for the blog author/host.
-
Thanks for the comment Steve, absolutely. There's always going to be those with a laser focus on number of comments as an indicator of quality but I'd much rather have the thoughtful comments that provide some insight.
