The Value of WordPress Comment System for SEO by Example

August 2, 2010 - Last Modified: September 20, 2010 by Hesham Zebida 2,647

This is something that most of bloggers don’t know, and probably a lot of them think that blog comments has no value for search engines optimization, maybe because no body can control comments when it goes off topic, or maybe because they think that comments are separate from content, but you know what? I think most of bloggers just didn’t notice how Google respect WordPress comment system! And while bloggers are looking for ways and techniques to increase comments on their blogs, they probably don’t realize most of it’s benefits, especially when we talk about comments and SEO, I see a lot of debate without providing any approve, and this is why I decided to publish this post and give approve to you that comment not only can increase traffic by following the concept of article marketing that Kristi Hines showed to us, but it also can increase blog organic traffic and give your content several and different ways to be found through search engines.

I personally believe that we must know all the possible benefits of WordPress comment system, and realize that we don’t need to replace this system or host comment a way from content, although bloggers has different goals of blogging, why not having different goals of blogging comments, and why not getting to know more benefits of blogging comments, and setup new goals and plans for the future of our blogs? so.. now I think we need to know why we actually need blog comments?!

Yes! Seriously!
Why you need more comments on your blog?

You want to show others that your blog has life?
Is it because you love conversation?
Do you get inspiration from comments to generate new “content” ideas?
Or for generating the “content” itself?
Dose comments add value to your blog SEO?

Yes! Comments can do all what I mentioned above and probably much more than that!

And this is what you are going to discover while reading this post, because I have talked before about generating content from blog comments in a different way than others think about it, OK.. Let me tell you how I learned and I could even teach this tip!

Lessons from Discussion Forums

I had a full time job for 3 years in a major discussion forums as an editor and moderator, my job was just the normal boring tasks like answering questions, add replies to discussion if I have something useful to say, moderate the forum members, and do some editorial work like fixing typos, and publish some news!

One day I discovered that I can simply turn on the discussion by giving the opposite opinion, or open a new discussion by asking a simple question that people already know, probably I will get the answer from several people, and it will work better than asking complicated questions that needs an expert to actually answer them! And that was the time to bring the fun to the “work”.. Yes!.. It was having a lot of fun while playing the conversation game without members actually notice that you are playing it!

That was the first time I thought about why not generating content from real people comments and replies to a topic, that was the real art of creating content, and yes I am proud to say that I was teaching my other workmates the art of generating content from simple comments!

I have shared this with you as introduction to what I really want to talk about in this post, as it’s very important to understand the power of comments in generating content and also in optimizing your blog for search engines.

Most of the people who will add a comment on a blog post, they will write something relative to the main topic, and because I believe that comments are part of content, I never thought once that comments are separated from the body and the bones of the article, it actually increase keywords on the page, and I am going to show you how your blog comments are separated at all from content, and how Google respect blog comments, also how blog comments can drive organic traffic to your blog, all this by example and I will approve it.

But first, I must say that I don’t agree with those who are using commenting systems like Disqus or intense debate, of any other system that bloggers prefer it rather than WordPress default comment system, I mean why you will host your blog comments a way from your blog?! you are losing some free SEO optimization and some organic traffic?!

This is a message for those who are using a different comment system than WordPress default commenting system: I feel sorry for you guys!

Comment for SEO by Example

Now! Let me show you examples of searches made by readers and found my blog because comments made by someone on my blog, and even the SERPs display the results from the comment, has nothing to do with the content it self, even Google SERPs has updated it self and got parts of the comments display in the search results page!

Example 1

This search was made using these terms “aweber pop over problems with wordpress”, and the results came up with the comment on the first page of Google search, as you can see here!

Notice the bold text, the first part of the SERP is from content, and the second part is actually from the comment section, they work together to bring the results from Google search!

Example 2

Ok, I will give you a better example, someone searched using these terms “is tweepi safe to use”, and guess what?! All the SERPs comes from a comment and our about us page, I have no idea how!!

