If you look for backlinks, do yo care about the subject of the blog/site?

[GeorgR.]

Example: blog commenting.

I need a definitive answer please...does it make a difference?

Say..i have an acne site...now i use a tool to find blogs for backlinks. Do the blogs really need to be on topic?

G.

[TruWebPro]

It does make a difference, but is not the most important factor. The subject matter of the source site is not nearly as important as the page rank, but is among secondary considerations that come into play along with things like location on the source site and the manner by which it links. So the bottom line is you should do the best you can to find high PR sites that are on-topic, but do not pass over high PR sites just because they are not, and on lower PR sites the ones that most closely match your own subject matter are the ones still worth your time.

Good luck with all,
Neil

[JoshH]

A related links will help you more, in traffic from click throughs and SEO wise. But links from non related sites / pages will help you, just not as much. They are surely worth going for either way. You will just need more of them.

[jazbo]

In terms of traffic they wont help at a ll, in terms of linkbuilding, they will help you a little, a very little.

[MarkAse]

That sums up my experience as well. From an SEO standpoint we'd rather have a PR 4 blog in niche then outside of niche, but I'd rather have an outside niche blog PR 5 then that PR 4 blog in niche.

[InternetMarketingIQ]

yes it does matter. Because Google is getting very good at filtering comments and a comment that is not related stands little or no chance of generating traffic on it's own.

I'm always amazed at how much effort the ignorant go through to post on my WordPress Blogs. Fake email addresses different names... and each attached to the same IP Address.

If you want your comments to stick you need to know what you are doing.

[Tom Goodwin]

Originally Posted by GeorgR.

Example: blog commenting.

I need a definitive answer please...does it make a difference?

Say..i have an acne site...now i use a tool to find blogs for backlinks. Do the blogs really need to be on topic?

G.

Unfortunately there is no definitive answer.

There are strong personalities and feelings on both sides.

Personally, I don't look at "relevancy" (not sure how one would determine this in the first place) one bit, and my sites rank well and rank quickly. I don't care if its about hamsters or IM.

P.S. Your question was about backlinks, although some folks seem to be commenting on getting pass-through traffic, which was not how I read your question as well. That is an entirely different question.

Then again, who knows. Maybe a forum about hamsters is relevant to IM?

P.P.S. -- Note that Terry Kyle actually include relevant profile backlinks as part of his experiment in his 60 day thread, and I believe that actually underperformed the nonrelevant profile backlink group. Note of course that the nonrelevant profile backlinks wouldn't be 100% nonrelevant, it is just that he didn't filter out links because they were relevant or nonrelevant.