Blog commenting has been a controversial SEO tactic for years. Some dismiss it as outdated spam, while others swear by its value for building relationships and earning quality backlinks. The truth lies somewhere in between. When done correctly, blog commenting can be a legitimate part of your SEO and content marketing strategy. When done poorly, it’s a waste of time at best and harmful to your reputation at worst.
In this comprehensive guide, I’ll walk you through everything you need to know about blog commenting for SEO in 2025, including how to do it right, what mistakes to avoid, and whether it’s still worth your time.
What Is Blog Commenting for SEO?
Blog commenting for SEO is the practice of leaving thoughtful, relevant comments on other blogs in your niche with the goal of building backlinks, driving referral traffic, and establishing your authority in your industry. Most blog commenting systems allow you to include your name and website URL, which can create a link back to your site.
However, the SEO landscape has evolved significantly. Google’s algorithms are now sophisticated enough to distinguish between valuable, genuine engagement and spammy, manipulative link-building tactics.
Does Blog Commenting Still Work for SEO?
The short answer is yes, but with important caveats.
The reality in 2025: Most blog comment links are “nofollow,” meaning they don’t directly pass SEO value (link equity) to your site. Google introduced the nofollow attribute specifically to combat comment spam. However, this doesn’t mean blog commenting is worthless for SEO.
The indirect benefits include:
Referral traffic from engaged readers who click your link, brand visibility and awareness in your target audience, relationship building with influential bloggers and potential collaborators, establishing yourself as a thought leader in your niche, and natural link opportunities that may arise from these relationships.
Think of blog commenting as a networking strategy rather than a direct link-building tactic. The SEO benefits come from the secondary effects of being an active, valued member of your industry’s online community.
How to Do Blog Commenting for SEO the Right Way
1. Find Relevant, High-Quality Blogs
Not all blogs are worth commenting on. Focus your efforts on sites that are relevant to your niche, have an engaged community already commenting, publish high-quality content regularly, have decent domain authority, and are actively moderated.
How to find these blogs: Use search queries like “your niche + blog” or “your topic + best blogs.” Look at where your competitors are commenting. Use tools like BuzzSumo or Feedly to discover popular blogs in your industry. Check industry roundup posts that list top blogs in your field.
2. Read the Entire Post Thoroughly
This seems obvious, but it’s the most commonly skipped step. You cannot add value to a conversation you haven’t fully understood. Read the entire article, not just the headline and first paragraph. Understand the author’s main points and arguments. Notice what other commenters are saying to avoid repetition.
Skimming leads to generic, obvious comments that moderators often delete and other readers ignore.
3. Add Real Value with Your Comment
Your comment should contribute something meaningful to the discussion. Ask yourself whether your comment offers a unique perspective, shares relevant personal experience, adds additional information or resources, asks a thoughtful question that advances the conversation, or respectfully challenges or builds on a point in the article.
What valuable comments look like: They’re specific rather than generic. They reference particular points from the article. They’re substantive, typically several sentences long. They show genuine engagement with the content. They’re written in a natural, conversational tone.
4. Be Authentic and Personal
Don’t sound like a robot or a marketer. Use your real name rather than keyword-stuffed names like “Best SEO Services Mumbai.” Write as you would speak to a colleague at a conference. Let your personality show through. Share genuine reactions and experiences.
Authenticity builds trust and makes people more likely to click through to learn more about you.
5. Time Your Comments Strategically
Early comments on new posts tend to get more visibility. Set up RSS feeds or email alerts for your target blogs so you’re notified when new content is published. Being among the first thoughtful commenters increases the chances that the author will respond to you and that other readers will see your contribution.
6. Engage with Other Commenters
Don’t just drop your comment and leave. Return to see if anyone has replied to you. Respond to other commenters’ points. Like or upvote insightful comments. Thank the author if they respond to you.
This ongoing engagement signals that you’re a genuine community member, not a drive-by spammer.
