To Leave or Not To Leave Your Blog Name/Keyword On Comments

Visiting blogs and leaving comments on those blogs, especially those that are within your same niche, is one of the most popular and efficient methods to promote your website or blog and can often yield a nice return in the form of visitors. Some bloggers, however, prefer to leave their blog name in the NAME field of comment forms as opposed to leaving their name or pen name.

You will find many bloggers have grown a bit lenient with their comment policies and allow the use of blog names – but personally, unless the blog name is the same as a “Brand” – I find it just a bit on the annoying side.

I confess, when I started blogging I used to do that as well, because I thought people were more likely to click on the “obvious” keyword or title then on MY “name” – It was when I actually discovered my own habit of mousing over names, blog names and keywords in those links.

The problem with the logic of using your blog name or keywords is that many readers will likely assume you are just spamming the comment section. Some may click the comment with the blog name, but in the long-term it may very well hurt your reputation.

The whole blog concept of establishing relationships and interacting with other bloggers is to lend value to both blogger and visitor. Comments and trackbacks are supposed to generate conversations, and conversations must be personal if they are to be valuable.

As with any practice, there are always exceptions for that rule. If your blog is named after yourself (e.g. gaylabaer.com) or if you are speaking on behalf of a blog entity you could possibly leave the blog name and not your personal name – much like I did in my days of running MomGadget.

A personal habit I’ve often seen and find respectful is if you really want to leave your blog name, try placing it inside brackets following your personal name.

What are your thoughts on comments using blog names and keywords? Are you more or less likely to click the link of a name or a keyword?


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17 responses
  1. Ashley Avatar
    Ashley

    Great post! I’ve toyed with the idea of leaving my blog address underneath my signature, but in the end I just can’t do it. I’m too afraid that the other blogger with mark my message as spam… then my rep will be ruined forever!

  2. Gayla Baer Avatar

    I could be wrong – but I think most bloggers share a mutual respect and will be more likely to click through on a name and a real image (avatar) then a keyword and a logo.

    I’m kind of stingy that way – I don’t care how good a product is, I want to know the real person behind the scene – it makes the “relationship” seem more real – if that makes sense.

  3. Sundi Jo Avatar

    I would agree with you. Social Media is about building relationships, not just constantly promoting yourself. At least that’s my opinion. I don’t want to risk looking like a spammer when I invest many hours trying to build online relationships. Thanks for this blog.

    1. Gayla Baer Avatar

      Hi Sundi – LOVE your name! 🙂 Reputations are difficult to build enough as it is. I think you have the right idea. Congrats on the weight loss and the radio show. Looks like you have lots of exciting changes underway! I’ve subscribed and will look forward to following your journey 🙂

  4. Chris Avatar

    Yeah I just leave my name. Sometimes I combine my name with my copywriting agencye and post as “Chris HELP!” That’s how we identify ourselves on our site (www.helpcopyanddesign.com). But for the most part I just post under my first name.

  5. Jeremy Powers Avatar

    I loathe comment spam. It was not until I started my own blog this year that I realized how necessary comment filters are.

    I think leaving your blog url for the “name” shows your motivation for commenting is, frankly, too selfish. There are better ways to build a brand.

  6. Danielle McGaw Avatar

    I consider my name to BE my brand so, obviously , using my name is to my benefit. But on my own blog, I’ll allow it if people leave the name of their blog IF and only if the comment they leave shows that they actually read the post. If they just leave me something like “great post. I look forward to reading more” then they are spam. I also won’t keep the comment if it is being linked to a site that has no obvious value to anyone.

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  8. Linda Formichelli Avatar

    There’s another aspect to this: If you use your brand as your name, the blog owner may suspect you of spamming. I had one person who would always post a comment on my blog as soon as a post went up, and her comments were always a little “off.” For example, she would sometimes just summarize what I said, and sometimes give pedantic little lectures to my readers. To top it off, she always used the name “Savvy Writer Robin,” with a link back to her blog. It quickly became obvious that she was just skimming my posts and commenting to drive traffic to her blog. I started trashing her comments (I moderate comments on the blog), and for quite a while she didn’t even notice. Eventually, she moved on.

    A long story to say that using your brand as your name can look suspicious to the blog owner!

    1. Gayla Baer Avatar

      Thanks for the comments. I think it takes time and practice to perfect your moderation process. Sometimes those commenting with a brand are sincere in their comments. If the comment contributes constructively to the topic – you can tell if it’s real or spam.
      Moderation is one of those things that does take up time – unfortunately there’s no clear and simple process.

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    It looks like China’s Mahjong ,haha

  10. Paul Taylor (Creative Writing Jobs) Avatar

    Hi Gayla, I have actually taken your advice.
    I guess in my experience it is important to have a balance between the 2. On the traffic generation side of things people do tend to click through a name to see what your article writing is about.
    On the SEO side of things it is good to have a follow through link from your keyword.
    So I guess for me it is having a good mix of the 2.
    Thank you for this informative post.

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  12. Larry Czaplyski Avatar

    I suppose I don’t know enough about blogging to understand why someone would leave their blog name instead of their name. Especially when a site like yours provides the ability to leave a url. What am I missing?

  13. Deborah Turton Avatar

    Thanks for the wonderful topic. I enjoyed reading your article. It helps me to do the right way in blogging articles.

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