Never. Next! Seriously, I can really only think of one reason why you’d want to stop commenting on other blogs. I mean, seriously, I can’t imagine why someone would ask me this question, but it’s out there, so I’ll give you my best answer … I only stop commenting on other blogs if they start publishing questionable content. Let’s take a closer look.
OK. We comment on other blogs so we can get additional name exposure, so we can meet other people and so we can build backlinks. And it’s those backlinks that we’re really concerned about today.
Google bases your blog’s ranking on the value of your incoming links. A natural link, the most valuable in Google’s eyes, occurs when another blogger links to you from one of his own blog posts. He likes your content so much that he’s willing to send his own readers to your blog because he knows they’re going to love your content, too.
If that link is coming from a high ranking blog then it can help boost your own Google ranking. But if it’s coming from a terrible or irrelevant website then it can have a negative effect. For example, if a porn site or link farm links out to your blog, that’s a bad thing. At the very least that link isn’t going to be of any benefit and worst case it might even knock your blog down a notch or two.
The same thing happens with links you generate through commenting.
Now, obviously, you aren’t going to go around leaving comments on a bunch of Viagra blogs but you just never know. More than one blogger has decided to go over to the dark side!
Let’s say you have this favorite blog that you visit five times a week, every time they publish a new post. And you leave a comment on every post. That’s cool. You’re just participating and networking, right? Soon you have a few dozen links coming from your comments to your own blog, and that’s cool, too. You’re allowed.
But over night that blogger decides to start promoting Viagra and adds in a few dozen porn videos and spends the night installing some kind of spyware or malicious virus that infects everybody’s computer and of course you don’t want your blog to be associated with this blog anymore.
Unfortunately, the above scenario doesn’t even require that other blogger’s participation. Unprotected blogs get hacked all the time and get turned into link farms and who-who-knows what and the blogger doesn’t even know about it until it’s too late.
So yeah, even though it’s a good idea to get out there and comment on other blogs, and even though it’s OK to comment on the same blog repeatedly as long as you’re adding some value to the conversation, there might be a time when you want to stop commenting. But honestly – it’s only going to happen once in a blue moon.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments below!