5 Reasons Why Blog Comments Matter for Your Health Coaching Website

If you are anything like me, you started writing a blog without really knowing all the ins and outs of what makes quality content, both in the eyes of your readers and in the eyes of the search engines… and how do blog comments come into play.  Most people focus all their energy on only 1 of these things.

If you are writing strictly for the search engines, you find yourself worrying about what is the right keyword, did I put it in the right place, what the hell are ALT tags anyway?  If you are just writing content for your audience (or potential audience) you focus on what would best serve them and what you can offer, but without anyone finding your wonderful blog post that beautiful piece of prose goes into the internet desert.  Maybe a couple good friends left some nice blog comments but you were hoping a few potential clients would read your masterpiece and decide to sign up for your newsletter.

If you’re interested in some of the more technical aspects, I wrote a series last year on health coach blogging, there are links to the next 2 parts at the end of the post.

In today’s article I am going to focus on blog comments and a few reasons why they are important.

1.  Building Your Tribe

The most important part of building your biz is either starting or becoming a visible member of a group of people who look to you as an expert and want to listen to what you are saying.  This is hands down the most important long term business building strategy.  Sure, it takes time.  Like all good things, there really is no shortcut.  By commenting on other blogs in your niche and sparking discussion on your site, you will increase the engagement of your audience and get yourself out there more.

This doesn’t need to be a huge deal.  But it should be part of your online strategy.  In  steps four and five I will cover some of the technical aspects of what are the best sites to comment on from an SEO perspective.

Make sure when people comment on your blog to comment back.  This is not just good for building relationships with your community, google loves to see engagement, it tells them you’re content is something people are interested in.

2.  Becoming The Expert

This goes hand in hand with #1, your whole goal in building your online presence is being seen as the go to person in your specific area of expertise.  Most people don’t want to buy whatever it is you are selling right now, but they are looking for information.  When you become their source for quality information, they will open and read your emails.  Then at some later point when you offer your product or service they will already have an affinity for you and trust your recommendations.

A key here is letting go of expectations.  It is perfectly fine for me if a ton of people on my list never buy any product or service that I offer.  You’re potential clients can feel when you are desperate, and trust me, it doesn’t feel good.  Remember, focus first on building relationships and giving top notch content and information.  I know, easier said than done, especially when you are first starting out, but it will benefit your handsomely in the long run.

3.  Connect With Other Experts

One of these easiest ways to get noticed by an expert in your field is to start leaving engaging comments on their blog.  Remember, just like with potential clients, offer value, not “what can you do for me” or my all time favorite.  “I want to tell you about this wonderful product that all your subscribers really need.”

4.  Getting Backlinks to Your Website

Getting backlinks from other websites to your site is valuable both for SEO purposes and if it is something that interests people, you will also get some traffic benefits, although that is usually pretty minimal.  In basic terms, a backlink is any link form another domain that links to your website.  I won’t bore you will all the technical jargon, just be aware that most popular sites have what are called no follow links.  This basically means that you don’t get any SEO benefit from them.

On my site, I use a wordpress plugin called CommentLuv.  This automatically generates a link back to your latest blog post if you put your website link in.  If you are using an IIN site, I think you need to put the raw URL in, not whatever domain you have redirected to the IIN site.  CommentLuv is a great tool for mangaing blog comments.

5.  Get Your Picture Online

Have you wondered how people get their pictures to show up on blog comments?  This is using an online tool called a Gravatar.  It is quick and free to setup, just make sure whatever email you use to register your gravatar is the same one you use for blog commenting.  Here is the site to grab your gravatar.  This is the same tool used to get your picture to show up in the author box if you are using a wordpress website.

The best sites to comment on are (in no particular order)

• Sites where your potential clients may be reading.
• Other authority sites in your niche.
• .gov / .edu sites are given higher SEO importance, but most are no-follow links and ones that are do-follow are usually spam ridden.
• Established websites, if you are going to get any SEO benefit, it won’t come from brand new sites or sites with a zero page rank.
• Your own website.  This is one of the places where you can start establishing relationships with your tribe.

I hope you now have a little better grasp of why blog comments are important for you to start thinking about.

I’d love to hear your comments and give you a link back to your site.  So after you go through step 5 and get your gravatar, click below and make sure to use the actual URL for your blog when filling out the form so I can give you some Comment Luv.