by Randy The Hermit Baustert
Using blog comments to generate backlinks to your site is becoming more and more prevalent.
You have probably heard that you shouldn't waste your time with blog comments because the search engines don't follow the link because of the no follow tag.
This is both true and not true at the same time. Yes, a vast majority of the blogs you find will have the no follow tag on the comments. But there are some that don't have no follow tags.
WordPress by default adds the no follow tags to the comment section but there are people that will remove the no follow tags from your comments in return for you leaving comments. Believe it or not there is a way you can find these blogs with a search.
But you should I am going to cover blog comment etiquette before I tell you how to find these blogs that will remove the no follow from your comments.
Your comments MUST BE on topic, if can't come up with a comment on topic don't leave one.
If the post you are commenting on is about writing articles you don't want to leave a comment about extreme sports. If you site is extreme sports related you can have the link to your site but the comment text needs to be related to the post.
When you are writing your comments don't put any links in the body of the comment. Not only is this poor etiquette it can actually get you listed on the comment spam lists if you are reported by the blog owners. You can put a link in the comment body if, and only if, it is a resource to something in the post.
Most of the time when I set up a blog I set the comments in the discussion area so that if you put links in the body of the comment it will send your comment to moderation where I have to review and approve or deny the comment before it is posted. This stops all the spammy links.
Now your name or I should say the form field where you enter your name. This should be your name or your moniker. For example I will use Randy The Hermit because more people know me that way than by my normal last name. Your moniker can have keywords in it (only helps if there are not any no follow tags) but it should be related to you or what you do. For example if you teach people how to blog you could use the moniker Blog Boy or Blogging Teacher but your moniker should stay the same no matter what you use for a link.
That pretty much covers the etiquette but I can hear a lot of you out there screaming, "Why should I bother if it is going to have the no follow tag on the back link?"
There are a few reasons why you should leave comments even if there are no follow tags, such as:
1.It is still a link to your site that people will see and possibly follow. If you leave 5 blog comments per day that is 1,500 links in a year that might catch the eye of the reader and could get you traffic.
2.If you comments adds value to the topic of the post the author and readers will start to recognize your name and you will be branding yourself as an expert.
3.If you post an interesting comment people will click on your link to see what else you have to offer.
4.Just because the major search engines abide by the no follow tag doesn't mean everybody does. The last time I checked Ask would follow no follow tags and there are some ad services that do their own back link testing that will follow these links and this could raise the amount you collect for showing their ads.
Now how to tell if the comments have the no follow tag applied to them.
One way is to go to the blog and find a post with comments and look at the page source, find the comment and see if it has no follow tag on the link. This is a pain but it works.
The good news is that you don't have to do it that way. If you are using FireFox or Flock as your browser you can get an addon that will highlight all the no follow tags on a page. It is called SEO for FireFox and you can get it from SEOTools.com or you can search SEO for FireFox addon in Google.
Once this is installed all no follow links will be highlighted in red so they are easy to notice. If the link (the name) in the blog comment isn't highlighted that mean the no follow is shut off for the comments on that blog.
Then there is another plugin that some people add to their WordPress blogs that will reward the frequent commenter. It is called Lucia's Linky Love.
After they install this plug in the blog master can set it so that the no follow tag will be removed from the comments for people that comment a certain number of times.
It does require that you use the same name and the same email address for every comment (I believe I mentioned using the same name above).
The owner of the site can set the limit from 3 to whatever they feel like but most of the time if they are using the plugin it is set from 3 to 5. This means you will have to leave a relevant comment 3 to 5 times before the no follow tag is removed but when it is removed it is removed from any comments you make from there on.
Now I bet you want to know how this will help you when you are leaving comments. You can actually find posts that are using Lucia's Linky Love but doing a search in Googles Blogsearch. Put your keyword phrase in quotes then a plus sign (+) then in quotes Lucia's Linky and you should find posts on topic that use this plugin. Make the minimum number of comments plus 1 and you now have start creating back links followed by all the search engines.
On my blogs I usually have this set at three and I review the comments on a regular basis any comments that read like pure spam I delete. Because I delete them the spammers never get to the magic number of three and the no follow stays in place. This leads to more comments that are usually more informative.