Example 3

Ok, the same results over and over, someone made a search by these terms “add disclosure to your blog”, and when I read the SERP I remembers even the person who actually add that comment! He was my friend DiTesco of IblogZone.com, and I was right!

I have got several examples that show that comments are great benefit for SEO, I just don’t remember the terms, but for sure if you put your eyes on your WordPress stats and check out the terms that people find your blog by typing it in Google search, then you will probably find out how important comments are for your blog SEO!

Now, do you see the value of comments for search engine optimization? it’s kind of random optimization when you get non relevant comments or a “thank you so much” kind of comments from people who has nothing to share or to add to a blog post!

It’s a Huge Win Win Situation

Now! And finally we all know that blog commenting and comment exchange, experiences, opinions, thoughts, and being helpful to each other is a huge win win situation indeed, and I must mention that one of the goals of our blogging contest was to educate readers and bloggers, and teach them how to comment well! comment good! and add value! and I believe that more than 500 bloggers and readers has learned something useful from this contest!

Who don’t like something that actually bring extra and unexpected organic blog traffic?

Work hard to add value to comments, this help you and the blog you are commenting on at the same time!

About Hesham Zebida

Follow @hishaman

I create websites with WordPress, and I develop Schema Plugins to help SEOs. I am a social network lover. I am also the night creature who works hard to keep this project up. Owner and founder of the Famous Blog.

{ 122 Responses }

Nelson says:

Yes, you are right. Wordpress Comments make a great difference when coming to SEO.
Suresh Chaudhary says:

Nice post, mate. thanks for sharing with us.
Radu Iliescu says:

Thank you for your post. Search Engine Optimisation is my main concern as we have a lot of blogs needing to be placed high in Google. Cheers, Radu
mark adams says:

We generally tell all our customers to think of commenting on other relevent blogs as a way of showing another blog’s audience how much they know/ how interesting they are. So this new audience will click on the link back to their blog. This is another method of driving traffic to your site and entices people to write really well thought out comments, instead of junk to get ranked higher on search engines…
Kilovars says:

Thanks a lot for this information. I am very new to both search engine optimization and blogging. I really have a long way to go to get where I need to be. As I understand it, you are suggestion we create controversy in our blogs so that we can get feedback and reaction. That is as old as the hills in the world of newspapers but I will definitely keep this in mind for my future in writing. Good ideas.
Adam Weitz says:

Great, tips. I been doing a lot of SEO/SEM in the past and I was pretty sure I know everything about this field but with your article I realized you can still teach new tricks to old dogs. I'll be reading your other posts.
Uladsim says:

Thats the plugin I was talking about.Where I would take minor exception is the using a h1 tag on a logo as that seems to be a waste of a perfectly good h1 tag. Instead, an effective and more relevant h1 should give a the viewer and search engines a brief description of what’s on the page from a content perspective. I’m not sure many company names do that and I would bet that your search results would be better served as well. Nice article though.
Jon says:

I have found comments to be very useful. Generally content I write is factual and written in the third person. This is not really great SEO, as it is not how people search Google. However, people leave comments asking questions like "I am 14, how do I .... ?" and then a little while later, I get search referrals from people asking that same question. Simple, obvious, and it works. The key part of this is that your community starts to SEO itself, to draw in more people that are on the same wavelength as the other community members. These helps make a good community.
Jeffie Orbeck says:

This is really among the better reports of people who I've read more the following theme nowadays. Excellent do the job.
Eric Moore says:

Bottom line...Google loves anything live and commentable. Always use web 2.0-3.0 properties. As SEO friendly as you can get. How else did FB become PR10. Now even more with Caffeine. Great post BTW.
Nishant Prajapati says:

