Don’t Let Your CommentLuv Be Stolen Away!
February 5th, 2008 by Stephen Cronin (3,746 views)Many WordPress blogs are adopting the CommentLuv plugin, because it gives readers extra incentive to make a comment - it automatically adds a link to the commentator’s latest post at the end of their comment.
This is great for the commentator, for several reasons outlined below. However, some people are not taking full advantage of the benefits.
Benefits For The Commentator
Commenting on a blog using CommentLuv gives you two potential benefits:
1. Increased Traffic / Readership
As people read through the comments, they can see the titles of each person’s latest post. If the title of your latest post appeals to the reader, there’s a good chance they will follow the link to your site, to read the post.
If you have great post titles, you will get traffic from this source. Some of this traffic will convert to regular readers.
2. Benefits To PageRank / SERPs
If the blog running CommentLuv is a DoFollow blog, not only will it send visitors your way, it will also pass you a little bit of PageRank.
Of course, Dofollow blogs already give you one link. While this link helps a little with PageRank, it’s less useful for the SERPs because the Name field is used as the anchor text. This will really only help you on searches for your name. That’s why some people put keywords in the name field - to help on searches for those keywords - at the risk of being marked as spammers.
CommentLuv gives you a second link, which has a couple of advantages over the first:
- It uses the post title as anchor text. If your keywords are in the post title, it will help you in the SERPs for those keywords.
- It’s a deep link, pointing to a page on your blog rather than the home page.
These advantages really are extra incentive to make a comment.
DoFollow CommentLuv Stolen Away
Some people are not taking full advantage of the benefit provided by CommentLuv on DoFollow blogs. They could be improving their PageRank and their position in the SERPs, but instead this is being stolen away.
How? The link for their latest post points to a FeedBurner redirect URL, not to the original post on their site.
This doesn’t stop people getting to the post, as FeedBurner will redirect them to the site. However, it means that the PageRank / SERPs benefits are going to FeedBurner, instead of the commentator’s site. Some of this may be passed on by FeedBurner, or it may not be. It’s not worth the risk.
Next time you leave a comment on a CommentLuv blog, check the link to see whether it goes to a FeedBurner URL or to the original post on your site.
The Solution
CommentLuv uses your feed to create the link for your latest post. If you have the Item Link Clicks parameter turned on in your FeedBurner settings, your feed will use the FeedBurner URL and so will CommentLuv.
If you want to change this, see the Turn off FeedBurner Redirect in RSS Feeds post by K-IntheHouse at ShanKri-la.
There are other reasons to turn the Item Link Clicks parameters off, as outlined by K: it makes it harder for people to access the post’s original URL. Why make it harder for people to blog about you?
Add the loss of potential PageRank / SERPs benefits and this becomes a real issue. Unless you really need the extra stats, turn this off!
Final Thoughts
Commentators: CommentLuv gives you extra incentive to make a comment, particularly if the blog is DoFollow. Make sure you take full advantage!
Blog Owners: CommentLuv can encourage comments and reward those who make the effort, but are you worried about being targeted by spammers?
I haven’t activated it on my blogs yet, but I probably will in the near future.
Tags: dofollow, feedburner, pagerank, spam, wordpress plugins
Excellent, well thought out post Stephen! I saw a few of my fellow bloggers urn this off after I mentioned it but I still a lot of blogs with the FeedBurner redirect. Your post should convert a few more bloggers.
I wasn’t convinced of CommentLuv for a while but I subconsciously started going back to blogs with this plugin enabled to leave comments. I don’t spam but at times when I was feeling lazy, a link back to my current post was very luring and I’d make the effort.
I usually dislike people using keywords instead of their name but I approve them as long their comment adds value to the discussion.
Stumbled!
Hi K,
I told you I’d write up your post - it just took several months!
At first I wasn’t convinced about CommentLuv either, but when I’m pressed for time and thinking should I or shouldn’t I leave a comment, CommentLuv can tip the balance. A little link love never hurts.
I’ll be looking into adding CommentLuv to my blogs in the near future, so I can give the link love out as well as receive it.
One of the most useful posts I have read about CommentLuv! thanks!
I’ll add a link to this post to the CommentLuv plugin page straight away.
Andy,
Thanks! Great plugin. As I’ve said above, I’ll be adding it soon!
