Hello, Ashley! Does commentluv really helps in building back links for your site? And talking about comments, is it really necessary to leave links every time you comment on other blogs? Why or why not?
Charlotte
Hi Charlotte!
CommentLuv can help build backlinks for your site. Or, it can do nothing at all. When someone installs CommentLuv, they have this important option in their settings:
“Dofollow” is whether or not your blog should tell search engines to follow those links. If CommentLuv links are set to “nofollow” instead, then you will not earn any backlinks to commenting on blog posts. But if it is set to “dofollow”, then you will build backlinks and they will help your SEO!
However…
While CommentLuv can help your site’s SEO, that doesn’t mean you should run around leaving half-ass comments everywhere. People won’t appreciate you for it. So sure, your SEO might improve, but peoples’ opinions of you within the blogging community will go down.
If someone comments on my blog and it really looks like a half-ass comment that they only made so they could get their link in there, I’m most likely not going to visit their blog. I want to chat with bloggers who have opinions and have real things to say.. I don’t want to chat with ones who are only concerned with getting a link out there.
What I do:
As for me, I personally never manually leave a link to my site when I comment on other peoples’ blogs. Here’s an example of what I mean by that (remember, this is what I DON’T do):
This is an awesome review! I really agree with what you said about the characters. I also read the book and felt exactly the same way!
Ashley
Nose Graze
I don’t leave that little note at the end with a link to my blog. Why not?
If they use CommentLuv, then CommentLuv will handle it for me. If they use a standard WordPress comment form without CommentLuv, then I just put my blog URL in the “website” box and my name automatically turns into a link. If they use Disqus.. well.. I put a link to my blog in my Disqus profile. Same with Blogger.
Although it’s not always the case, sometimes I feel like manually putting your link in there looks like you’re saying, “Please visit my blog and comment back!” And while not everyone views that negatively, I can’t help but think in the back of my head that maybe the person only commented in the hopes that I would comment back. That’s not how I want to appear to other bloggers, which is why I don’t do it. I want to comment because I have something to say and something to contribute. If they go through the effort to find my blog and comment back, great! If not, that’s totally fine too.
I only leave a link to my blog when it’s a comment on a meme post because most of the time the blogger asks for that in the post. But with other comments, I just hope they recognize the name 😛
Nice post — I’ve been trying to figure out if commentluv helps SEO — because you are still just leaving a comment backlink, but I guess it can’t hurt?
This post gave insight of backlinks from comluv. I just want to know whether having too much of links from comluv enabled sites can hurt the site? Well it is for sure that with proper strategies, it is going to improve site’s SEO. Thanks for your post.
I do if it’s a Blogger blog without the option to leave your URL – some people don’t have that turned on. The reason I do this is because I don’t have any info on my Blogger profile, which would be the only option I could use.
I never put my blog link in a comment. I have made sure pretty much anyone can find me with all comment platforms. I know some good blogger friends who do leave links and I don’t mind, it’s just not my thing.
Honestly, I usually leave my link at the end. At first, I just did it because everyone did it and I though it looked cool, haha. But now I do it in case the person does want to visit my blog. I know, pretty shallow but I know that I like it when people leave me their links in the comments. When I have time, I like to visit all the people who tend to leave comments on my blog and even though I know their blog when I see their name, it’s just easier to have the link. I totally see where you’re coming from though. I didn’t even know it was connected to SEO. I mean people have said before that it creates backlinks and all but it all makes a lot more sense now. Thanks for your awesome post as always!
Laura @ Music Plus Books
– Without the link this time, haha.
I don’t really like leaving my link at the end of a comment. So many people have commentluv, and otherwise it just seems a bit forced to me. I have commentluv enabled with the dofollow setting on, and it irratates me a little when I get a comment like this on a Top Ten Tuesday post:
Great list! Here’s my list(link here)
and then the commentluv link right below it.
It never makes me want to visit that link. I didn’t mind when I didn’t have commentluv & was on wordpress.com, but now that I do, it’s CLEARLY part of my commenting box. No need to leave a SECOND link!
The only other times I’ve personally left links in comments is when someone’s posted a discussion post on a topic I’ve also discussed and they’ve specifically asked for links/recommendations.
Here is my half-ass comment. Enjoy!
Just kidding 🙂 I never leave links back to my blog in the comment. Pretty much every comment form does it for you (blogger links to your profile, Commentluv remembers things for you, etc. Also, having to remember the HTML for the signature is annoying for me and I don’t want the hassle of having to dig up my html reference doc every time I want to leave a comment for a blogger.
