by Randy The Hermit Baustert
Using blog comments to generate back links to your site is becoming more and more prevalent.
Those of you that aren’t using blog comments for back link have probably heard some on tell you about no follow tags and how the search engines won’t follow the link from comment on blogs.
There is a trace of truth to this but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t use blog comments to get back links because there are some blogs that don’t have the no follow tags on their comments.
When WordPress is installed it automatically configures your blog to have no follow tag on comment but there are some blog owners that want you to comment so they will use a plugin to remove the no follow tags, either completely or based on the number of comments you leave.
Before I get into what to look for to find blogs without the no follow tag I want to cover comment etiquette.
If you are going to leave a comment on the blog MAKE SURE the comment is relevant to the post.
For example if the post is on blog comments your comment should be related to that post and have something to do with the content of the post. Don’t leave a comment talking about how to conquer the newest MLM offering.
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.
I recommend that you set your blog up so that if there are links in the body of the comment it will go to the comment moderation. This way you will have to approve the comment before it shows up on your blog. This will keep the spammy comments of your blog.
Where the comment form asks for your name that should be your name, don’t stuff it with keywords. You can use a pseudonym, I use Randy The Hermit because most people know me by that. Your pseudonym can have keywords in it, if the keywords are related to you or your business only. And it should stay the same on every comment. Besides if the no follow tags are in place the keywords won’t help you in the search engines.
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?”
This question can be given a few answers, 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 your comments are on topic and informative people will remember your name and you will become a known expert in the field. This is part of the reason you want to use the same name.
3.If your comment is informative you will also find that a lot of the readers will click on your link to find out more about you.
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.
There are the reasons to not worry about the no follow tag but what if you want to find blogs that don’t use the no follow tag in the comments?
You can find a post with comments and look at the source code for the page, scroll through all the code until you find the comments and then look for the no follow tag. Yes, this is awkward but it gets the job done.
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.
This addon will give you a bunch of information that can be used for SEO but the one feature that we are interested in now is the no follow highlighting. What it does is look at all the links on the page your viewing and highlights all the no follow links in red. If the name in the blog comment isn’t red then the no follow is shut off on that blog.
People that run WordPress blogs want you to leave comments and they don’t want spam comments so a lot of them have started using a plugin that rewards the people that comment frequently, this plugin is called Lucia’s Linky Love.
Once Lucia’s is installed the blog master can set up the comments so that after a person make so many comments the no follow tag is removed for that person.
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
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