Stephen,
I am learning something new about nofollow and dofollow blogs everyday. I was not aware of comment luv before now…Very useful information…
Stephen this comment luv concept absolutely has to work…I just found your blog because of comment luv….so I believe it will increase traffic to your blog.
Question…What is the best way to find commentluv blogs?
Thanks Deb
Hi Deb,
Thanks! I’m definitely going to start using CommentLuv soon. As for how to find CommentLuv blogs, I think Andy’s got that covered in the comment below. Andy’s very responsive for a plugin author, which is great!
Deb, you are right. My feed reader was starting to tank with my usual reads and as soon as the CommentLuv plugin is gaining popularity, I find myself adding new blogs to my feed reader looking at the topics they talk about.
I am not sure how you can find commentluv blogs although that would be cool! May be the plugin author could make a call to the plugin users to leave a comment in a post where we can browse and check out other blogs using the plugin!
K,
Exactly! I can’t keep up with my existing reading, but I’ve been adding new blogs to my reader because they have CommentLuv. Of course they have to interest me. I won’t start reading blogs on topics that I’m not into just for the CommentLuv, but it can be a differentiator.
Hi again, I have a custom plugin that listens for activation of the CommentLuv plugin whenever someone uses it on their blog for the first time and writes out the address to a text file. It’s not perfect though because wordpress doesn’t always catch every time someone activates the plugin.
You could try this google search for CommentLuv -fiddyp which should give you plenty of results to try (atm 697,000 results)
or do a related link search for the exact plugin page with this search (only 9160 results)
the list I am maintaining automatically for the past month or so is http://www.fiddyp.co.uk/commentluvvers.txt but that has lots that don’t use it any more or for people that have activated other plugins that I have made.
There is a rare issue where someone leaves a comment and their feed contains a character set that isn’t compatible with the host blog and it causes a Mysql error. this is something I am working on and will resolve when the next version is released (with AJAX!)
Andy,
I’ve noticed that you are really on top of who is using the plugin. Anytime I find a post announcing a blog has started using CommentLuv, you are one of the first commentators! Now I know how you manage it!
When I was having a look for sites which ran CommentLuv, I did a Google search on "Enable CommentLuv which will try and get your last blog post, please be patient" (including the quotes). This will only find sites which had the plugin active last time the googlebot visited it. It’s not perfect but is another possible approach.
I was thinking that it may be worthwhile for someone to build a list of CommentLuv sites that are DoFollow. We alreay have several lists for DoFollow - why not one which highlights just those running CommentLuv? Of course, some people will think such a list is mainly for spammers…
I learn something new everyday
Thanks Stephen. I just deactivated that in my settings.
Hi Josh,
I learn something everyday - like your next comment!
Stephen,
I just noticed something in my FeedBurner account. They offer a permanent redirect, which would transfer all link juice from the FeedBurner URL to your post URL. Here is what they say about it:
So we can still track those stats, usually, and get the link juice it sounds like.
Josh,
Thank you for bringing this information to light - I’m going to add something to the main body of the post to tell people about this.
Personally, I’m keeping it turned off - if it’s my own URL then there can be no doubt! However, this does sound like it could solve the issue of PageRank not being passed.
I’ll have a look at how to turn the permanant redirects on and let people know (this may take a day or so, I’m out of time now).
Great post. Good content and details - just the stuff that makes blogs great and separates the few from the masses. Do you know of any good options for selling feed ads if you just use wordpress (don’t use feedburner)?
John,
Thanks. I don’t use feed ads, so I’m not the best person to ask. There was a discussion about Adsense in feeds on the Aussie Bloggers Forum, which may be useful. Darren Rowse ended up suggesting the FeedBurner ads, which may be no use if you don’t use FeedBurner. Sorry I’m not of more help…
Stephen.. I have said time and again that you are a man of your words. I do admire that about you and I am not sure if I deserve all the kindness you show me.
Josh’s note does look like it’ll solve the PR passing issue but I’d still have it turned off so someone can easily link to my post just by grabbing the link right from the feed reader. I guess it’ll a personal choice.
John, have you looked at the new Bidvertiser’s Feed Ads? You may not need to have FeedBurner feed to use it.