One bad thing about not being on a self-hosted WordPress site is that I can’t add CommentLuv to my comments! But I’ve been lucky so far: not many people manually leave links to their blogs. I don’t think it annoys me as much as it does for you, because admittedly, when I first started blogging, I used to do it all the time to try and drive more traffic to my blog. So I guess, in that sense, I understand why people do it. No one wants to keep blogging when no one is reading their posts and leaving comments, right? I know how discouraging it can get — especially for those lesser-known blogs.
Now, though, I don’t manually put links in my comment, because even though I really appreciate it when someone takes the time to visit me back and leave their thoughts, ultimately, it’s up to them to do as they please with their time on the internet. I’ll just keep commenting on posts I think are interesting, and pray to God that my comments aren’t half-assed!
Good god! You have that kind of thoughts, Meg? You’re one of the most wonderful commenters who walked this Earth. I can never accuse you of being a half-assed commenter. 😀
Great post Ashley! This is something I don’t think about typically. I visit blogs and comment when I have something to say. I do add my link in there never once thinking it might be seen as a negative…oops. I just thought it was sort of like my signature. Never once made me think it said…come visit me back. I do really like CommentLuv though I’ve not got it installed on my site…I just have the wordpress commenting. When I get more time I might switch to it because when I’m commenting I love the ease. Great post and has me really thinking now.
This is a good topic. I only put my link in a comment on one of those meme posts like Feature and Follow, because that makes it easier for all of us to visit and follow our new followers. Otherwise, like you said, I leave it in the URL field, or have it in my profile on blogger and disqus other commenting platforms.
I had no idea about the CommentLuv/SEO connection! And checking my “dofollow” settings, I had it off, so I’m turning it on!
I do sometimes leave a link to my blog at the ending of a comment, but only on blogger blogs or when it’s a meme. I don’t mind when bloggers leave a link in their comments, even though it’s already there in their name AND CommentLuv. Although it does make their comment more likely to accidentally land in my spam.
Ooh, thanks for the info about the dofollow links! I had mine set to “nobody” because I had no idea what that meant! Switched it to “everybody” just now.
As for leaving a link, I only do that on memes if the blog doesn’t have commentluv, because it’s usually asked for. Otherwise I have the same view as you – definitely don’t want to appear like I’m searching for a return-visit even when leaving thoughtful comments!
I think CommentLuv is brilliant, but I haven’t yet taken the extra step to be a paid user to be allowed to use it. It’s posts like this though that show me the benefits of being able to use plugins, so cheers!
I usually don’t put a link in my comments – unless I really feel that the article that I am linking to is relevant to the author’s subject.
I like your commenting platform with CommentLuv, although the very few people who comment on my website don’t have their own website except for the trashed ones that are so evidently spam – I get tons of that.
Mahalo for your excellence,
Aunty
Weee! I am so happy that you finally answered this one, Ashley! <3 I can't help but laugh at “that doesn’t mean you should run around leaving half-ass comments everywhere. People won’t appreciate you for it. So sure, your SEO might improve, but peoples’ opinions of you within the blogging community will go down”.
This made me feel guilty because I do this when I am participating on memes like STS and Feature Follows. But then, I immediately assuage my guilt with the fact that people asked for the links and that I don’t leave half-ass comments (at least for my own standards xD). And I only do it when it’s STS or FF. Other than these events, I don’t really leave links because it makes me feel awkward on having to indirectly force a blogger to come and visit me too.
Now I am really appreciating commentluv. It does not only provide convenience to my readers but it also helps build backlinks to their site. I hope that with this post, a lot of bloggers would start considering on moving to WP. Whew!
Thank you so much for this post, Ashley! Please tell me that this is not a half-assed comment. Hahaha!
I do think that mass amount of short comments are expected on memes, so no worries there! As long as you do leave a meaningful comment, other than just:
“Good post, check out mine!”
Whenever I get those, I think the person didn’t actually read my post. 😛
And your comment was great! 😉
I actually don’t usually leave a manual link to my blog. I don’t really know why… maybe because it seems like extra work? I used to do it, but I stopped. (I’m kind of lazy like that.) 😛
Now I’m kind of re-thinking every comment I’ve ever left and wondering if it was half-assed. O.O I really hope not!
I do leave my link manually, but that’s only because I find it incredibly handy when someone does the same thing on my blog post (I only visit them when they leave something that shows they’ve read my post) I find it easier to click on their website links in the comments than to click on their name and from there to their blogs – sometimes people even forget to add their blog URLS. But, I’m always afraid that people might find it annoying.. I don’t mean it as a way of “please comment on my blog now too!!”