I just got done having a similar discussion — once again — with one of our SEO guys regarding image replacement within a nav and stumbled upon your post. I think your thoughts echo mine pretty well. Where I would take minor exception is the using a h1 tag on a logo as that seems to be a waste of a perfectly good h1 tag. Instead, an effective and more relevant h1 should give a the viewer and search engines a brief description of what’s on the page from a content perspective. I’m not sure many company names do that and I would bet that your search results would be better served as well. Nice article though. Thanks.
- Hesham says:
  
  HTML pages should have only one H1 tag, this is the title of the post! this is why I think logo image is OK! The main page (hope page) of the blog has the tagline in the H1, this is not bad! Your thoughts?
Noraa says:

Thanks for the great post !! I do like the fact that you have to be logged into Facebook in order to comment. That I would assume will solve the comment spam problem.
- Hesham says:
  
  I don't recommend it! WP commenting system is the best, why involving Facebook while there is other ways to control/reduce spam?
Adam says:

Agree with the fact that comments add a lot of value to content. If you don't think comments / visitor generated content add value to main content, we could not have seen forums performing better on Google as all the forums are mostly flooded by visitor comments.
- Hesham says:
  
  Exactly Adam, I was working on a discussion forum, we were "generating content" from comments and replies!
  - Adam says:
    
    Let me share an interesting experience - I had a forum a few years back, it was a plain phpBB forum and I used to post lots of content, but failed to get traffic. That was the first forum I handled and hence did not add any antispam mods. As traffic was not good for the effort I added, I just stopped working on it for some time. After a few months, I was shocked to see hundreds of visitors visiting my forum - any funny part, the keywords are mostly related with pr0n and it was all due to the generous spam bots which registered and added their threads and replies. I was not interested to move ahead in such a niche and removed everything and added anitspam mods there - but this definitely tells what visitor comments value for SEs.
Dana says:

Agree Hesham! It seems Gogole include wordpress comment in their search result. Of course, the comment should good comment and if possible, the long comment. Yet another reasons to stick with default wordpress comment form.
- Hesham says:
  
  Yes my friend, I can see it everyday :)
Rommel says:

I think interaction is really great thing in a blog and that is one of the crucial thing the webmaster must accomplish. I've already seen lot of blogs and I noticed that when a blog have lot of comments it have PR much higher.
- Hesham says:
  
  One good thing is to create a blog for your business site!
Ian says:

WOW I never knew/realized that comments show up so high in Google! Great piece of knowledge! Another thing - I've never used KeywordLuv - now entirely sure what it does, but In gave it a try! Is it similar to comluv (brilliant plugin by the way) Cheers! Ian
- Hesham says:
  
  Glad to add something new! I always try to give more power to comment section!
Kathy says:

In my experience comments do help the page they are posted on to rank for more long tail keywords. Yes you also get the freshness boost that the spiders love. As far as SEO linking power goes for comments, I think they are fine for low competition keyword link building. For anything competitive though, you are probably either going to comment on some high PR posts on high trust domains or else link build for the posts that have approved your comments. I use comments as a secondary, rather minor and easy method of generating links. The real juice I get for money sites comes from other sources of contextual links.
- Hesham says:
  
  That's true.. I can not agree more!
Colleen says:

I totally agree with you Hesham. I think Google sees the activity and factors this into their algorithm. It has long been thought that Google is factoring in bounce rates, so commenters would certainly help the bounce rates percentage.
- Hesham says:
  
  This is exactly how I think about it, and this is the beauty of having your site in a blog platform! I still have a kind of high bounce rate, it's around 60% and I think this because of traffic coming from some site like StumbleUpon for example!
  - Colleen says:
    
    I'm surprised you bounce rate is at 60%. You have a lot of good stuff here that would facilitate staying around for awhile.
    - Hesham says:
      
      Yes! and it was around 70 last month! actually this happen when a post popped on the first page of Digg, and that time FB bounce rate was at %30, then it turned to %75 after that Dugg! that's how I know that traffic from Dig & StumbleUpon has a bad effect on bounce rate average! Also, I want you to know that Google doesn't take these consideration while ranking sites/blogs in it's search engine, check out this video by Matt Cutts about Google Analytics "Is Google Analytics data a factor in a page's ranking?":
      - Colleen says:
        
        I've seen that video before. I've also heard it said that while Google might not be using our (personal) analytics, they have their own they use. It would only seem natural that their algorithm would weigh on the side of a site that has visitors staying longer and viewing multiple pages.
        