Also, you could look at a WordPress plugin called Better Feed which let’s you customize your feed footer and you could sell your own ads (like I have just started doing last week.)
K - Thanks, you’re making me blush!
I was going to look into the Josh’s solution more and maybe add a how-two above, but I haven’t had a chance yet. It certainly looks like the solution. But I’ll be leaving mine turned off too so people can grab the link easily.
Thanks, yes I have looked at both of those. I tried better feed for awhile and then discontinued it. I will probably activate it again but I probably don’t want the hassle of selling ads myself.
John,
Sorry we don’t have the answers - if you find something that works, I’d be really happy to know about it.
Hi Stephen
I have plugged in both do-follow and commentluv on my blog, because I like to see them on others aswell, especially the commentluv has raken me to some wonderful blog I would not have found otherwise. Afraid of spamming?
Not really, since my blog is new and I don´t have a zillion daily visitors, I do read all the comments. Maybe in the future, if things get out of hand I will change my mind
Hi Mirjam,
I agree with you wholeheartedly. It’s all about sharing. The dofollow community has some great blogs, so there’s some great reading, some great conversations and some link love thrown in! It simply encourages people to join in. Some of them start with the motive to spam, but end up becoming strong community members.
Spam can be a problem, but if you take some Antispam measures (I use the Askimet, Math Comment Spam Protection and Simple Trackback Validation plugins) it’s not that bad - and don’t forget: as well as some extra spam, you also get extra (non-spam) traffic.
Anyway, good luck with your blog - I’m having a look at it right now!
Hi again,
I think you are so right! But no matter what one as a blogger can do, to encourage people to leave comments, by throwing in linklove, in the end it all comes down to one thing, your posts will have to be unique and interesting enough in order to get good feedback and comments on it!
keep up the good work and I am sure I will see you around!
Hi Mirjam,
Sorry I’m a bit slow responding. You’re absolutely right! And you will see me around, because I’ve subscribed to your blog!
Hi All,
I’ve now updated the post with a short paragraph on the information Josh found (how to preserve PageRank while still using the FeedBurner stats). I’ve included how to turn it on and a link to a Google Support page on this topic.
Personally, I’ve turned mine off and I’m not going to turn it back on, but if people really want the FeedBurner stats (tracking clicks on titles in your feed), then this seems to be the solution. Thanks Josh!
Thank you very much for this bit of info. I am trying to get into the blogging community and this will help me integrate.
Cheers.
Lenard, You’re welcome… Best of Luck.
I’m thinking of adding a blog to our site, I had never heard of CommentLuv, it does sound good though. Damn, even more technology to try to get my head round
Steve,
I recommend CommentLuv, although I still haven’t had time to add it here.
As for adding a blog to your site - a blog can be a great thing for business. There’s a free ebook by Michael Martine called How to Start a Business Blog, which is really worth reading if you’re thinking about this.
Best of luck!
Thanks for the advice here. I’m trying to setup CommentLuv today so this was some extra things to make sure I pay attention too. It’s always better to know everything coming in. Thanks.
Kyle,
Thanks. Hope it helps - although it’s really aimed at people commenting on blogs with CommentLuv, rather than the blogs themselves.
great post! actually, i was wondering whether you have any input on this. i just can’t for the life of me, get any of the dofollow plugins to work. any thoughts?
i really enjoy commentluv. it adds depth to a comment, i think, because it shows a little about who the author is.
Isabella,
I just had a quick look at your site and the do follow plugin seems to be working fine. I checked the source and there is not a nofollow tag to be found (that means your dofollow plugin is working).
And I agree with you that another benefit of CommentLuv is that it shows a little about the author. Great point! It helps make it more of a community with real people. Thanks.
thanks for taking the trouble, stephen. it occurs to me that maybe i misunderstand “do follow”. i know that i don’t have nofollows in my code. i also know that when i comment on SOME “do follow” blogs, my comment shows up in technorati as a blog reaction but not in all. perhaps that’s a separate affair?
Isabella,
yes, that’s a separate thing. Dofollow just means disabling the nofollow tag. This is mainly so that people who comment can get some Google PageRank benefit. It’s nothing to do with Technorati - Technorati don’t care if the links are nofollow or not.
