Can blog comments hurt you?

[Puyallup Agent]

Seems to me the answer should obviously be NO, right?

I've been commenting on do follow blogs lately and using my tacoma page url. Since I've started doing that I've actually seen my page slip from a high point of page 5 on G to page 8. I'm just participating in the discussions, not trying to put in anchor text or spam in any way.

Is there some kind of web etiquette I'm breaking by linking to a specific page rather than my front page?

I've not made any changes to the page at all, (until today), just adding links.

[webmaster]

If done in a way that could lead a search engine auditor to believe you are attempting to inflate your link popularity, then my answer would be yes.

[Discover Davis Homes]

Brett, I wonder if it would help to be more diverse than just doing do-follow blog comments. Maybe try writing some blog posts and finding other ways to build some links.
If you are changing up the pages you are linking to and using the same email, you may not be getting the do-follow credit as some of the wordpress plugins look for consistancy (so not to game the se's).

[Puyallup Agent]

Thanks for weighing in Morgan, always value your opinion.
Maybe I'm just paranoid about the Tacoma rankings I don't know. When I review the quality of sites that outrank me I'm left wondering what the heck does Google want?.

The top ranked page had paid links at one time maybe they still do, which according to Google webmaster guidelines is a no no. I'm trying to reach the top page with blog posts, articles and blog comments and I'm going backwards.

I'm trying to give the visitor what they want, a quality site with easy to use listing searches. We get constant positive comments about the website and how easy it is to use, yet G has us buried for the most important keyword in our area.

This is exactly why I bought another template site, I swear brettsells is on some Google watch list.

[Puyallup Agent]

Thanks Carolyn, Yes the blog posts are just one of the ways I'm trying to spread the word. While my physical office is in Puyallup the center of my business is really Tacoma. Perhaps I made a mistake by not making that my landing page?

[Discover Davis Homes]

Hey I'm trying to do the same thing, expanding out my current site to include more of the region - I think it is difficult but not impossible. I still have a ways to go to get there but it takes time.

[JennSellsFast]

As long as they don't make up a large percentage of your backlinks I wouldn't think they could. Just don't go on a spamming spree and you should be fine!

[Jenie0109]

Seems to me the answer should obviously be NO, right?

I've been commenting on do follow blogs lately and using my tacoma page url. Since I've started doing that I've actually seen my page slip from a high point of page 5 on G to page 8. I'm just participating in the discussions, not trying to put in anchor text or spam in any way.

Is there some kind of web etiquette I'm breaking by linking to a specific page rather than my front page?

I've not made any changes to the page at all, (until today), just adding links.

If your just adding your links without any relation to your comment your comment might flag as spam.

[ScottFicek]

Other than site etiquette, why are you not putting anchor text in the comments? Deep linking (linking to pages in the site instead of the home page) is actually good SEO to build PR diversity and overall site strength.

It seems like brettsells is getting all your juice and not your site directly. Maybe just spend the $10 and buy you own domain host it for $5 per month and build all your own juice.

How old is the site? Newer sites will jump up for a short time as they are new as Google thinks they may be the next big thing. They then often will settle backward.

Lastly, are you using the Firefox plug in to confirm those sites are really do follow?

[Discover Davis Homes]

Scott I think most blog owners do not want to see anchor text as names.

Brett in my case I've been building links to a city page but right now it is the home page that is in the index - sitting on page 3 - it looks like in your case it is your Tacoma page sitting there - maybe mix things up a little and try to create some links to your home page for Tacoma? I changed text on my page to include the area I want to target but not really sure if that was the best thing as I lost rankings for a bunch of other terms - it's ok now because my overall traffic has gone up but may recommend you consult with a professional (like REW) before doing something like that on your own.