Are Blog Comments Good for SEO?
The short answer: blog comments have a minor positive effect on SEO when they’re genuine and relevant, but they’re not a ranking factor. Google confirmed in 2024 that comments themselves don’t directly improve rankings – but the signals they create (user engagement, fresh content, discussion) can indirectly help.
The more nuanced answer: it depends entirely on the quality of the comments. High-quality discussions help SEO. Spam, broken links, and irrelevant comments actively hurt it.
Here’s what you actually need to know about blog comments and SEO in 2026.
Blog comments are dying!
That’s the general feel of the blogging community. What used to be the number one way to connect with bloggers has now been put in the corner thanks to Twitter and Instagram. If I post a link to a blog post on Twitter, I’m more likely to get a reply on Twitter about it rather than on the blog post itself.
My personal belief is that this is down to the increase in content consumption on mobile devices. It’s a bit clunky to leave comments on a blog on a phone, it’s much easier to hit back and reply to the tweet!
Anyway, comments can have an effect on your SEO. So let’s look at the good things blog comments can have for your SEO!
- How blog comments help your SEO.
- How Blog Comments Actually Help SEO in 2026
- Now on to why comments can be bad for your SEO.
- Modern SEO Risks from Blog Comments
- What Google Actually Says About Blog Comments
- Should You Allow Comments in 2026?
- Best Practices for Blog Comments in 2026
- Blog Comments and SEO FAQs
- Final Thoughts
How blog comments help your SEO.
Word count.
Word count is an indication of quality, in-depth articles to Google. If you have blog comments, they add to the word count of your blog! This is even better if the comments are long, high quality, relevant and contain keywords!
The number of comments.
The more high quality comments your blog receives, the better it is for your blog! The ‘great post! :)’ comments are trash, so if you leave those types of comments on people’s blogs, please don’t! Help them out by leaving relevant comments that show you have actually read the post.
Backlinks.
When you comment on someone else’s blog post, it creates a backlink to your site. Although these are no-follow links, they do carry some value.
All these things can have a negative impact on your SEO.
Off page SEO.
As above, commenting on someone else blog can be great for SEO. Not just in terms of the link, but the keywords you use could help boost your own rankings. Comment on content similar to yours so you can keep it relevant!
Check out this post: SEO Tools With A Free Trial
How Blog Comments Actually Help SEO in 2026
User Engagement Signals
Beyond word count and backlinks, comments signal user engagement to Google. When people spend time reading and responding to content, it suggests your post provides value. Google tracks:
- Time on page (comments extend this)
- Pages per session (discussion encourages browsing)
- Return visits (engaged communities come back)
Fresh Content Updates
Every new comment updates your page’s “last modified” date. Google favours fresh content, so active comment sections keep your post appearing current even if the original content is years old.
This only works with genuine comments, though. Google can detect when comments are just spam.
Long-Tail Keywords
Comments often include natural language variations of your keywords. Someone might comment “I tried your pizza dough recipe and it worked brilliantly” – that’s a long-tail keyword phrase Google can now associate with your post.
User-Generated Content
Google values diverse perspectives. Comments provide multiple voices and experiences around your topic, making your page more comprehensive.
Now on to why comments can be bad for your SEO.
Commentluv.
I’ve recently disabled and deleted the Commentluv plugin. I love the idea of it, it gives the commenter the chance to link back to a post so you can read it and give them some comment love! The only problem is:
- This can be attractive to spammers
- You can end up with irrelevant links on your blog
- This links can become broken
Spam, low-quality comments.
As I said above, having short comments or low-quality comments could have a negative impact on your SEO. Feel free to delete any comments that do not add any value to your content!
Irrelevant links.
If you have a blog post about how to grow your blog, then a commenter links back to their beauty blog, or post about lipstick, this could have a negative impact on your blog too as it’s putting links to websites that are not on the same topic as your post. It can cause confusion as to what your blog post is about.
Similarly, you could hurt your own SEO of you are commenting on blog posts not within your niche. Try leaving a link to a relevant post on other peoples blogs to help both of you!
Broken links.
This is the challenge I have now – a blog that’s over 6 years old and has thousands and thousands of comments. Some of these blogs have since been deleted, leaving me with a broken link that pulls down the quality of my site in SEO terms. I’ve got around 1200 broken links to fix due to this. It’s slow going through them all!
Modern SEO Risks from Blog Comments
Spam Comments Signal Low Quality
In 2026, Google’s algorithm is sophisticated enough to recognise spam patterns. If your comment section is full of:
- “Great post!” with unrelated links
- Generic comments clearly copied/pasted
- Links to suspicious websites
- Foreign language spam
…Google interprets this as poor site maintenance, which can hurt your overall domain authority.
Page Load Speed
Comment systems (especially third-party ones like Disqus) can slow down your page load speed. Core Web Vitals are now a ranking factor, so heavy comment systems that bog down your site actively hurt SEO.
Native WordPress comments are lighter than third-party alternatives.
Duplicate Content
If the same person leaves identical comments across multiple posts (or multiple sites), Google may flag this as duplicate content or spam.