        Dana says:
        
        I am having the same though as you. The less bounce rate should mean that our content is important for readers. And Google always claim that they calculate users first.
      - Praz says:
        
        Well thats a very quick and short answer to a controversial question of the webmasters explained briefly in a short 1:17 minute video. Cool.
marissa says:

One good thing about all the time increasing comments is that google has always something new to add to it's index from that page and then the bots keep coming to the updating pages that get more comments.
- Hesham says:
  
  This is how I think about it too!
Andy says:

That's great! I didn't know comments were good for secondary content generation.
- Hesham says:
  
  Well.. Comments are good for SEO!
Sachin says:

Keyword Optimization is primary factor with commenting boost ranking of blog in search giants like Google, Bing and yahoo Thanks I like this Excellent Post. :) ;)
- Hesham says:
  
  mm... you have just keyworded this post!
Praz says:

Well said Hesham. I think there's even a wordpress plugin which I came across a couple of months ago. I can't remember the name though right now. The plugin will create dynamic virtual pages for the comments only visible for the Search Engines. I'll try to find out. Thanks.
- Hesham says:
  
  I think this plugin create a page for each comment as Tia said in her comment below, here is a link to read about what they probably call About SEO Super Comments! Also I found the plugin for you SEO Super Comments plugin! it seem it's not in a final version yet! I don't know but I won't go with that plugin, as it creates a virtual page for each comment that doesn't exists in your blog database, but present it to search engines! this means it will slow down your page load and eat your server resources! (I am also not sure!)
  - Praz says:
    
    Thats the plugin I was talking about. I don't personally think that it will slow down page load, because it has nothing to do with page loading. It creates virtual pages for the search engines. Moreover Vladimir Prelovac never makes useless plugins. I thinks he knows wordpress very well and makes use of wordpress hooks to the maximum extent. But anyways, thats my personal opinion. The concept of Seo Super Comments is cool although not very clear to me. Thanks.
    - Hesham says:
      
      How virtual pages are created? To create a virtual page.. when someone visit your blog, and add a comment, the plugin will create that page (this means it doesn't exists before the comment) so each person open your blog and add a comment, the plugin will create the virtual page.. this slow the process of adding a comment and also your over all blog load! (I see it this way!) I never say it's useless! but almost all plugins has side effects by nature, this is why it's recommended to reduce the amount of plugins running on a blog!
      - Praz says:
        
        Thats well said.
Murlu says:

It's quite a perfect system when you think about it. Say your'e writing a post and have a few keywords in mind - off the top of your head you're going to use a couple but what happens with commenting - when people keep up the conversation - is that they'll use synonyms and other secondary keywords when adding information. Since Google and other search engines love when a page doesn't just hammer people with a single keyword, this opens up a whole new level of search engine optimization. Hell, just in this comment alone I unknowingly used keywords that are spot on with the topic - I wonder how it will be indexed :)
- Hesham says:
  
  Sound good to me! lol! you have got the point perfectly :)
Ileane says:

Hesham, you know what? I just had a second look at the searches for Wordpress.com blog and now those crazy long tail words are making a lot of sense. I was wondering how these searches were able to find me, now I know that the comments are the source. When it comes to Wordpress their commenting system is the best. Only on Blogger do you need to install Intense Debate in order to get CommentLuv. Thanks!!
- Hesham says:
  
  Glad to heat that Ileane! I know that so many people don't use the Wordpress.com stats, I think it's so important stats just as Google analytics, and I usually check it every hour or so while I am working on the blog! although I check Google analytics once a week or so.. or when someone ask me ;) Yes! Commentluv is available as an IntenseDebate plugin Have a wonderful day!
Luqman says:

