Sometimes the comment section of a blog can be way more interesting than the entire article itself. In fact it seems as if sometimes the best information is found with in a post’s blog comments. Which is why I hate seeing blogs that haven’t optimized their blog comment sections for SEO.
I mean lets think about it: This is free content on your site that came from users that are engaging your ideas. By that standard this is the type content that you should optimize above all others!
Handle Pagination Correctly
Many blog platforms will give you the option of displaying all of the comments on one page, or breaking them up 5 or 10 per page. I prefer to show them all on one page and let the user scroll down. By doing this you are allowing for the content on the post page to grow and update with every new comment. Which allows for high craw frequencies of the post. However some sites, rely on CPM ad models which means that the more page views they get, the more their ad partners pay. As a result forcing the user to click through pages of comments make better business sense. If you choose to go this route you should handle pagination correctly by using the rel=next, rel=prev tags in the header. This way all of the pages of comments will be consolidated into one entity as far as the search engines are concerned. Thus cutting down duplication.
Store The Data Locally
There are a lot of really great 3rd party plugins and apps designed to make blog comments easier to use, and style. Some of these can cut down on spam management and social integration. However theres a tiny dark secret that they don’t tell you….often times the comments aren’t stored locally. Which means that if the service you are using ever goes out of business, your comments will likely disappear as well. Or if you want to move your site to a platform that the app doesn’t support, you loose your comments then too. In the end, keeping your comments local, on your server means that you will continue to own and control your data/content for as long as you like.
Use Post Canonical Tags
Many platforms create weird URL parameters because of comments. These are the result of navigation links, permalinks, and sometimes “sort” options. The best way around this is to make sure that every post has a proper canonical tag in the head of the HTML. By doing this you are making sure that any inbound link to a comment’s permalink (happens quite often), will provide value to the blog post as a whole. The canonical tags will also avoid duplicated URLs being indexed.
Optimize Avatars
Hopefully the comments on your blog are from real people. 😉 If they are real people, they likely have real faces! Therefore you should make sure that any avatars that you have for each comment is optimized just like you would optimize any other image. This might seem silly, but lets say that you have someone famous comment on your post! If their avatar is optimized correctly, then you are likely going to start ranking for that person + the topic of the post, with in image search. In fact some of the results for my name in image search, are from blog comments that I made years ago.
Use the Correct Schema
Not many folks know this, but there is actually a defined Schema for blog comments. I will admit that despite the fact that this one exist, I have never heard of Google using it in any way. But, implementing it is very low effort and seems like it would be a smart move if one day Google actually decides to implement it, you will be ahead of your competition.
Comments
@NinjasMarketing 5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments http://t.co/3YbS0MKXgE
New @webuildpages: 5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments http://t.co/pLHbOAEk32
5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments http://t.co/mFo0d28QHW
I blogged this: ‘5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments’ by @NinjasMarketing http://t.co/lJiK48lAJV
5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments http://t.co/AKTopLqyPi #OnlineMarketing
‘5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments’ by @NinjasMarketing http://t.co/pJDeQK722p
RT @joehall: I blogged this: ‘5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments’ by @NinjasMarketing http://t.co/lJiK48lAJV
5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments Sometimes the comment section of a blog can be way more interesting than.. http://t.co/T3hzNPdjL8
Vielleicht was für die Blogger: http://t.co/k7147BXeuB “5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments”
5 Blog SEO friendly comment setup tips from @JoeHall – Pagination, Data Storage, Canonicals, Avatars and Schema http://t.co/1DzJ8lBlEr
New post by @joehall shares the gooooooods!
on how pros pimp their blog comment sections:
http://t.co/3GuahuKk80
Kristopher B. Jones liked this on Facebook.
5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments http://t.co/Fo5KX9D60I #seo
Some sweet hardcore optimization blocking & tackling here tweeps: SEOing your blog comments http://t.co/Na6aqHKnPv Yes, it matters.
I also prefer to show all comments on one page but when there are many many comments could be a issue for page speed 🙂
5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments – Sometimes the comment section of a blog can be way more interesting than the ent… http://t.co/vbAZ4l4HuS
‘5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments’ by @NinjasMarketing http://t.co/DA2Ubxg3vK
5 #SEO Protips For Blog Comments via @GabGoldenberg: Sometimes the comment section of a blog can be way more… http://t.co/Xr0b5qofus
‘5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments’ @joehall http://t.co/HgPzz9ATn1
#SEO Alert!
