Comments, Post Updates, Activity Really Works!
So I've been using the WA comment system heavily for a couple weeks now and wanted to share a result with you guys. Here's how I used to rank for a post about making money with essential oils:
Despite being a low competition phrase and a great post I wrote, it just never made it to page 1 for this term. I didn't match the exact keyword because grammar wouldn't allow it, but I still wanted to target the keyword "make money essential oils".
The name of the post was "How To Make Money With Essential Oils Online"
You can see my keyword was within "Make Money With Essential Oils"
After getting about 20 comments and responding to them most over the course of two weeks, here's my new ranking (page 1, spot 2):
So adding content to your page through comments really does work! Of course, that's not all I did. I continued to use internal linking on my site to link back to this page as well. It may seem like a minor thing, but that really works too.
One of the main points I want to make is that you really can rank for keywords you want only using on-page SEO techniques. I do not do any type of backlinking for this site, same as Kyle recommends: https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/kyle/blog/are-back...
But keep in mind that comments are not a magic bullet! They won't help you rank low-quality content. My page is 3000 words long. The searches for this keyword is only 32, and QSR is only 16. I just wanted to rank for it because I believe that people will search this term and other related terms. It's a hot niche!
The comment sharing system here inside WA is an awesome perk of hosting here. It helps jumpstart engagement, improve rank, and boost SEO.
Good luck with your sites this weekend guys. Keep up the good word.
Recent Comments
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I had this post in the back of my mind (but couldn't remember exactly what it was called or where to find it) when I decided to try comments to rise the rank of one of my posts.
It seems to work! I wasn't sure if it was just coincidence since it fell two days after I posted it and then rose up again. I am so glad to see this post of your again. It makes me think it was indeed the comments that helped raise it back up so fast!
Jessica
I know this post is kind of old, but thanks for sharing this Nathaniell.
I finally transferred my websites back to SiteRubix, so I can finally start taking advantage of the SiteComment feature. I'm really interested to see if it helps my websites.
I have been hosting them away from WA because I wanted to use some plugins that were automatically blocked by WA's system and needed to be manually allowed by their hosting staff. To be fair WA did offer to let the plugin through if I gave them the IP address the plugin needed to access, but being hard-headed I decided to go with another hosting provider.
Eventually I found myself at Digital Ocean using droplets for my sites because I was interested in furthering my Linux skills. Unfortunately, I got busy and didn't keep up with my sites and they ended up going offline for about a month without me knowing about it. Ended up getting them de-indexed from Google, lol.
That's pretty much when I decided to bring them back to WA. The good news is they're re-indexed and getting traffic from Google again, so apparently Google some what likes the content and isn't completely blacklisting them for being offline for a month.
good job. I got all my sites that are blog related hosted here. There is a couple of sites that are driven by other types of software that are hosted on my VPS.
I wouldn't want to host elsewhere unless I have to, because of sitecomments and WA's other systems and features.
Yup, it's an awesome perk here!!
Question: Do we have to continually get comments? Like after I write a post, I'll get comments here, so there'll be like 20-40 comments (in total, includes my replies) from one request (I post in threads as I don't host here). Is that enough or do I keep asking for more every once in awhile for each post?
In my experience, once a post is ranked, it will get more natural comments, so you can stop requesting them. I also think that a post will generally maintain rank unless it's "outdone" by someone better, so it kind of depends on what your competition is doing.
I don't think the occasional comment request would hurt, but I don't think it's necessary long term. Just guessing!
Okay, thank you. I've only had ONE natural comment. lol... so I have ways to go. Thanks for you input, just wanted to know your thoughts on this.
Well put and I agree completely from experience on my own blog. I haven't posted on my fishing site for quite some time. 3 months probably. I know. Not good. But I can tell you my reviews are still rank 1. Competition hasn't outdone my site, yet.
I'll actually be posting a new review in the next day or two. It'll be interesting to see how it ranks. My gut tells me It'll take a few weeks, then go to spot 1.
This is great! Getting comments definitely helps boost SEO and I think in spite of some of the frustrations with the SiteComments tool it's an invaluable resource.
It's also worth remembering though that Nathaniell's site has already a lot of backlinks and a DA of 29, so this will rank easier than a brand new site with no authority. :)
I have just started to use the request comments section here at WA more in the last week and can't wait to see if it helps rank my site higher on Google. Thanks for sharing this post Nathaniell :)
PS: Follow me back as I would love to have you as part of my network of WA members who provide quality posts to help with my learning and growth here
This is definitely something I have found too. My new mini niche site's rankings have been increasing while I have been steadily getting comments using the SiteComments tool.
My only reservation about the SiteComments tool is that it may eventually go the same way as backlinks. It seems that comments are now as effectice for rankings as backlinks were several years ago.
How long before Google does an algorithm update that targets fake comments?
Hi Marcus, the thing is WA's comments are not fake. They are still unique content written by real people and it benefits Google and users somehow. Besides, I think there is no way Google can discover the true intentions of individual comments.
What do Kyle and Carson think about it?
Good point. It just depends on whether they spot that it's the same group of people all commenting on each other's sites. I don't know whether they all come from the same IP address.
That's true, if we are the same IP, but I don't think so... Well, if there are any risks I think Kyle would have considered this because its a massive risk for the business. I will contact them
Thank you this helps alot... I have been falling behind a little bit due to stress and trying to make difficult life decision but I hope to get back in full swing. Work on putting in more comments on other members sites and hopefully get some more engagement on my sites(s).
Thank you for this. Your articles are always interesting (I would like if that was possible to mark articles from some WA as red in the emails because from some selected members I don´t miss articles!).
One question. You say it´s 3000 word article, is it a pillow article? Just wondering if it is because I have think about it and start using it so I just want to ask; a) do you use pillow, b) if so, how many? on each site.
Great tactic. I see that you built your post essentially as a sales landing page with no navigation or banners. Something for me to keep in mind too.
Nathaniell, now that you're writing more non-scam type of posts, do you see these converting as well/less well/about the same as your scam type posts? Very curious what you have to say.
Thank you!
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I haven't been able to stop reading your blog every chance i get, since yesterday when I found a link to your article on ethically writing reviews without owning the products. Great stuff!
Anyway, I'm reading this post and thinking about how the old backlinking strategies were 'gaming' the system.
In google's eyes, is what we do here (basically trading comments) kind of the same thing? I just can't help but to wonder that if google knows how much traffic my site is getting, which right now is literally 4 (probably crawlers), but they see comments coming in anyway, does that set off a red flag?
If so, then I think the best way to handle our commenting system here in WA is to wait to get comments on a post until that page is getting traffic.
What's your thoughts on that?
And hey, keep up the great work. I love your posts and helpful tips!
The comments that come from WA are coming from a legitimate "real person" who took the time to visit your site and read the article. Then you even decided if the comment has enough value to keep or not. Google has no issue with legitimate comments. Check out Disqus. Same kind of service.
Thx Geoff
That makes perfect sense. I feel much better about it now!