Search engines and free blogs

[emjo]

I asked this right b4 Father's Day; maybe bad time b/c I didn't get any response.

So trying again. If I comment on a free-platform blog (WP.com, blogger.com), will my backlink be followed by search engines, or is this a waste of SEO time? Thanks.

[salmanbaig]

Unless there is nofollow tag, your link will be followed by SE's

[JSProjects]

I'd still mix in some nofollow liks just to help things look natural.

[dburk]

Hi emjo,

Most blogging platforms, including Wordpress.com and Blogger.com, use the nofollow attribute on links in the comment sections of the blog, so there is no direct SEO benefit.

However, whether or not it is a waste of time is an entirely different matter.

If you locate and post useful comments on blogs with lots of highly targeted traffic, that will find your website useful and relevant to their interests, it isn't a waste of time in my opinion. Not only do you benefit from highly targeted direct link traffic, this is one of the best ways to generate natural backlinks, the kind that search engines tend to value the most.

Please don't interpret this to mean that you can do a bunch of comment spamming and benefit. Comment spamming can often be more detrimental than beneficial. All you need is one person to report your comment as spam and you are labeled a spammer, added to comment spam blacklists, and you have the bulk of your comments removed by moderators and/or devalued by search engines.