I totally learned something new today about CommentLuv. Never knew there were settings like that. I’ve turned on the “do follow.”
As for whether or not I add my link to comments. I don’t. I think it’s unnecessary and agree that it could send the wrong message to the author of the post. I do always add my link if there’s a box for it when I comment though.
I never leave a manual link. Too much work, and comment systems usually have so sort of link anyway. I have commentluv with dofollows enable for everyone.
Thanks for the heads up about checking that setting in CommentLuv for WordPress. I did have my own, but if I didn’t I wouldn’t have known any better without you saying something!
I personally don’t leave manual signatures. For me, my commenting is rarely about getting my blog name out there as just having a conversation. (Plus, at this point I tend to only comment on those blogs who comment on my blog first since I have no time to explore new ones). I am pretty sure I have a profile for everything so they can look my site up if they are so bothered, but otherwise I just leave a comment, submit, and don’t think anything of it. It really can be off-putting at times if someone adds it to every comment, especially for WordPress when their blog is already linked in their name and then usually through CommentLuv. Let’s not overdo it 😉
Great post! I like comment luv because I don’t need to manually add it my links. If I’m returning a comment or something like that, I tend to add my blog link. I usually just use the built in wordpress comment form. Comment luv is only available for self-hosted sites, right?
Correct! It’s not available on free WordPress.com blogs. (Time to consider switching? :D)
Definitely! If only I had the money! xD
I used to leave my link after a comment but I don’t anymore. I have changed my thinking on it and feel it looks pushy. If someone wants to find me, I’m easy enough to find through the profile I commented on. And if they don’t, that’s fine too. I only comment when I have something to add so I don’t want anyone to feel obliged to come to my blog to make a comment just for appearances sake.
This is a great tip, and I honestly didn’t know what those settings meant on comment luv. I fill out my profile on all commenting systems and generally do not leave a link within the comment. I try to make all of my comments meaningful, but realize some peeps aren’t comfortable engaging. I never looked at anyone’s comments as being made to get one back, although since I am a Chatty Cathy I typically visit back. Wait, I take that back..there are one or two who copy and paste the same comment, week after week, and I roll my eyes. Thanks for the tip 🙂
I am about to google and see if i can get commentluv on blogger. I like that it appears and I can pick a post I think others might really enjoy that they might want to click on. I do leave a html link in my comments on blogs that don’t have commentluv. I do it just in case they want to come and visit my blog. Sometimes I don’t think wordpress links back to me in the comments so I want the blog to be able to find me.
PS I found this post through commentluv!
I don’t leave manual links either! I feel it’s rather like commenting for the sake of getting your blog out there and that makes me feel uncomfortable. When people comment on my blog and do it, I don’t mind because I’m going to (try) to visit their blog anyway and since I use Disqus, not everyone has their link in their profile so it’s convenient!
*goes to check Comment Luv settings* GAH! I didn’t realize I had it set to members only D: *fixes* whew, thank you so much for this post, I wish that it was set to Everybody by default so that there could be more SEO love without people having to be settings savvy, haha
I feel the same way about manually leaving the link… although if the blogger specifically says, “leave your link in the comments,” then I will (I’ve seen this sometimes for meme posts or during an event like Bout of Books).
Also, regarding CommentLuv, I’ve noticed that on some blogs that use it, my blog isn’t recognized. Like you said, I’m not leaving a comment JUST to get the backlink, but I still feel like I’m missing out when it shows everyone else’s links but not mine… does that mean the blogger has that first option marked on their end?
I do love CommentLuv, though. If I ever go self-hosted that will be the first upgrade I make!
Does it give you an error when it doesn’t recognize it? There are a couple different cases…
1) Sometimes I’ve found that CommentLuv just can’t find my RSS feed. This only happens on a couple blogs where I’m commenting for the first time. So if I change my website URL from my blog ( http://www.nosegraze.com ) to my actual RSS feed ( http://www.nosegraze.com/feed ), then CommentLuv picks it up.
2) Some websites have spam protection, and if your server is on some spam blacklist sites, it might get blocked. This is sort of hard to explain, but I’ll try… For example, my website runs through CloudFlare. CloudFlare has some security measures in place to try to stop bots and spammers from visiting my site. So if a “known spammer” tries to visit, they’ll get a weird page asking them to enter in CAPTCHA before reaching my site.
