At the end of the blog, there will be space to post the comment of the reader.
It defines the relationship between the reader and the blogger.
While reading a blog, on most occasions, we give simple comments like ‘good’, ‘nice’ etc. Only when we have some query on the blog content, we go more. We write a little elaborate comment asking our query or express our indifference.
We regard our comment as a normal happening. But the significance of every comment is great. Read on to know how significant a blog comment is for the reader as well as the blogger.
Contents In Page
How important is blog comment?
The reader gets an opportunity to give his feedback.
The blogger gets to know what people think about his writings only through these comments.
In the year 2016, the US Government was analyzing its federal blogs. The state has expressed the following in view of adapting the blog contents according to changes in society:
“Remembering to adapt your content for the needs of your audience can be an important way to ensure it will remain valuable to readers”.
Building a good network of followers is possible with the help of comments. Comments help in attracting the attention of more people to read your blog.
It can be used as a cost-free marketing tool. The readers who post a comment also enjoy more visibility. Hence blog comments can be used to bring your product brand names to the limelight. Other readers who like your comments tend to take a look at your site/blog.
Blog comment and traffic- A Case Study:
Besides the above uses, can you guess another important use? You will be surprised to know that blog comments have a direct impact on the blog traffic. These increase the traffic.
It is a fact which was observed when many bloggers found reduced traffic upon removing the comments for technical reasons. This might seem to be an accidental discovery while analyzing the traffic patterns.
But is it is a confirmed truth?
This case study finds that when a blogger removed his comments accidentally while changing from WordPress comment system to google comment system, he saw a dip of nearly 70% traffic.
On the internet, you can find many sharing similar such experiences.
You can try out in your blog and check yourself on the changes in blog traffic.
Advantages of having a high traffic:
Traffic refers to the volume of data sent and received using the blog. Most bloggers try hard to find out innovative ways to improve their traffic. Such is the importance of traffic. The advantages of having a high traffic in your blog are:
- It will improve the search engine rankings of your blog. Your blog will appear in a maximum number of searches by viewers.
- Your reach and visibility will be high
- A blog with high traffic can provide great blogging tips.
- A blog with high traffic can be useful in backlinking. This will encourage new bloggers.
- Your blog can earn more money when the traffic is high.
There are other ways to increase traffic like writing lengthy content, creating awesome content etc. But comments are the easiest way to grow the traffic since blogger does not really spend any time or effort on this.
The readers take care of this aspect.
Precautions:
- Comments are treated as part of your blog’s content. When the quality of the comment is high, the ranking for your blog will be high. So, ensure you do encourage quality comments.
- Wrong comments cause a problem.
- Sometimes comments include unrelated links which might be a spam issue. These comments can lead to spam sites which are a threat factor. This is not faced only by our sites and blogs. The US government sites to face such problems. On this issue, Alexander.B.Howard, an independent writer and open government advocate says “Public interest advocates expressed legitimate concerns that added friction could be to disenfranchise the public by making it harder to comment”.
- Check whether the readers use plugins like comment luvin. These can create spam issues. Educate your readers in a friendly way to avoid these.
- While changing from one comment system to another, don’t delete the older comments. This will reduce the traffic.
- Remove useless comments related to very old blogs so that you maintain only what is needed and ensure a good traffic.
- Use checks like improved captcha to avoid automated bots creating spam comments.
Tips to get good comments:
- Keep the title of the article in an attractive manner.
- Have good self-explanatory subheadings.
- Use questions as tools to get more comments
- Request some action from a reader like subscribing, liking etc.
- Address while responding to existing comments. This gives them sort of psychological satisfaction so that they comment more.
- Approve comments at the earliest.
- Encourage good comments by appreciating and rewarding.
- Use different LSI keywords to differentiate your articles. This will have a positive impact on the inflow of comments.
Whether to remove negative comments:
After understanding the uses of comments, now arises a confusion as to whether to retain or remove negative and irrelevant comments.
In reality, there is no need to remove the negative comments. Acknowledging them and giving suitable remedial replies will improve credibility.
A viewer posts negative comments because he does not agree with you. Perhaps he has some genuine difficulty or lack of knowledge. Removing the comment aggravates further arguments. The best thing is to handle it with a solution-oriented approach.
You can suggest alternatives or improvements thereby helping the viewer. This will certainly help in improving your relationship with the viewer. He will look upon you as a mentoring figure and stands to continue reading your blogs.
Thus, readership loyalty can be assured. Moreover, this approach will help in motivating the reader to share your posts. Hence your reach will be more in an easier way.
Hence prudence is to use negative comments to improve your advantage. If your blog is a business blog, replying to negative comments in a solution-oriented way shows your commitment to the customer. In fact, this will have long-term favorable results.
People appreciate and remember you when you respect their negative comments and offer solutions in spite.
There may be situations of prolonged arguments which have no value. It continues in spite of replying. In such cases, you can go ahead to remove the comment.
This will ensure that other readers are not subjected to difficulty. Such a decision has to be taken to ensure the quality of the blog.
There is nothing to worry while removing prolonged arguments which people make without understanding. Also, be aware of automated bot generated replies which should be removed for safety reasons.