Thanks for share this nice and informative post, Wordpress is my best blog platform with nice plugin and a good comment system that help bloggers on SEO related issues.
- Hesham says:
  
  Now you know it all! thanks for stepping by!
Jacksonville real estate says:

so I'm thinking now I need to turn commenting on. Is the benefit for SEO that you have changing/updating content more often, which in turn increases the crawl rate?
- Hesham says:
  
  That could be true Jacksonville! I remember that Matt Cutts of Google talked about this once in a video.. but I just can not find it! The thing is working a lot on your blog, getting backlinks, and updating content get attention of search engines! Thank you for stepping by!
AJ says:

These examples you show is proof once again that search engines - especially Google - pay so much attention to domain and page trust (ultimately meaning, backlinks) that even irrelevant pages out rank others. I sometimes find myself ranking for things in the similar way just because some keyword is on my page 1-2 times. All those comments can sure help SEO, but it is important to realize that the main reason Famous Bloggers is getting ranking high up for these terms is because it is a well trusted domain with TONS of backlinks and good Page Rank. Put these same posts on most other sites and you will see no results. But yes...every piece of extra content on your page helps! But don't rely on just your visitors to write everything for you! :)
- Hesham says:
  
  Hey AJ, Actually I can feel Google trust more than ever, (fast page indexing) and yes you are right! I also find the one page can be found by several ways (keywords!) lol! some of my friends think that I am spending my day beside my swimming pool, and others do the work (publishing daily gust posts).. which is not true lol! well.. I just found the right way! oh! man! I love you comment! this makes me feel great! thank you tons!
Alex says:

Hesham, Well done mate! I'm sure I don't need to tell you how much I love the power of the keyword, but I love this post with specific examples. Great work too, I have certainly noticed that Google loves blog comments because they are pinged to the search engines more often than the post, among other reasons. I always try to make sure my comments are keyword rich, even if it results in helping the blog not me, it all adds up in the long run Thanks for a great post Hesham.
- Hesham says:
  
  Hey Alex! Your blog tells all about it :) thank you for the tip! I think also that Google indexing my posts in no time.. recently .. just in no time! maybe because the blog was very active during the last month while running a blogging contest and getting hundreds of comments! It's always great to see you, and hear your opinion!
digiknowzone says:

I already know that comments are actually what search engines target. Because of comments, search engines know that your site is alive and has a lot of readers. But, I was surprised by the examples you gave. It was somewhat enlightening. Great job!
- Hesham says:
  
  This is how I imagine it as well! that makes sense if we think that a post gets a one comment everyday, then this could mean your post is updated everyday! and probably Google will like because of that! Thanks for stepping by!
Justin Germino says:

This is a really good article, I didn't even know or realize myself that comments on your own site can show up in the SERP for searches. I had assumed that META Description was always what displayed.
- Hesham says:
  
  I didn't find any article that gives live examples, so I did! although there are 3 of 4 articles talking about this but not the same information! So.. yes comments shows up in the SERP and increase organic traffic to your site! Even typos in the comments are some how do the same!
  - Justin Germino says:
    
    Right, I know typo's work well, I actually use typo's sometimes in keywords/tags deliberately. Since people mistype stuff they search for all the time you can capitalize on typo's for SEO
    - Hesham says:
      
      Exactly! but I really don't mean to use them as I got some not nice feedbacks from our dear readers lol! So, I think it's all good if done by readers in comments ;)
      - Justin Germino says:
        
        I don't use typos in posts, just in tags
        
        Hesham says:
        
        gotcha! great idea!
John says:

One of the best ways to get legit links is by commenting on do follow blogs. Its easy to get involve on healthy discussion and learning something along the way while doing SEO at the same time. Question, does comment RSS feeds do something for SEO?
- Hesham says:
  