Now, when you’re on shared hosting, you share a server with tons of other people (like 500+, often). If one of those people uses their website for spam purposes, then CloudFlare might recognize everyone else on that server as a spammer.
Now the problem with CommentLuv is that CommentLuv has to communicate with your website. So if I comment on a blog who shares a server with a known spammer, CloudFlare will think that blog is also a spammer. So when that blog communicates with my blog, they get shown the CAPTCHA page. But since it’s not a real person visiting my site, it’s just CommentLuv, it can’t actually fill out the CAPTCHA so it can’t get my RSS feed.
Kind of a long winded explanation, but I have actually had that happen to me on a few blogs.
Huh. I will have to try adding that /feed to the end and see if it works. The other explanation sounds like there’s nothing I can do about it if that’s the issue. Thanks for the info!
Yeah it all depends on what the error message is. 🙂 Like it will be #1 if it comes back saying it can’t find the feed, or the feed is invalid, or something like that.
With #2, it usually says “Click here to see the data we got back”, and when I click that it shows me it was blocked by CloudFlare.
That’s how I can tell the difference!
Ahhhh, this is such great info. I’ve been having this issue with CommentLuv not recognizing visitors who have WP.com URLs, and my scenario is definitely #2. I guess I need to contact my host and see what’s going on with their spam protection, eh?
I’m so glad you wrote about this! I was considering just today adding comment luv! And omg! it’s so aggravating to me when people leave a vague comment with their link. It does feel to me that they just visit other blogs to have bloggers visit their site! There’s one blog that visits me occasionally and does just that and then I see the exact same comment on other blogs and, well, let’s just say I’m definitely NOT inclined to visit after seeing that. Thanks for the tip Ashley!
Thanks for the advice about using CommentLuv to improve link backs. As someone not new to the world of running an internet business, but new to the world of blogging, some guidelines for etiquette are really helpful. And check it out, I just used my email address as my name. But did I do it the right way? 🙂
Thanks again!
Ronelle Coburn
Life Purpose Now
Yes i my self have notices that having commentluv installed on my tech how to blog, it really helps specially if you leave comments to similar niche websites and they website author comes back and leaves a comment on yours that’s when i really seen improvements with comment love, also i love how you guys quote the question for the new hummingbird google algorithm update.
I typically fill a website url when there is an entry in the form, but when it is not asked for, I don’t go as far as adding a URL in the comment manually. I don’t see the purpose…
Thank you for sharing
I’ve been doing SEO now and I know stuffs. And you give brevity of explaining it clearly to us. Thank you so much for this Ashley 🙂 Your great! 🙂
Very interesting post on CommentLuv. I turned off the dofollow because of spam. From reading this post, I maybe missing out on comments, I’m not sure. I am wondering how do you like Cloudfare? Will this help with spamming. I running a book review site and although I love my site, I’m not sure which level of Cloud Fare would be most useful to my site.
Enabling dofollow shouldn’t actually cause more spam on your blog. But enabling dofollow if you don’t DELETE the spam may hurt your blog’s SEO.
CloudFlare is great though. It will help improve the speed of your site and it will help a little bit with spamming. CloudFlare will block any users from visiting your site if they look like spammers.
The free version of CloudFlare is more than enough for your needs.
Very true. And if the content of the comments gets way off topic, you can get into trouble.
Basically excellent writeup. The idea the simple truth is became a entertainment bill it. Start looking sophisticated for you to extra added pleasant from you finding out! Nevertheless, what exactly is stay in touch?
Very sweet! It is nice when you see fellow bloggers sharing the love with a few links!
Good Talking Ashley..I Appreciate Your Thoughts..CommentLuv Can Also Degrade A Website By Using Do-Follow Option Ticked..I Think Everyone Should Know About This Fact..Regards.
One other reason not to use manual links is that they sometimes get filtered as spam. It’s pretty much the one surefire way to end up in my spam box while leaving a legitimate comment.
Then again, I also wish that people knew that you have to link your blog in your Gravatar profile. Sometimes I’ll be on someone’s blog, see an interesting comment, and want to visit that person, only to find that they never completed their profile.
Agree that this is very sweet! It is nice when you see fellow bloggers sharing the love with a few links!
Hi Ashley, great article. I had CommentLuv installed on one of my blogs but had a real problem with getting terrible spam comments that didn’t add any value to the blog. Because of this, I have held off on installing it on my newest blog. I’m not sure if I should try installing it on my new site or not.