5 SEO Pro #Tips For #Blog Comments via @getmeontop http://t.co/94j3sd61q4
RT @getmeontop: #SEO Alert!
5 SEO Pro #Tips For #Blog Comments via @getmeontop http://t.co/94j3sd61q4
5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments http://t.co/mVFHfjnQQQ Great post by @JoeHall via @NinjasMarketing! #SEO
what do you think? 5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments http://t.co/RZUn5HorKD
http://t.co/MEuW8fvLxf – 5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments
‘5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments’ by @NinjasMarketing http://t.co/iuClYCy0qZ
5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments http://t.co/CPjFEbz4jr #SEO #SEM
Are you doing SEO For blog comments? They need love too. http://t.co/df31qaef7h
5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments by @joehall via @NinjasMarketing http://t.co/OgCm71sSny #SEO
RT @BmmcG: 5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments by @joehall via @NinjasMarketing http://t.co/OgCm71sSny #SEO
‘5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments’ by @joehall @NinjasMarketing http://t.co/LP5C3BhX1m
@BmmcG @IMNinjaMike @NinjasMarketing Thanks for the tweets, hommies!
@joehall @IMNinjaMike @NinjasMarketing Anytime Joe! Hope the week is treating you well. #ninjas
@BmmcG @joehall @NinjasMarketing Anytime, Ninja.
Online Empire Creation liked this on Facebook.
5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments http://t.co/RxHk0Te1ej
5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments http://t.co/OgCm71sSny by @joehall via @NinjasMarketing #SEO
5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments http://t.co/HtEHqDfd04
RT @SmartLocalUK: 5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments http://t.co/HtEHqDfd04
5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments: http://t.co/p8Ey4BnVPN By @joehall via @NinjasMarketing
@RavenTools Thanks so much for the Tweet! You always have a special place in my heart. Cc @NinjasMarketing
@joehall Right next to your love of animal gifs we hope? @ninjasmarketing
@RavenTools In the same compartment…where I also keep my fantasies er um I mean, thoughts of @RavenJon Cc @NinjasMarketing
@joehall Oh dear… @RavenTools @RavenJon @NinjasMarketing
@joehall Go on… @ravenjon @ninjasmarketing @seoaware :p
@RavenTools @joehall @RavenJon @NinjasMarketing @SEOAware You ain’t nothin til he loves you more than a hot dog and a glass of rum.
@RavenTools I wonder if it is the cat shirts Jon wears… @joehall @ravenjon @ninjasmarketing
@vikkiorlando Haha, that’s our new goal. @joehall @ravenjon @ninjasmarketing @seoaware
@RavenTools Oh, or maybe it is the new bald look? And all the exercise… 😉 Snazzy dude Jon is #Yoda @joehall @ravenjon @ninjasmarketing
@joehall @raventools @ninjasmarketing that compartment has always made me uncomfortably titillated.
RT @RavenTools: 5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments: http://t.co/p8Ey4BnVPN By @joehall via @NinjasMarketing
RT @RavenTools: 5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments: http://t.co/p8Ey4BnVPN By @joehall via @NinjasMarketing
RT @RavenTools: 5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments: http://t.co/p8Ey4BnVPN By @joehall via @NinjasMarketing
5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments. #seo #pr #wordpress http://t.co/bD563GyafU
#SEO PARA BLOG COMMENTS ON SITE 5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments http://t.co/4oisi74Dbr
I disagree with the schema implementation part. Why do work when there’s no promised gain right now? You don’t gain interest for doing it, nor will you have an easy time spending your client’s time on something with indeterminate ROI.
I think, Search engine optimization used to mean adding keywords every chance you could. Once everyoneSEO content writing caught on, though, the black-hat players took advantage and outranked quality content.
5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments #SEO #ContentMarketing #BusinessDevelopment http://t.co/Afc6VfYMAS
RT @NickNicholls: 5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments #SEO #ContentMarketing #BusinessDevelopment http://t.co/Afc6VfYMAS
5 SEO Protips For Blog Comments #SEO #ContentMarketing #BusinessDevelopment http://t.co/m3etxHlOme
Really useful pro tips, as a webmaster I found an impressive details here. thanks for sharing this useful information.
Is schema really helpful ? I am confused about how to use it well.