Blogging is a fantastic marketing tool which businesses should definitely consider within their marketing plan. Blogging doesn’t cost much more money (unless you hire an external agency) and can help bring more visitors to your page!

We have discussed it in our previous blog “Why Should Your Business Blog?” and now we want to talk about how turning on the comment section of the blog can actually be beneficial.

The comment section can be hit and miss, some can be filled with shameless plugs or spam, while others can be filled with pointless comments. But one thing that it can be great for is as a two-way communication tool with your website visitors! Blogs are mostly one way. You are providing information to your visitors. However, if you have a comment section you are opening up discussion with your readers.

Talking to your visitors and readers is important. Just like social media, you should always engage with your visitors, and what better way than the comment section! You will be able to gain your readers opinions, see how they think and show them that you are taking on what they are saying. If they have a question regarding the blog you can respond, which can help show you care and increase loyalty.

As well as interacting with your audience, comments on a blog can be beneficial in other ways too.

Comments lead to Reliability and Authority

One of the factors Google considers when ranking a website is the authority or reliability of the page. This basically means how many website point back to your website, how trustworthy your website is etc. The reason Google includes this is so that they are giving their searchers the best possible result, and a reliable website is a good result.

Comments can help bring reliability and authority. If someone posts a comment and you respond, this shows you are an expert and knowledgeable in your field. By replying more to the comments, you are encouraging more people to comment and respond. The more comments on your website shows you have some authority, building more trust and loyalty with new visitors.

By having comments on your website you also increase chances of people sharing the blog. Just think, if someone has read your blog and left a comment, it shows they are interested and open for a discussion, they then share the blog to get more people to read said blog and also check back to see if anyone has replied to their comment!

Comments Can Help with SEO

As well as being seen as a knowledgeable and authoritative website, the comments on your blog can also show you have good content. Google loves quality content. Content is probably one of the most important factors when it comes to how your page ranks and the comments on your blog can help towards this - it is after all, content on your website!

John Mueller, Webmaster Trends Analyst for Google, confirmed that comments are seen as content and said as well that comments can be a positive thing for website blogs.

He said, “If these comments bring useful information in addition to the content that you’ve provided also on these pages, then that could be a really good addition to your website. It could really increase the value of your website overall. If the comments show that there’s a really engaged community behind there that encourages new users when they go to these pages to also comment, to go back directly to these pages, to recommend these pages to their friends, that could also be a really good thing.”

Build a Community with Comments

Building a community with your customers is important as it helps with brand loyalty and recommendations. Most companies build one within social media, which is great, but why not build one on your website!

Inviting people to comment and having discussions is a great way to build a community. You are having a two-way conversation. If you make note of those who come back and comment more than once then you are showing you care and remember about your visitors. These people could then become regulars and help start conversations within your blog and also help bring new ideas for your business.

The regulars can then start sharing your posts more, which can lead to more backlinks as well as more website traffic - win, win for SEO!

Beware of the Spam!

As we mentioned earlier in this blog, some comment sections can be filled with spam, which can have a negative impact. Spam means poor quality content, which in turn then means bad for SEO!

An easy way to stop spam comments is to add a CAPTCHA to the comment form. The CAPTCHA usually requires users to confirm they are human and usually are either a bunch of scrambled letters that need to be entered or a question with a bunch of pictures.

As well as you can also review comments before they go live. While this is more time consuming, it means you can see first hand what comments are being posted and choose exactly which ones appear. You can weed out spam messages but also negative comments as well.

Another important thing to keep an eye on is to make sure your software is up-to-date. Every now and again, platforms will release updates to help keep their website secure, and if you do not update it then you are more vulnerable to cyber attackers.

TL;DR?

Blogs are a fantastic marketing tool that can show visitors you are knowledgeable in your field and bring more visitors to your site. Comments are a great extension of blogs and can help build up your trustworthiness, as well as make your site appear more authoritative. They can help build a community as well as bring new ideas. So, make sure to leave them switched on and encourage your visitors to discuss their opinions - just remember to turn on a spam filter!