For starters, backlinks or inbound links are links pointing to you from other sites. Generally, they are highly weighted signals for search engines like Google. These signals are used to compare your page with others containing the same topic keyword or phrase.

And by the way, back links are losing weight quickly for new signals.

The question relates to a common practice [Image NOT suggestive, example only] where *at times* folks comment with an ulterior motive. Rather than add to the value of a conversation, *at times* the motivation to link stems from an interest in [self generated] backlinks. Unfortunately, most of that effort is a waste of time. And don’t feel bad, no one is completely innocent;-)

This kind of scenario abused links all over the web to a degree that Google felt compelled to create the “no follow” link standard  [attribute rel="nofollow" on hyperlinks] to try and clean it up. The “no follow” link standard enables a site or community owner to allow comment links, but simultaneously eliminate any search engine optimization benefit by making the links invisible to spiders. When used, a “no follow”link attribute or tag is automatically added to a [blog or forum] comment. This is not to say all blogs, social communities, networks and forums use the standard, but compliance has been widely accepted. In fact, many software providers including WordPress, Six Apart and Blogger have complied. Search Engines, including MSN, Yahoo & Ask, are also cooperating and even social networks like Active Rain have hidden comments from crawling.

So the answer to the question, “Will I get ‘Link Juice’ when I comment on other sites?”, is “It depends on whether or not the site owner has enabled the “no follow” link standard.” Considering that it may be hard to determine, the best practice is to drop ulterior motives and comment to add value. If so, you may just benefit from something much more powerful – like PEOPLE! People who may take favorable action like, for instance, recommending you to friends or backlinking to you from their own blogs… because they appreciate the value you add!

Let’s face it Realtors, professionalism is a requirement of your business and you shouldn’t lower those standards with your Blog. Sure, there are rewards out there for a transparent approach to marketing your services via a Blog. For starters, consumers that will appreciate openness in your approach as opposed to more common & less approachable methods. However, being approachable doesn’t mean you have to take chances.

Let’s look at some common reasons for having all comments automatically moderated:

* Missed Questions: questions may be posed on your blog and, if not noticed, you may miss the opportunity to connect with clients or prospective clients. If so, you risk disappointment and lost business. Comment moderation, for example, can notify you of all new comments via an RSS feed [or in some cases an automated email] so that you never miss an opportunity.

* Spam: if spammers manage to get their comments through, and you happen to miss a deletion, your site could become affiliated with porn, pharmaceutical resellers or other nefarious content. This can’t help you with prospective clients.

* Search Engine Mistrust: the wrong outbound links can get you in trouble and those left by spammers may point to sites the Search Engines don’t like. By affiliation, you can get you booted from their indexes.

* Vindictive Spam: if a vindictive person manages to get their comments through, and you happen to miss a deletion, you may have just opened yourself up to judgement by the public you didn’t deserve. Nobody can make everyone happy and there’s always two sides to a story, but why take the chance?

There are many that say the web should be completely open and that content & comments should be free, but we’d disagree when it comes to your business. Unmoderated commenting is ill- advised for a no. of reasons and hopefully the above begins to demonstrate why.