WordPress is considered one of the most popular blogging and content management systems worldwide with millions of users, developers and theme designers.
Comments represent an integral part of WordPress. In addition to allowing the interaction with the blog visitors, the comments enrich the blog content especially in the eyes of the search engines. However, one of the deficiencies with WordPress is the fact that all the links in the comment data and the commentator website field are assigned a nofollow attribute, which can be very discouraging for the commentators due to the fact that the nofollow attribute leave no positive effect on the ranking of the URLs mentioned in the comment.
I can understand that the usage of “dofollow” URLs in the comments may encourage the posting of the spam comments, but at the very same time, the blog owner should have the right of rewarding the commentator by back linking to his site. WordPress KeywordLuv and Dofollow plugins come to the rescue. Dofollow removes the nofollow attribute from the links in the comment. On the other hand, KeywordLuv allows the visitor to select the anchor text that he wants for his website.
It is very important to note that KeywordLuv won’t have any SEO value for the commentator site without the presence of the Dofollow plugin. The other day, and after posting a link for my Linux Hosting website on a blog which implements the KeywordLuv plugin, I found out that the link had a nofollow link, this is probably due to the fact that the site didn’t implement the Dofollow plugin. It might be good to check the previous comments links with Firebug or Google Chrome Inspector to verify that they don’t have nofollow attributes.
Blog Comments is a great way to build back links, but should be mixed with other back linking techniques for a site to have a good ranking on the search engines.
About the Author: Khaled Shihabi is the co-founder and web developer @ Linux Hosting, a website which provides reviews for the Linux web hosing providers.
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Khaled,
I could not locate the KeywordLuv plugin. Is it named something else? When I search for KeywordLuv in the plugin section the only result that appears is CommentLuv.
Garth,
Just Google “KeywordLuv” and you will find the WordPress plugin info!
Andy
Garth,
You might be willing to take a look at CommentLuv which provides similar functionality and extra features “with the paid version”.
Both CommentLuv and KeywordLuv are very helpful, blog owners being able to reward (just like you said) their commentators. Besides, that option with do-follow link after the third accepted comment really makes spammers’ life harder 😀
Jack,
Completely agreed! I do not use KeywordLuv, but CommentLuv is just pure awesomeness!
Andy
i Like to terrifying drama site
Great post! It is good to read a basic explanation of the difference between these different plugins and what they do. I personally use CommentLuv instead of KeywordLuv (I do use DoFollow as well), but it is always great to hear about ways that bloggers are making an effort to reach out to readers.
Steve,
Great insight here. You do not have to use all of the plugins. Just the ones that work for you. I have played with getting rid of the dofollow, because I know that it will reduce spam. At the same time, it might reduce valuable comments as well. I comment about 5 times less on no-follow sites than I do on dofollow. The only exceptions to that are LinkedIn and Twitter.
Andy
I have heard good things about the keywordluv plugin. I am planning on making a blog using word press after I finish some more things on my site. I am new to all this. Good article. Thanks
Looking forward to seeing your new KeywordLuv site. Let me know when it is done, or if you need help with the site.
KeywordLuv and CommentLuv have their place. Yes, the fountain of spam comments may increase (if Askimet doesn’t catch them), but overall the additional user generated content can be of some benefit.
Jeff,
That is why having good spam software is crucial.
Andy
Exactly!
Guys,
You might need to take a look at mollom plugin. It analyzes the quality of the content submitted.
Khaled,
If you want to write another post about the subject let me know?
Andy
I always use these tools on my blogs, it creates a better blog and also helps with traffic, I know and get frustrated by the amount of spam that gets generated and that is really the only thing that lets you down.
I suppose you could use a fairly decent CAPTCHA code but they dont always work.
Mike,
Captcha also annoys people who can not figure out what the letters are. I used it for a long time and my comments and engagement went up after I switched to GASP.
Andy
I want to ask you if you think that this movement of converting an unfollow blog to a dofollow blog will benefit me.I have a big spam issue to my blog so i am sceptical of this.Also do you know of a software for wordpress in order to avoid spamming?
Waiting your reply
Donna,
In order to stop spam you should consider using GASP or Recaptcha. As to nofollow to dofollow. I think it is a great move, because it will increase engagement on your blog, which Google likes.
Andy
Its great to give back when you can. Yeah the spammers abuse the system. I guess the only thing you can do about that is delete them when its obvious. The comment section of a blog is a great way to get some feedback on your post. It creates engagement and offers the possibility of going viral or at least being shared. There is a lot to getting a blog to the top.
Dean,
I do my best to delete the spammers, edit the obvious link baits, and respond to the real comments. Having the right tools just makes my job easier.
Andy
So, in roder to use commentluv, keywordluv you have to add do follow to null the default wordpress no follow? I hope I have that right. I just spent several hours deleting spam 1,023 that I accumulated in 3 days since adding comments to my blog. I installed commentlub and keyword luv at same time. Just noticed in Firefox that they were nofollow. Xrossing my finger it works. Thanks
Make sure that you add GASP as well to protect you against SPAM.
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good post
Go to the Guest Blog Writers Section and review the information there. If it works submit the blog post per the instructions. Thanks!
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Thanks for your post. It’s like everything else.. If people does not take care of their blog.. it can become spammy really fast. No pain no gain 😉
Sophie,
Completely agree with you. There is nothing worse then seeing a great blog post with all spam in the comments.
Andy
Do you mind if I quote a few of your articles as long as I provide credit and sources back
to your weblog? My website is in the exact same area of interest as yours and my visitors would really
benefit from a lot of the information you present
here. Please let me know if this alright with you. Cheers!
As long as you source back to my site that would be great! Thanks!
Hello there! Would you mind if I share your blog with my facebook group?
There’s a lot of folks that I think would really enjoy your content. Please let me know. Thank you
That would be great. Send me a link to your facebook group afterwards.
I am currently using blogger as blogging platform but due to lots of SEO plugins available on wordpress I want to shift my blog to wordpress. I found comment luv the best seo plugin.
Thank You for your information.
CommentLuv is a great plugin, however, it is not solely for SEO. It is also to help you create a dynamic community on your site.
what a great article .I am searching in google from the last couple of days about keyword luv.But i din’t find any satisfactory content .But now i am satisfied.Thanks a lot.If you have more info about this ,Please let me know.
Glad to help you with KeywordLuv! This is a great plugin.