Have you ever dropped a comment on a blog just to get a link to your site?

For websites, links generally act as a vote of trust. The more links to a site, the more the search engines such as Google see the site as being trusted. The more trusted a site appeared, the higher it ranked in the search engine results.

Through the natural evolution of the web it has become more difficult to obtain links from other sites. People had to search harder, devise linking schemes and pay for links from other sites just to improve their search ranking.

This gradually changed as social networking and social media created a culture of bloggers. These sites allowed people to comment on articles and web content and in many cases, leave a link back to their own website. From this grew the whole concept of link building through blog commenting.

Naturally, bloggers saw an increase in traffic as more and more webmasters began searching for links. It became commonplace to see blog articles with hundreds of comments from "Best Cancer Lawyer" and "New York Real Estate Broker" popping up all over the web and across the blogosphere.

While these types of links were effective at one point, search engines were forced to take measures to deal with such links. Google introduced the concept of "nofollow" and stopped using these links to determine search ranking. Gradually algorithmic updates throughout the major search engines devalued links in blog comments.

Is there any real value to comment on a blog and leave a link back to your website?

While links obtained in blog comments are not all that valuable, these do have amazing potential.

The internet has evolved into a social landscape. People no longer visit websites because they are told or because they spot an advertisement. Interactions and relationships are the true value of commenting on a blog is to develop a relationship with the blogger and other people who visit the site.

Comments that are on topic and contain relevant material adding value to the topic of conversation raises your profile. Others, including the blog owner are likely to see the value added and provide you an opportunity to guest post or recommend your site as a resource.

Relationships build in such a way may not pay immediate dividends. The more your comments are seen as relevant, the more trust you earn. From trust comes the ultimate benefit of increased traffic and readership on your own site.

Remember, the value of a blog comment isn't the link you obtain. The value comes from an ongoing interaction and relationship that develops over time.

Barry has been writing articles for over 6 years. Come visit him at http://www.barrywheeler.ca where he provides information on social networking, social media, relationship building and blogging tips.

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