I’m not sure why Technorati are showing some comments - their documentation says that they don’t count comments, only links in the body of the post. I guess they are unable to detect that the comments you left were actually comments. Anyway - that’s a bonus more than anything!
thanks so much for clearing that up, stephen!
No problem Isabella
I don’t think yahoo cares that much about nofollow as they appear to follow and count them anyway. the idea behind CommentLuv is both practical and beneficial. The only concern I have over time is whether or not the big search engines will feel the same way. It’s very hard to argue it is incredibly useful and really is of benefit to the reader.
Thanks for the very thorough information.
Heather,
I wouldn’t be surprised to see links in blog comments become less and less important to the search engines. I’m sure Google can tell where the comments are. But for the moment they do count, at least a little, if they are nofollow.
I think Yahoo ignores the nofollow tag, but the amount of traffic I get from Yahoo is tiny compared to Google. It’s not worth spending time getting nofollow links just to increase your ranking with Yahoo. Of course the nofollow links may be very worthwhile for traffic reasons, as mentioned above.
That’s the thing about CommentLuv, it’s worthwhile even if you’re not getting PageRank benefits - that’s just the icing on the cake.
Great post Stephen - fortunately I’d already discovered this little wrinkle a while back after reading the post by K-InTheHouse (another great blog you introduced me to btw).
Thanks for highlighting the issue again though, it will help a lot of people I’m sure.
Hi Mo,
Great to see you again! I’m behind in my reading, so I haven’t stopped by for a while. Hope to rectify that soon.
I’d been planning to post about K’s original post for a long time, when the CommentLuv angle came up. It tied together nicely, but it’s all down to K that I even knew about the issue in first place.
A very thorough post. I have installed the commentluv plugin on my two newest blogs just to see if it will kick things along a bit. I always make sure I comment on blogs that have commentluv but have never thought to check the link. Thanks for supplying the information.
Hi Sire, Thanks. Good to see another AussieBlogger here!
Hey Stephen it wasn’t until after I commented that I realized you were an Aussie. Did you know that we make the best bloggers, or was that lovers, I can never remember which lol.
Hi Sire,
I recognised your name from the forums… I think we’re the best at both - although not at the same!
Now that you mention it, I thought I have seen you somewhere.
I should post more in the forums often! I’ve been away for about a month, but I’m back now, mostly active in the WordPress and Monetization areas. See you there!
Woah! Thanks for pointing this out. I had no idea this was occurring.
Thank you.
Hi Max, Yes - most people have no idea it occurring because you can see your post title and clicking it takes you there. Most people don’t look closely at the URL.
thanks for posting this. Like so many others, I just figured because there was a link to a recent post and clicking on it took me there … Never bothered to check to see if it was a redirect or not
Hi Selif, easy mistake to make. I’m in the habit of always checking the links before I click anything, so I actually noticed this when I wanted to click through to someone’s site from their comment.
I’m a big fan of Commentluv, I think it was a stroke of genius on the plugin creator’s part. Do you not have it enabled here on this site? If not, I am curious as to what is holding you back?
I haven’t yet noticed an increase in spam comments on my own site (http://www.joyfuldigesting.com/ ) since enabling the plugin, but I have a feeling spammers will soon try to take advantage…
Hi Tee,
I agree it was a stroke of genius on the creator’s part. I wish I’d thought of it!
I don’t have it enabled here yet, but that really comes down to time. I have some other things I’m working on at present, so I’m really just trying to keep up with comments at the moment. I will activate in the next couple of weeks.
My guess is that you’ll get an increase in spam comments, but it may not be as bad as you think - most of the comment spam I get here is for commercial sites, not blogs, so there is no latest post to find…
[…] *** For maximum exposure and benefit when commenting on CommentLuv enabled posts, read this excellent post about turning off Feedburner redirects […]
Commentluv is a great plug-in, and when combined with NoFollow and some good anti-spam measures it can really help increase the number of comments you get on your site. I am having some trouble getting it to work with the Ads-Minded theme, but hope to get it to install soon; otherwise, I might just move to K2 just for this plug-in!
Jim, totally agree with you! Good luck
This is a very useful post about some issues I was unaware of. No doubt most people have no idea the link could be going to feedburner.