About the Author:
About The Author: Randy The Hermit Baustert has been working online since 1994 and is the top rated SEO expert according to ExpertRating.com the industry testing services. You can find more free information on SEO and blogging at his newest blog
How To Blog Site
Improve Your SEO Efforts By Leaving Comments
Using blog comments to generate backlinks to your site is becoming more and more prevalent.
You have probably heard that you shouldn't waste your time with blog comments because the search engines don't follow the link because of the no follow tag.
This is both true and not true at the same time. Yes, a vast majority of the blogs you find will have the no follow tag on the comments. But there are some that don't have no follow tags.
WordPress by default adds the no follow tags to the comment section but there are people that will remove the no follow tags from your comments in return for you leaving comments. Believe it or not there is a way you can find these blogs with a search.
But you should I am going to cover blog comment etiquette before I tell you how to find these blogs that will remove the no follow from your comments.
Your comments MUST BE on topic, if can't come up with a comment on topic don't leave one.
If the post you are commenting on is about writing articles you don't want to leave a comment about extreme sports. If you site is extreme sports related you can have the link to your site but the comment text needs to be related to the post.
When you are writing your comments don't put any links in the body of the comment. Not only is this poor etiquette it can actually get you listed on the comment spam lists if you are reported by the blog owners. You can put a link in the comment body if, and only if, it is a resource to something in the post.
Most of the time when I set up a blog I set the comments in the discussion area so that if you put links in the body of the comment it will send your comment to moderation where I have to review and approve or deny the comment before it is posted. This stops all the spammy links.
Now your name or I should say the form field where you enter your name. This should be your name or your moniker. For example I will use Randy The Hermit because more people know me that way than by my normal last name. Your moniker can have keywords in it (only helps if there are not any no follow tags) but it should be related to you or what you do. For example if you teach people how to blog you could use the moniker Blog Boy or Blogging Teacher but your moniker should stay the same no matter what you use for a link.
That pretty much covers the etiquette but I can hear a lot of you out there screaming, "Why should I bother if it is going to have the no follow tag on the back link?"
There are a few reasons why you should leave comments even if there are no follow tags, such as:
1.It is still a link to your site that people will see and possibly follow. If you leave 5 blog comments per day that is 1,500 links in a year that might catch the eye of the reader and could get you traffic.
2.If you comments adds value to the topic of the post the author and readers will start to recognize your name and you will be branding yourself as an expert.
3.If you post an interesting comment people will click on your link to see what else you have to offer.
4.Just because the major search engines abide by the no follow tag doesn't mean everybody does. The last time I checked Ask would follow no follow tags and there are some ad services that do their own back link testing that will follow these links and this could raise the amount you collect for showing their ads.
Now how to tell if the comments have the no follow tag applied to them.
One way is to go to the blog and find a post with comments and look at the page source, find the comment and see if it has no follow tag on the link. This is a pain but it works.
The good news is that you don't have to do it that way. If you are using FireFox or Flock as your browser you can get an addon that will highlight all the no follow tags on a page. It is called SEO for FireFox and you can get it from SEOTools.com or you can search SEO for FireFox addon in Google.
Once this is installed all no follow links will be highlighted in red so they are easy to notice. If the link (the name) in the blog comment isn't highlighted that mean the no follow is shut off for the comments on that blog.
Then there is another plugin that some people add to their WordPress blogs that will reward the frequent commenter. It is called Lucia's Linky Love.
After they install this plug in the blog master can set it so that the no follow tag will be removed from the comments for people that comment a certain number of times.
It does require that you use the same name and the same email address for every comment (I believe I mentioned using the same name above).
The owner of the site can set the limit from 3 to whatever they feel like but most of the time if they are using the plugin it is set from 3 to 5. This means you will have to leave a relevant comment 3 to 5 times before the no follow tag is removed but when it is removed it is removed from any comments you make from there on.
Now I bet you want to know how this will help you when you are leaving comments. You can actually find posts that are using Lucia's Linky Love but doing a search in Googles Blogsearch. Put your keyword phrase in quotes then a plus sign (+) then in quotes Lucia's Linky and you should find posts on topic that use this plugin. Make the minimum number of comments plus 1 and you now have start creating back links followed by all the search engines.
On my blogs I usually have this set at three and I review the comments on a regular basis any comments that read like pure spam I delete. Because I delete them the spammers never get to the magic number of three and the no follow stays in place. This leads to more comments that are usually more informative.