Link Marketing: Pingbacks vs Blog Comments

A common link building task is to post blog comments on blogs with the dofollow plugin installed. Since blogs have the NoFollow attribute on links in the comment area by default, linkers search for ‘dofollow blogs’ to get inbound links that count (that pass PageRank).

To be clear, there is no such thing as a “dofollow link”. It’s simply a link that does not have the NoFollow attribute. For more on that, see the NoFollow Attribute section in the Link Building 101 post.

There are browser plugins that will tell you whether links are dofollow or nofollow, and there are also Do Follow Blog Directories that will give you a list of blogs that offer dofollow links in the comment section…

DoFollow Resources

• DoFollow WordPress Plugin (this is the plugin I use here at ClickNewz)
• Firefox Add-on: NoDoFollow highlights & color codes follow/nofollow links
• DoFollow Blogs Directory sorted by niche/category
• DoFollow Community digg-style social network for do-follow blogs

You can find more directories and lists of “dofollow blogs” by doing a search on Google: http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=dofollow+blogs

But there’s one major problem with this as a link-building strategy…

Anchor Text & Comment Spam

The problem with using blog commenting as a link building strategy is that you have to use your keyword phrase in the Name field in order to get your preferred anchor text hyperlinked to your URL:

Bloggers don’t like this, and often they won’t approve your comment if you use a keyword phrase in the Name field. Some have statements to that effect printed on their blog, others simply trash the comments.

It’s a personal call, and each blogger handles it how they please. As for me, I tolerate to an extent… but only if the comment itself really contributes to the discussion. Otherwise it’s a quick delete – and annoying to boot.

So your first major hurdle is finding dofollow blogs in your niche, or relevant to the page you want to link. Second is getting keyword rich hyperlinks with your blog comments approved and displayed.

To be honest, it’s probably not the absolute best use of your time. Meaning, I wouldn’t make this your top link building strategy…

Pingbacks vs Blog Comments

A pingback occurs when one blog post links to another. This will happen whether you are linking to your own blog posts (internally), or linking to someone else’s blog post on a different domain. It’s a great way to interlink related content.

Internally, between your own blog posts, interlinking can help your readers find more information from you. They may be reading an older post and click through the pingback to read your newer, related content. Or they may be reading a new post and follow links that reference topics you’ve discussed in detail already.

A pingback usually looks very much like a blog comment:

As you can see, the pingback uses the Post Title of your blog post as the anchor text for the hyperlink. In this case “Link Building 101: What is a Backlink?” is the anchor text, linking back to my post with a bit of the post text as the “comment”.

Obviously if you are using keyword-rich Post Titles (and you should be!), this is a better way to get a keyword-rich link from a relevant blog post.

And not only does this give you the inbound link you were hoping for, but pingbacks also get a much higher click-through rate (CTR) than blog comments. Readers view pingbacks as add-ons to the discussion, connections to related conversations.

Think about it. Which one are you most likely to click on yourself?

Note: Not all blogs are set up to display pingbacks, and not all bloggers will approve pingbacks. Pingback spam is like comment spam – rampant. You’ll want to locate blogs that display quality pingbacks, and make sure your post is relevant to their post (ie quality content that contributes to the topic).

How To Create A Quality Pingback

First, you should have a collection of related blogs in your niche in your Feed Reader or bookmarks. While scanning through their blog posts, you want to look for two things: topics you’ve already blogged about, or new topics that interest you.

When you find a great blog post on a topic you have already blogged about, you can go back to your published post and edit it. Include a link to their blog post from yours, click “update post”, and this will initiate a pingback to their blog post.

You might add a short paragraph that says “also see XYZ by ABC on this topic for a detailed explanation of 123? or something like that. The goal is that it makes sense within your post, to human readers, and that it interlinks the two related posts – from your blog to theirs, and theirs to yours.

When you find a new topic in your niche, and you have an opinion to add to that conversation, you can create a blog post in response – instead of leaving a comment.

This serves two purposes: it introduces the topic to your own readers, and opens it up for discussion at your blog – and it also creates a pingback, connecting the two blog posts on that topic.

I also seek out relevant blog posts to quote as sources within my own blog posts. Once I have a topic in mind, I search for blogs that display pingbacks that are on topic and worth quoting – to add weight to my own thoughts on the topic.

Here’s an example, from my blog post on Social Marketing Pitfalls:

As you can see, I quoted a blog post by Tim Bossie and linked to the source. This created a pingback on his blog post:

I know – it says Trackback instead of Pingback. I am still not quite sure what the difference is between the two. They seem to be very similar if not the same from where I’m sitting. Regardless, it happens by linking to one blog post… from another blog post. See Pingback and Trackback.

Also see: What’s A Pingback? And How To Write Links by Sue Waters.

The web is made up of conversations, micro-topics and links that connect them. If you’re not interlinking relevant content, you’re doing a disservice to your readers – and to the web as a whole.

The bottom line…

Blog commenting is good, but Pingbacks are better. Pingbacks take less of your time, and add quality content to your own blog at the same time.

Even better than both are links within the actual content area of a blog post. If you’re spending a lot of time on blog commenting for link building, your time could be better spent doing guest blogging and/or article marketing.

Not that blog comments and pingbacks aren’t good, because they are… but if you’re counting every minute while trying to grow your online business, do the things that count the most.

Stay tuned because we’re going to discuss quality of links next, and how to get the highest quality inbound links to your pages…

p.s. I mentioned that Pingbacks get a much higher click-through rate from blog comment sections. And they do. I take 5 minutes when writing a blog post to search out relevant posts to link to and add them in. It provides greater resources and depth for my readers, while also creating that pingback on the linked-to post.

Pingback Tip: If you are responding to another blog post, write your Post Title carefully. This is what will display as the anchor text in the pingback on their blog… and a compelling title can really increase your click-through rate!

Also,

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Robert Krenz

http://www.internetbackdoor.com

“The Back Door to Internet Marketing!”

Related posts:

1. How to Get More Comments on Your Blog
2. Effective Link Building: One Major Ingredient
3. 7 Simple One Way Link Building Strategies
4. Link Building 101: What is a Backlink?
5. Link Building With A Purpose