Josef,
Yes, most people don’t think to check the link itself, they just see the link anchor text and where it takes them. I’m in the habit of always checking the link…
[…] to their most recent post. Stephin Cronin comments about how to maximize the CommentLuv plugin by turning off the feedburner redirect in RSS feeds. Shankri-la provides step-by-step instructions on how to turn off this option in […]
Stephen,
Thanks much for the info on comment luv, and maximizing it too. I think it can help with readership…but what was very insightful was how feed burner can diminish the value.
Deb had some good points to about being able to find more sites with comment luv.
Thanks all-Hope you decide to go with it one day..
Hi Mike,
Thanks. Glad you found it useful…
Hi Stephen,
Thanks for the information on comment luv. It’s nice to have something that sort of rewards the comments…Also thanks for the heads up on losing love with Feed burner.
I think I’m going to add the plug in to my blog, when do you think the timing is going to be right for you?
Hi Mike,
Yes I going to add it sometime soon… As you can see, I’m two weeks behind just responding to comments at the moment!
On the plus side, I’m about to release a new WordPress plugin called KeywordLuv, which helps give you better anchor text for the normal link. In combination with CommentLuv, commentators will be well rewarded.
On my way to download and install now. Got your site bookmarked to come back and configure it right.
Thanks!
Thanks Jonathon, Good Luck with your site!
[…] may notice the link is to the FeedBurner RSS entry; the plugin author suggests this article for information on turning off FeedBurner redirects (which I’ve done here) to help maximize exposure for your […]
Thank you so much for your taking the time to post this information Stephen. Judging by the number of comments, it looks like you hit on a popular topic.
I have a question for you or for anyone else that could offer feedback. My Wordpress blog was set up using the SemiologicPro theme which comes with a bundle of tried and tested plugin’s… but Commentluv is not one of them. I’m wondering if it would “play nice” in Semiologic blog setup?
Hey, great article. I have do follow and comment luv enabled, and I think as far as reading comments go comment luv is helpful for the reader to give a little more information on the commentor.
As far as search engines giving comment links less importance over time, I can’t see why that would happen. Google in particular is rumoured to trust blog and comment links a little more than some, since most blogs have one of the best spam filters out there: a human caretaker. They know that we are in general reading every comment and throwing away the crap for Google so they have a front line of defense. How could that not just be more valuable to them over time as the internet gets larger and there is more spam every day for them to sort through?
Hi Tim, I checked out your site and left a comment!
You make some good points about why Google should trust comment links, and I was preparing some counter arguments, but while I was on your site, I saw a link to Grizzly Brears, so I’ll just quote him:
That’s from Grizzly’s The Death Of Do-Follow.
However, although I go along with Grizzly, I think it still worth pursuing DoFollow comments for the moment. As I said in another comment above, I’m about to release a new WordPress plugin called KeywordLuv, which helps give you better anchor text for the normal link. I wouldn’t be doing that if I thought comment links were totally worthless!
Grizz probably is right in the long run. Looking at the history of the internet shows us that change is the name of the game and we will all have to adapt to keep from being buried. For now it seems to work.
That must’ve been hard with no internet. It’s happened to me for a few days at a shot and I start itching to get things done, so more than a week would be a killer! Of course, my connection might work great one minute and then crap out for a couple hours. And they always say the problem is on my end. It sure is, in this crappy modem and satellite dish they sold me!
Grizzly normally seems to be right… But here’s to hoping he’s wrong on this occasion!
Even a few days without the Internet kills me! Two weeks… On one hand, it was hell, on the other hand, I had some time to relax (when I could stop thinking about my blog!). It was probably good for me.
Next time you leave a comment, use Tim @ Red Deer for the Name. That way, Tim will still appear, but it won’t be in the anchor text. You probably want to rank well for Red Deer, not Tim From Red Deer. Probably only a small difference to Google, but maybe worth it… You can see how it works by looking at my name on this comment.
It seems that after several weeks since it’s installation it isn’t generating as many comments as I had hoped. Lots of vies, no comments. Oh well, cest la vie (don’t know about the spelling of that phrase, it’s a long time since my French lessons
)
Hi Sire,
I just left a couple of comments there for you. I hope you get some more! I enjoyed the pics…
Thanks mate, I appreciate the thought. I only wish I had more time to go out and take photos. Maybe in my next life.
