Are you a know-it-all? Why Turning Comments on Builds a Better Blog

Blogs were one of the very first forms of social media. Whole communities of people would flock to popular websites and talk to one another, expressing their views on that days hot topic. The one thing they had in common with each other was that they read the exact same thing that day, yet that was basis enough to develop an online relationship with not only other commenters, but with that websites blog too, so much so that websites like Mashable and 9to5Mac made it big years ago and have been going strong ever since.

Whilst you or your clients blog may not have the same long term aim as those blog powerhouses, comment forms undeniably paved the way to a bright future for them. Everybody likes to have a natter and a rant now and again, and all blogs should allow people to do that.

You don’t know it all, you know-it-all

You may be an authority within your subject area, and your university thesis may have been top of your class, however no matter how good you are the unfortunate truth is that there will always be somebody better. Publishing a valuable blog post is a fantastic way to generate visitors to a website and depending on a blogs aims convert visitors in to customers, however those visitors have minds of their own. They may not agree with some of your points, some of your points may be wrong, and some of your points may not make sense. You think your writing is top notch, but that fresh pair of visitors eyes say otherwise.

Some of the most valuable content published to you or your clients blog will be in the form of comments over its lifetime. As you gain exposure, people will want to talk to you about your thoughts. You don’t know it all, and chances are a visitor will let you know it given the chance. Let them. That way, when you stand corrected, you will have learnt something new.

Show off your popularity

A blogs success and popularity can be measured in a number of ways, and having an active community, or a number of comments per post, shows that your content actively engages people in to a form of reaction. Whether that reaction is positive or negative does not entirely matter, because for each new comment published you are showing a level of interactivity amongst your readership.

If you write incredible content people will want to congratulate you and thank you for the time it obviously took you to craft it. This is an incredibly valuable form of comment which can lead to a high level of respect within your niche. For personal branding, it can be a massively lucrative opportunity where the potential to up sell will be high.

SEO: Each new blog comment counts as fresh, unique content

One of the main reasons that we write blog posts for our clients is so that they have unique, engaging and relevant content to add to their blog so that their website is frequently indexed by Google. Each time a blog post is published, the web page will either be automatically pinged to major search engines through the content management system or it will be done manually by a webmaster. Older content tends to rank better in Google and the search engines when it regularly gets commented on, for the simple reason that it has proven to Google that it has remained relevant in the long term.

Each new comment counts towards new unique content. You should never turn your nose up at this, because not only are you not writing anything or taking any time out of your day to gain it, but it shows that people are actually listening and your blogs direction is working.