What Google Actually Says About Blog Comments
Google’s John Mueller has addressed comments directly:
- “Comments themselves aren’t a ranking factor”
- “User engagement signals matter, but not comment count”
- “Spam comments can hurt your site’s perceived quality”
- “No-follow links in comments still pass some value for discovery”
The takeaway: Comments won’t magically boost your rankings, but a healthy comment section contributes to overall site quality signals.
Should You Allow Comments in 2026?
This depends on your resources and goals.
Allow Comments If:
- You have time to moderate properly
- Your niche encourages discussion (recipes, tutorials, opinion pieces)
- You want to build a community
- You can implement good spam protection
Disable Comments If:
There’s no SEO penalty for having comments disabled. Many successful blogs don’t allow comments at all.
Best Practices for Blog Comments in 2026
If you allow comments:
- Moderate actively: Delete spam immediately, approve genuine comments quickly
- Use Akismet or similar: Anti-spam plugins are essential
- Set clear guidelines: Tell people what type of comments you welcome
- Respond to comments: Shows active engagement and encourages more discussion
- Use nofollow links: WordPress does this automatically for comment links
- Fix broken links: Edit or remove comments with dead links
- Close old posts: Consider closing comments on posts over 1-2 years old to reduce spam
- Encourage quality: Ask questions in your posts to prompt thoughtful responses
Blog Comments and SEO FAQs
Are blog comments good for SEO?
Blog comments have a minor indirect benefit for SEO through user engagement signals, fresh content updates, and long-tail keywords. However, they’re not a direct ranking factor. Quality matters – genuine discussion helps, spam hurts.
Do comments help SEO in 2026?
Yes, but minimally. Comments contribute to time-on-page, user engagement, and fresh content signals. Google confirmed comments themselves don’t boost rankings, but the discussion they create can indirectly help if it’s genuine and relevant.
Should I disable blog comments for SEO?
No, there’s no SEO penalty for disabled comments. Many successful blogs don’t allow comments. Decide based on whether you can moderate properly and whether your content benefits from discussion, not SEO considerations.
Do nofollow links in comments help SEO?
Nofollow links don’t pass PageRank, but they can still help with discovery and referral traffic. Google has said nofollow links in comments carry some value, though much less than regular links.
Can spam comments hurt my SEO?
Yes. Excessive spam signals poor site maintenance to Google, broken links from deleted blogs hurt site quality, and spam can slow down your pages. Delete spam immediately and use anti-spam plugins.
Does word count from comments matter for SEO?
Slightly. Comments add to total page content, but Google can distinguish between your content and user comments. Quality of your main content matters far more than comment word count.
Final Thoughts
Blog comments in 2026 are nice to have, not essential for SEO. They create minor positive signals when genuine, but they won’t transform your rankings.
Focus on:
- Writing excellent content (this matters 100x more)
- Moderating comments properly if you have them
- Deleting spam immediately
- Not obsessing over comment count
Comments are about community and engagement, not SEO. If they serve your blog’s goals, great. If not, don’t feel obligated to have them.
So, there you have it. How you use comments can have both a positive and negative impact on your blogs SEO – are you using blog comments efficiently?
I remember reading in one of your posts how broken links can be bad for our SEO, links leading to a blog that doesn’t exist anymore and while deleting those comments makes sense, I feel bad about deleting comments that mean something, you know meaningful comments from bloggers that don’t blog anymore but that used to leave me regular comments. I’m not sure I’ll delete those, but short comments with broken links and spam- definitely.
I get some spam comments and it often takes me a lot of time to delete them. Plus, I have to regularly check my comment section and try to spot them because they often leave comments on my old posts. I’m slowly learning more about SEO (quite a lot of it thanks to your blog), and I’m trying to implement it into my blogging. If one is investing effort into blogging, it makes sense to look into SEO because that’s such a mayor part of how our blog will do.
I’m not sure about blogger, but on WordPress you can just edit the links out!
I always worry about spam comments and people leaving links on my blog. After reading your post, I feel justified about this that my worries aren’t for naught. I have been trying to be more diligent about deleting irrelevant comments and will continue to do so.
Yeah, if it doesn’t add value then delete the comments!
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I always worry about spam comments and people leaving links on my blog. After reading your post, I feel justified about this that my worries aren’t for naught. I have been trying to be more diligent about deleting irrelevant comments and will continue to do so.`
I get some spam comments and it often takes me a long time to delete them. Also, I need to check my comments section regularly and try to locate them as they frequently comment on my old posts. I’m slowly learning more about SEO (thank you so much for your blog) and I’m trying to implement it in my blogging. If someone is trying to blog, it makes sense to check out SEO because such a mayor is part of how we do our blog.
Thanks for this post! I installed Commentluv initially because it seemed like a good concept, but I’ve since been suspecting it may be more harm than good. It’s basically a spam magnet. After learning that it slows your load time and reading your post I’m definitely getting rid of it!
Can I ask what comment system you ended up going with?
The entire motivation behind why spammers leave spam remarks on web journals is to interface back to their own sites, so they can rank higher in the list items and get more traffic. Essentially, individuals that are boldly and obscurely advancing their sites.
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