[…] Don’t Let Your CommentLuv Be Stolen Away! | More Than Scratch The Surface Leaving comments on a DoFollow blog using the CommentLuv plugin for WordPress can help you increase your PageRank and your position in the SERPs - but watch out for FeedBurner redirects. (tags: blogging plugin wordpress) […]
hey Stephen.. wow. You have got a great feedback on this post. I think I found a feed scraper for you.. your copyright plugin gave it away when I checked the trackback i received.
Edit: I removed the link so they don’t get any link juice…
Hi K,
This post has done really well, but I haven’t been able to keep up with answering the comments.
Thanks for telling me about the scraper. I saw them too because I got a trackback from them too (10 of them actually, one for each item in my feed). I guess I got the trackbacks because of the link at the top of the post - another good reason for FeedEntryHeader.
Anyway thanks for letting me know. I clicked that spam button again and again for them…
I posted earlier on this thread and asked if anyone experienced any issues with using the CommentLuv plugin in the SemiologicPro Wordpress theme.
Since then I added it to my SemPro blog and it does “play nice” - no conflicts with any of the other plugins. Just thought I’d let you know.
Hi Cindy,
I’ve been tied up offline for a couple of weeks and am in catchup mode. I was just about to respond to your original comment and say sorry I don’t know about how it works with the Semilogic theme, when this comment came in!
Thank you very much for the feedback - it may be useful for others out there.
I’ve seen it on your site now - if only I knew enough about bead making to leave a useful comment!
[…] Don’t Let Your CommentLuv Be Stolen Away! | More Than Scratch The Surface “If you have the Item Link Clicks parameter turned on in your FeedBurner settings, your feed will use the FeedBurner URL and so will CommentLuv. If you want to change this, see the Turn off FeedBurner Redirect in RSS Feeds post.” (tags: blogging wordpress comments SEO tools) […]
Thanks for the great tips on CommentLuv - I’ll be installing that right away. Also, I got my Feedburner links straightened out now so I’ll actually be getting something out of those posts! Cheers
Jonathan Boettcher’s last blog post..189 High Quality Backlinks in 30 Minutes! And Growing!
Hi Jonathan,
Thanks. I hope this helps you out… CommentLuv is a great plugin, I whole heartedly recommend it.
Special thanks to K, that solved a lot of my backlink problems with Yahoo!
Excellent post. Thank you for pointing this out.
You may be interested to know that comment luv is now available for Drupal www.imafish.co.uk/commentluv
Hi Pete,
I didn’t know about your Drupal version. Sounds great! Thanks for letting me know.
[…] What this means for you, dear reader, is that I will disable FeedBurner from handling my feed information, so you need to revert your feed reader’s address for this site to: http://samanathon.com/feed. I really don’t look at the metrics from FeedBurner and there’s no reason why they should be getting all my PageRank love! For more information, please read: Don’t Let Your CommentLuv Be Stolen Away! […]
Thanks for the comment luv info, good food for thought as I had no idea I was helping feedburner.
Thanks for this great insight. I never knew I had been laboring for Feedburner all this while. I sure have learnt a tip. Cheers.
[…] on CommentLuv enabled blogs. The best post I’ve seen on the topic is Stephen Cronin’s Don’t Let Your CommentLuv Be Stolen Away- Some people are not taking full advantage of the benefit provided by CommentLuv on DoFollow blogs. […]
That’s a pretty good tip of turning off the feedburner plugin. The bad thing is that then have 150 subscribers (for the stats) in feedburner and the other (hopefully millions hahaha) in another url. But ah… what the heck… time will heal all wounds.
I turned it off.
Hi Edward,
Actually, you don’t need to disable FeedBurner, just change a setting (through feedburner.com) so that FeedBurner doesn’t take over the links.
Sorry if the post was confusing
I see you are using KeywordLuv instead of CommentLuv - I assume you now prefer the former? Should we be looking at that plugin instead of CommentLuv?
Hi Peter,
I’ve temporarily disabled CommentLuv because of a problem which happens for some people (including me) in version .999. This has now been fixed and I will be updated sometime soon.
This blog will have both KeywordLuv and CommentLuv active in the near future.
This is a really interesting read, and the feedburner point is definitely something worth considering, thanks
Alex
I never thought about the part of getting two links back because of this plugin. Now I have even more motivation to comment on blogs with this.