Great write up on commentluv. I have never used it on any of my blogs for fear of big brother (Google) cracking down on link building systems. I have noticed many sites that use it seem to get lots of spam replies. I would rather work on my next article than filter through the comments people only place on my blog trying to get better SEO ranking. In turn though, I may be missing out on valid potential followers of my blog. As for your question on leaving my blog address in a comment, I will do so, if I truly feel I have an article that is directly related to a given topic that will address questions I see in other comments. Never just as a way to increase backlinks. Keep up the great work on your blog. You have a new follower! 🙂
We have tried a variety of plugins and settled on Disqus, although CommentLuv still comes up every time we revisit the topic. Personally, I am highly unlikely to stuff a link in the middle of a comment, even when it relates to the topic under discussion. I may mention that I’ve blogged on the topic, or even include a direct link to the relevant page in the “Website” field when that is used to hyperlink back as we see on most blogs. Curious what you think – is it the same thing to deep link in the website field as it is to slot in a link within the comment itself? I find it less spammy, even when we were using the inherent commenting system from WordPress, than a comment with a link in it. What is the common opinion on that one?
I improved my blog SEO by following this post. Thank you very much.
Thanks for insightful post. Commenting is still one of the best ways to engage and participate online.
Hi, and thanks for posting this information about commentluv. I only recently installed the plugin, and I had left the default settings, which included only letting registered members have dofollow links. I have just gone in and changed that, thanks to your information!
To answer your question, no, I do not, nor have I ever manually linked my website at the end of comments. Granted, I’m fairly new to this website owner thing, but even as a newbie I know that I can (in most cases) click on the name and that will bring me to the person’s site. Seems pushy/spamy to me. 🙂
Thanks, after reading this I implemented commentluv on my site as well.
the problem with enabling do-follow is that I think it will attract spambots don’t you think?
No I don’t think that do-follow will attract spambots. Spambots have no way of knowing if your site has do-follow links until they get there (and even then, most spambots probably aren’t programmed to detect it), and if they’re already on your site they’re going to leave a comment anyway regardless of your settings.
ok thanks for the info..
i still think its better having no-follow on to keep people from posting a comment with no reason just to get a link…
Well, again, people won’t know whether you have no-follow on unless they dig into your HTML source code, which most people won’t do. But if they post a comment just to get a link, it will look obvious in the comment itself, and I’d personally just remove it anyway.
Obviously you can do whatever you want though!
Thanx for the post but I have a doubt how do we get to know that is it a dofollow or a nofollow link, is there anyway of knowing it and in any case do these links affect badly to our site.
Great article on seo. I am running Loksewa Exam and ICT Blogging. After looking at this article I can make these sites SE Friendly. Thanks for sharing.
Yes Definetely Even I think through Commentluv we will get more traffic to our blog.I have just now started my blog and implemented commentluv in it.Hope to see some difference in traffic
I was just searching CommentLuv and it’s relationship with Cloudflare . Ran across this post… My site is also with Cloudflare and it truly is a lifesaver with all the crap out there. Not so sure about the speed up your site thing (mine runs faster in development mode) but it sure helps with everything else. My concern is just what was stated above by Ashley. I installed CommentLuv but when I tested it Cloudflare jumped up and blocked me (weird to be blocked from your own site. Just blocked the comment, not me, but still… I am a Cloudflare Pro user so I can turn that option off. I guess my biggest concern is what you pointed out, linking with spammy sites. Wangguard and Mailgun API keeps people from entering bogus emails or banned emails and I do moderate all comments.
Oh well, time will tell… a word to all you spammers reading this thread, don’t bother…
Has anyone else had any problems as related to CloudFlare and CommentLuv?
I am going through every one of your blog tip posts right now, to learn what I need to be adjusting on my new WP blog-you are seriously the best!
I started out by always leaving my name/link at the bottom of a comment, but now I know how commenting systems work, so I’ve stopped doing this 🙂 Just changed commentLuv to the ‘everybody dofollow’ option!
thanks for this
Of course Definetely Possibly I believe as a result of Commentluv many of us will get additional site visitors to our website.
Ashley, thanks for the great tip!
I was extremely pleased to discover this web site 🙂
I never leave link in my comment 🙂 knowing that all blogger nature is helpful (eg.. love giving link juice) that’s why they blogging, to share everyone 🙂
Blog commenting via commentluv is just really quite cool and easy in my opinion, love using it and so thanks for the time that you spare to share this informative details that every SEO should really check.
Awesome Article about the SEO backlink through commentluv. Its interesting and i started to use commentluv in my website also. Thanks.