Blog commenting and anchor text

[Liam Hamer]

I haven't done a great deal of blog commenting in the past, but when I have I have usually just used my name as the anchor text for my link. I realise that in terms of link juice, it's better to use a keyword I want to rank for instead. Problem is, this can look spammy and not very genuine. Speaking for myself, when I see someone's name and a decent, constructive comment on one of my blogs I have no qualms about leaving it up there. However, if the person has left a keyword phrase or title of their site instead of their name, I often think to myself 'spammer!'. I was just wondering what your approach is? The niche keywords I could use for blog commenting with the current site I am working would be nowhere near as spammy looking as things such as 'make 50,000 per month' or 'buy viagra online', but still - I'm much more inclined to just put my name in the comment. What are your thoughts? How powerful is a backlink without the keywords?

[WarriorMaster]

I always use my name because like you say it can be spammy.
If you want good backlinks then web 2 sites are much better I think.

[Ewan Cormack]

A backlink is better than no backlink, regardless of anchor text. Having said that, if you want to see the real power of the anchor text, google "click here".

Most blogs don't seem to mind anchor text as long as the comment itself is reasonable. If you manually post comments, having read the blog and having thought of something constructive to say, you should be fine.

[edhan]

I will say it depends as you can use anchor keywords relating to what you are replying. I do not mind someone doing that for my blogs though mostly people put their names instead.

As long as they do not put in a long tail keywords that makes it looks spammy. Then it should be okay.

[Clyde Dennis]

Originally Posted by Crubalo

I haven't done a great deal of blog commenting in the past, but when I have I have usually just used my name as the anchor text for my link. I realise that in terms of link juice, it's better to use a keyword I want to rank for instead. Problem is, this can look spammy and not very genuine. Speaking for myself, when I see someone's name and a decent, constructive comment on one of my blogs I have no qualms about leaving it up there. However, if the person has left a keyword phrase or title of their site instead of their name, I often think to myself 'spammer!'. I was just wondering what your approach is? The niche keywords I could use for blog commenting with the current site I am working would be nowhere near as spammy looking as things such as 'make 50,000 per month' or 'buy viagra online', but still - I'm much more inclined to just put my name in the comment. What are your thoughts? How powerful is a backlink without the keywords?

Get a feel for what the blog owner likes and accepts by looking at comments that have already been left, then follow suit.

[tamal]

I prefer to use my name and give any keyword in the comment body instead.Showing keyword in signature would seem spam by the webmaster and would let to rejection of my comment.

[Jimerson Farveez]

Mostly, what I do is, write about 75-80 words comment to make sure that I am not there for link juice, and then leave the keyword as my name and get backlink, So far , No complaints

[Kevin-VirtualProfitCenter]

I use my name coupled with my domain:

Kevin at VirtualProfitCenter.com

This does a couple things.

First, even if there is a "no follow" tag it helps me get more visibility for my site.

Second, if the link IS a follow, then I get the domain's keyword juice.

[JustaWizard]

Here's what I do:

I'm a public speaking training expert, and my keyphrase is public speaking training.

So, my name for blog posting is variations of:

David Portney, Public Speaking Training Expert

Some blog owners might think its spammy and some might not, but my conscience is clean because I AM a public speaking training expert and my name is David Portney.

Hope that helps!
Best,
David Portney, The Public Speaking Training Expert

[WarriorMaster]

This was really good I cant believe that I did not think of this.
Damn you should make a WSO for only this haha

Thanks given.

Originally Posted by Kevin-VirtualProfitCenter

I use my name coupled with my domain:

Kevin at VirtualProfitCenter.com

This does a couple things.

First, even if there is a "no follow" tag it helps me get more visibility for my site.

Second, if the link IS a follow, then I get the domain's keyword juice.

[Jack Chua]

I think an anchor text should really make relevance to the backlink and there is nothing spammy about it. As long as the person has contributed his thoughts and being able to help other people with their questions then it will never be a problem.

[organicgirl6]

Great tip, Kevin!

[mightybw]

Take a look at some of the comments that have already been approved by the bloger. If some of them contain blatant keyword plugs then you should be able to do that as well. If none of the comments looks spammy then the blogger is stricter and only your real name will work.

However, here is a tip. If I was to comment on your blog with the name "Ted Baker" for example... I might be promoting a bakery, even though Baker sounds like my second name. People have some strange names. How about Katherine Loan or Jacob Blue Widget?