  I really don't know as I am not using the comments RSS feed anywhere! But it could help bring some extra traffic if you give the option to your subscribers to subscribe to comment feed or you can submit it to some sites that accept comment RSS feeds!
Paul says:

Another amazing post Hisham! Your skills on getting an in-depth explanation of SEO gets better everytime you post something. This time you hit it right on the perfect spot, commenting is definitely one of the biggest part of link building.
- Hesham says:
  
  lol yeah! my skills are getting better, although I am not talking here about link building!!
Deidre Brathwaite says:

Hi Hesham, I have been hesitant to use Disqus for that same reason and your article has helped to seal the deal. Do believe that I will stick with the word press system. Thanks for sharing this info.
- Hesham says:
  
  This is actually why I insists that our guest bloggers engage with readers comments! and I rejects guest posts from those who don't engage when they want to post another article! (you have comments that need your reply, and it's your chance to get to know your "own" new reader.. why losing it?!) ;)
Hieu Martin says:

Great post. Very useful. I never though about this. Thanks for sharing
- Hesham says:
  
  No problem.. enjoy!
  - Hieu Martin says:
    
    @ Hesham I'm enjoy with this
    - Hesham says:
      
      That's something good to know :) By the way, I am using a special scrip to linkfy tweeter IDs, so @ My name will be linkfied and @ Hesham is not my Twitter id.. this is why I put space :) my personal twitter is @hishaman ;) You actually don't need to add @ before the name in a thread comment! Have a good day!
      - Hieu Martin says:
        
        Oh i just know about it. I will dont add @ before the name . Hesham :)
Laura Davis says:

Wow! I always knew comments were super important, but I didn't know they could boost your SEO stats! That's amazing! I wonder if that's part of Google's inclusion of things like Twitter or if it's always been like that?
- Hesham says:
  
  I am not sure, but I have seen this happening since a long time "months"! even if it's always been like that.. no body was talking about it or mentioning it! so.. I just did!
tushar says:

great find hesham....actually i wanted to know how you found this.... if i could get to know where the comments in my blog rank in SERP, it will help me a lot...looking forward to more articles on this particular topic
- Hesham says:
  
  As I say this can be found by looking into the keywords that people type to find your blog! It's very simple if you are using the "WordPress.com Stats" plugin!
  - tushar says:
    
    thanks man...will look into this right now
Lennart Heleander says:

The Value of Wordpress Comment System for SEO is to have the Title and Title keywords in the description so early as possible, you have so much to win and get new visitor to you site or blog. This comment is a good example of that. Do you agree Heshan??
- Hesham says:
  
  You mean adding keywords over in the comments?! Actually this happen by nature as usually commenters talks, asks, and discuss about the topic of your article which add more keywords to your article by nature! You know? The typo you have made when you typed my name could help SEO wise a well ;)
  - Lennart Heleander says:
    
    Oooops, so sorry Hesham, I didn´t mean anything with typed your name wrong. I mean ex. adding the article Title as keywords in the comment so early as possible. (sorry for my English)
    - Hesham says:
      
      It's ok.. no worries.. my English is actually the worst :)
Jakes says:

Hi Hesham, Nice topic.. I always knew comments could drive traffic from search engines. But I believe this comments can get organic traffic only if the blog is quite established. At times, I feel like approving spam comments as they will have words like 'cinema', 'video', etc . LOL
- Hesham says:
  
  You mean comments can drive traffic from the link you leave behind?! now you know it can drive organic traffic from search engines! No.. no.. no spamming comments, you really don't need that because spamming comments links to non authorized sites that could hurt your SEO!
Dev - Technshare.com says:

Hey Hesham, Great post as usual. Very useful. I never though about this. Thanks for sharing this great Post hesham. ~Dev
- Hesham says:
  
  Thank you Dev! I took long time to publish this post, I think I should did it 3 month back when I discover it ;)
Tinh says:

@ Hesham: You are right as comments will give us many blogging ideas and I have done this quite well. It is not only to show that blog has life but also to encourage us to continue our work :-)
- Hesham says:
  