7. Don’t Overdo the Self-Promotion
Your comment itself should focus on the topic at hand, not on promoting your business. The link in your name/URL field is promotion enough. If you must mention your own content, do so only when it’s genuinely relevant and adds value to the discussion, and be transparent about it being your own work.
Example of acceptable self-reference: “I recently dealt with this exact issue when implementing schema markup on an e-commerce site. I documented the process on my blog if anyone’s interested in the technical details.”
8. Follow Each Blog’s Comment Policy
Most blogs have guidelines for acceptable comments. Read and respect them. Some blogs require approval for first-time commenters. Some don’t allow links in comment bodies. Some have specific formatting requirements.
Violating these policies gets your comment deleted and potentially gets you banned.
Common Blog Commenting Mistakes to Avoid
- Generic, template comments that could apply to any post, such as “Great post! Very informative. Thanks for sharing.” These add zero value and are often marked as spam.
- Keyword-stuffed names like “Best Digital Marketing Agency Delhi” instead of your real name. This looks spammy and many blogs will reject your comment.
- Commenting without reading the full article, which leads to comments that miss the point or ask questions already answered in the post.
- Including promotional links in your comment body unless explicitly relevant and valuable to the discussion.
- Arguing aggressively or being disrespectful to the author or other commenters. Disagreement is fine, but keep it professional.
- Posting the same comment across multiple blogs. Each comment should be unique and specific to the post.
- Ignoring responses to your comments. This signals you’re not genuinely engaged.
Best Practices for Maximizing SEO Benefits:
Even though direct link value is limited, you can maximize the indirect SEO benefits of blog commenting by targeting blogs with engaged audiences likely to visit your site. Building genuine relationships with blog owners can lead to guest posting opportunities, which do provide stronger SEO value. Using your real name to build personal brand recognition makes you more memorable and helps establish thought leadership. Being consistently helpful and insightful makes readers want to learn more about you. Including relevant keywords naturally in your comments (when appropriate) can provide some contextual relevance.
Tools to Help with Blog Commenting:
While the commenting itself should be manual and thoughtful, some tools can help you find opportunities and stay organized. BuzzSumo helps you discover popular content in your niche. Google Alerts notifies you when new content is published on specific topics. Feedly organizes blog RSS feeds so you can monitor multiple blogs efficiently. A simple spreadsheet lets you track which blogs you’ve commented on, when, and what topics you’ve discussed.
How Much Time Should You Invest?
Quality always trumps quantity with blog commenting. It’s better to leave five thoughtful, valuable comments per week than thirty generic ones. A reasonable time investment might be dedicating 30 to 60 minutes two or three times per week to find and comment on two to five posts during each session. As you build this into your routine, you’ll get faster at identifying quality opportunities and crafting valuable comments.
Measuring Your Results:
Track your blog commenting efforts to see what’s working. Monitor referral traffic from your target blogs in Google Analytics. Watch for increases in branded search queries, which indicate growing awareness. Notice new relationship opportunities that arise from your commenting activity. Pay attention to any natural backlinks or guest posting invitations that result from your visibility. Observe changes in your industry reputation and how often people recognize your name.
Remember that blog commenting is a long-term relationship-building strategy. Don’t expect immediate, dramatic results.
The Verdict: Is Blog Commenting Worth It for SEO?
Blog commenting in 2025 works best as part of a broader content marketing and relationship-building strategy rather than as a standalone SEO tactic. It’s worth doing if you approach it with the right mindset—genuinely engaging with content you find interesting, adding value to discussions, and building real connections in your industry.
It’s not worth doing if you’re only looking for quick link wins, planning to use generic templates, or expecting immediate traffic or ranking boosts.
When done authentically and consistently, blog commenting can enhance your SEO efforts by increasing your visibility, establishing your expertise, building valuable industry relationships, and driving targeted referral traffic. Combined with other SEO and content marketing strategies, it remains a legitimate tactic for growing your online presence.
The key is simple: be the kind of commenter you’d want on your own blog. Add value, be authentic, and focus on building genuine connections. The SEO benefits will follow naturally.