  I agree that Comments are good for ideas, I actually got several ideas by reading comments of today :) I hope to find time to write about them!
  - Tran Tinh says:
    
    It is cool and readers can bring us some ideas for blogging and I have done this successfully and it still open for ideas to come again and again :-) Can't wait to see new posts
Dean Saliba says:

Very detailed post. If this could work nicely with Intense Debate than I'd jump at the chance to use it. :)
- Hesham says:
  
  I won't suggest hosting comment a way from my content, or somewhere else not on my own server!
John says:

Hesham, The other thing to mention here I think is that, also with additional comments to a blog it proves to google that it's worth more attention since there are so many comments and participation going on helping it to rank better as well within the search engines allowing both the article and comments to be found within google searches. John
- Hesham says:
  
  I completely agree! And it's not Google only, but I know some ranking websites take this as a main factor to rank blogs (comment engaging) and also some how the claim to measure the author engagements as well (the replies)! By the way, this is why I am against closing comments after a particular period of time! (as long as I can receive a comment and reply to it on a blog post.. I do it!) I have articles here publish more than 6 months, still getting comments on them, I keep them open and I reply to comments as I think this could be some kind of an update added to the post itself which makes it still live!
Tia says:

Hi Hesham - I agree that the default system is sufficient and I have witnessed the SEO power myself, same as you. I tried both DISQUS and Intense Debate and discovered that neither of them suited me or my blog. There's a plugin that creates separate pages for each comment and when I was using that, it really did make a huge difference SEO-wise (it's called like SEO super comments or something) but it didn't serve my readers because it didn't link to their sites from the main page, so I ditched it. Readers who leave long, keyword rich comments are doing us huge favors. We should continue to reward them and figure out ways to encourage more. It's good all around.
- Hesham says:
  
  I won't share this unless I am sure about it, and I also have tried DISQUS, and I am still using it on my abandoned blogs only to keep spammers a way as I don't have to close comments (it's a simple way of communication that you really don't want to turn it off)! Yeah, I heard about that plugin to, but I didn't trying it, and probably it will work for others, but I am concentrating on increasing comments in several other ways, not really for SEO benefits but for content creation! I agree! we must award commenters! Sometimes I think that comments are more important than content, (in some cases this is true!) but then I rethink about it again and I find my self in a big circle..... Content and Comments like the chicken and the egg!
- Hesham says:
  
  I found the plugin here SEO Super Comments! I am not sure, but I won't recommend something could slow page load! This plugin create a virtual page for each comment that doesn't exists in your blog database, but present it to search engines! this means it will slow down your page load and eat your server resources!
Des says:

Hi Hesham, great post. I think people often underestimate the value of comments for SEO. I did a post on my own blog where I showed proof that by attracting comments you can even pick up SEO traffic via the commenter's keywords left in their name box! It really is a win win. As for Disqus, I hate it. I often don't bother to leave a comment if I see Disqus as I know there is a 50/50 chance that my comment will simply disappear never to be seen again.
- Hesham says:
  
  Yes! exactly, even the name and keywords of commenters shows sometimes in SERPs! People often underestimate the value of comments for SEO because it's actually not easy to get comments, and some others go for alternative to Wordpress comment system to reduce spam, I personally don't recommend that and I prefer to check my spam folder more than 10 times a day if I have to (I actually do check it more than that!) Talking about Disqus, I am using it on those blogs of mine that I don't want spammers to bother me, and I don't really care to reply to them!
Bogdan says:

I saw that comments are sometimes results of a search in Google, but never considered this as a SEO improvement for a blog. Definitely something new Hesham, awesome "discovery"! :)
- Hesham says:
  
  Hi Bogdan, comments can improve SEO, and this actually drive traffic to my site everyday! comments are good for SEO indeed! Thanks for stepping by!
Nabeel says:

Hi Hesham, I always thought about this and I had some doubts regarding this. I did think that comments must add to SEO and help a blog in SEO for those keywords, and I guess I was right. Kindest, Nabeel
- Hesham says:
  
  Comment is part of content! you are right Nabeel... you are right!
James says:

That is an interesting post. I am trying to work on my blog more regularly, and I am getting more and more comments. I sometimes find that the first one is the hardest one to get. it tends to build from there. This is the first time that I have seen Google actually ranking comment. thanks for sharing. I guess we should all work to help each other out with search engine optimization by using the keywords in our comments.
- Hesham says:
  
  Probably you are right about the "first comment" James! it always turn on the conversation and give other reader a motivation to participate! Although.. There is a way to solve that problem by (get yourself some friends to push the conversation .. if you know what I mean!) start the engine ;) I have seen Google ranking comments since long time back, and I thought someone talk about it, but when I did a search.. I figured out that that no once talk about comments and SEO by giving an examples! probably it's a SEO secret that no body wants to share! (not sure!) We can help each other, and no body helped you then.. you actually can also help your self by mentioning the keywords more than once in your "replies" to comments on your blog!
Julius Kuhn-Regnier says:

Wow that's a nice post Hesham. I never actually thought about comment SEO that much. But it really seems like comments can give you a boost in traffic. Thanks buddy.
- Hesham says:
  
  It really works! I even have a funny search term that was actually a typo! it bring 3 or 4 visitors to the blog almost everyday :) This makes me think that typos are important for any blog to boost it's organic traffic lol!
YourName says:

Thanks for the great post. I have been working on increasing the number of comments on my own personal site. I added the Facebook Comments to WordPress plugin last week. It is running now on my sites and I'll see how it goes. I do like the fact that you have to be logged into Facebook in order to comment. That I would assume will solve the comment spam problem. It seems the main challenge I am having is that visitor to my site typically come their to get the latest Affiliate Buzz podcast or Coffee Talk interview and then off they go with the .MP3 download without leaving a comment. (not much to comment on until they listen to the podcast... but at that point they're typically off the site. Any suggestions? James
- Hesham says:
  
  Hi "YourName from YourKeywords" :) I mean James! Readers don't like to login to be able to comment! so.. I think that adding facebook to comment section will not help on increasing your blog comments! A good way to do that is by visiting other blogs in your niche and add comment on their blogs and get to know those bloggers by engaging!
  - James Martell says:
    
    I agree that readers don’t like to login to be able to comment but with so many with active FaceBook accounts I thought because the visitor's comment is also sent to shared with their FaceBook comments that it might be a good trade-off (and worth a test). ...having said that I would be hard pressed to argue the with someone such as yourself who has definitely mastered the art of gathering in comments and conversation to your site. Your "A good way to do that is by visiting other blogs in your niche and add comment on their blogs and get to know those bloggers by engaging!" is well taken and appreciated.
    - Hesham says:
      
      Ah! ok, I got it.. I actually love to test things, so go for it, and maybe you can share some insights soon! Feel free to give your opinion, I don't think that I will be always right about what I say :) I am actually open to learn! Thank you so much for your time, I really appreciate that!
Cindy says:

Hi again Hesham lol =) Interesting analysis on the comment system. So basically, comments can be part of your content as well, if you use the keywords related to the content... but I noticed tho, even a keyword not related to the content can have good search results as long as the comments are posted on a blog with high PR. I dunno thats how I see it in the screenshot. But its a good that Google searches work this way. Its like posters and commenters working hand in hand.
- Hesham says:
  
  "comments can be part of your content as well, if you use the keywords related to the content" .. exactly! It seems that keywords spread allover, but for sure the post title is the most important part! then the SERPs has some parts from the post, comments, and one example show part of our about us page! confusing! although it shows how Google build the relation between content and search keywords! The message here is to show comments displayed in SERPs! SEO is confusing by it's nature!

The Value of WordPress Comment System for SEO by Example

Lessons from Discussion Forums