Update: 1/22/2013 – This post was written about the time Panda and Penguin were starting to make huge waves. We didn’t really have our hands around their targets. Although this is an old tactic that probably doesn’t have legs anymore, and could get you a date with a Google hand editor if you abuse it, it’s still somewhat valid at least as a general marketing play. If you are a full time content marketer, you’re probably still talking about comment marketing in your circles. Many marketers I know still claim huge value in comment marketing as a source of generating new relationships. So I still use this tactic – more so to find areas where a good conversation may exist (and I can leave a link that can help my SEO). That’s not to say I won’t / don’t comment on nofollow blogs. I go where the conversation is (with an eye to where my editorial comment could add some trust to Google’s algorithm). Google would be asinine to remove comment value all together. For those that play by the rules, that’s about as editorial as you get. Killing comments would be cutting off their nose to spite their face.
Original post:
I submitted this tip for a chance to win an 8 minute presentation at the Search Church through SEOmoz. I didn’t win. Am I bitter? Hell yeah I’m bitter, but instead I’ll probably be sitting in the audience with a basket of tomatoes ready to peg anyone with a worse tip than this.
As a link builder doing white hat work, you know it’s about PR, the pitch, and the R&D (researching prospects and developing relationships). It’s time consuming, and takes a lot of organization. ”Did I follow up with that prospect? Did I just email him twice? Damn!” Sometimes you just want an easy way to get a few links. There’s always blog link networks… wait, scratch that. Well, there’s also CommentLuv.
What is CommentLuv?
CommentLuv is a WordPress plugin. With 73 million WordPress blogs out there, there’s plenty of people who might be using this relatively popular plugin. To get the benefit of this tip, you need to be visiting a site with CommentLuv installed. You don’t need to have CommentLuv installed on your WordPress installation, but you do need a WordPress installation. Yup – it’s a WordPress thing. Edit: Apparently CommentLuv will pull in posts from other non-WordPress sites. I didn’t know that. More joy!
Check it out on YouTube.
A site that has CommentLuv installed looks something like this, typically after the standard WordPress comment box.
Now watch what happens when I enter a comment, and use my GreenlaneSEO site as the website (that’s right kids, I use WordPress. Now go ahead and hack me. I have nothing left to lose!)
Boom. CommentLuv reached out to my WordPress blog, saw the last post I had created, and created this link. I can’t wait to see what it looks like when the blogger approves this post. And since I’m a white hat SEO (for this post), I actually took the time to read this blog post and comment with something that added to the conversation. I used my real email address so I don’t look spammy to the blogger. I even used my real name because I’m, well, cocky.
So what does this look like once the blogger approves the comment? Well, let’s take a look with a nofollow checker on (firefox, chrome).
Why are some of the CommentLuv links nofollowed, while others aren’t? No clue. It’s blogger preference, and a setting in their plugin. If the blogger opted for the paid / pro version of CommentLuv you’ll get even more option available to the commenter, notably the choice of a few other recent blog posts to link. You’ll see that from time to time. That’s right – some bloggers are actually OK giving you PageRank in your comment links (hint – I’m one!!!).
A side note on submitting comments on WordPress. Some installations will clear the comment once you submit, and some will show your comment in a moderation state. I’ve even seen the CommentLuv link get nofollowed while in the moderation state. Don’t panic. Drink a beer and relax. You have to be patient and wait for the blogger to approve your comment. If you leave a stupid comment, prepare to get canned.
How Do You Find These NoFollowed CommentLuv Blogs?
Google, of course. Just ask the all-powerful, all-wise, all-knowing algorithm who seems to get everything right but how to make use of social signals. Enter this query into Google’s search box:
inurl:”2012“+intext:”CommentLuv badge”+”recently posted”+”keyword“
The items in bold are knobs, meaning you can change them. So what are we looking at here? The inurl operator tells Google to return back a page with 2012 in the URL string. Wordpress by default likes to post dates of your posts, and since you’d prefer more recent posts (so you know the blogger is still alive), you can enter 2012. Or, you can enter in a keyword that you think will be in the permalink. For example, if I just wrote a post about stratocaster guitars, I’d probably want my link to appear in a blog post about stratocasters. More relevant link juice could get passed. It’s possible I’d enter “stratocaster” in where “2012″ currently is, that way I could bring up posts like http://www.jag-stang.com/faq/general/will-a-mustang-neck-fit-on-a-stratocaster/.
The next knob is the “keyword” knob. You want to dig up some posts with some similar keywords not just in the URL, but in the body as well. Enter that here. In the case where my inurl is “stratocaster,” my keyword might be “guitar” or “Fender” or “Eric Clapton.”
But we’re not done. By doing this you’ll get lots of potential (and relevant) CommenLuv pages. But are they fresh? Sure Caffeine is supposed to make the results fresher, but not as fresh as humanly possibly. But don’t worry. We have a filter for that as well.
Let’s recap:
1. Install a nofollow checker into your browser.
2. Use the search query I provided – tweak as necessary to find relevant blogs.
3. Scan the page quickly to see if the CommentLuv links are followable. If not, go back to the SERPs and pick the next link.
4. Once you find a good page, read (scan) the post and leave a thoughtful contribution.
Will this get you the ban hammer? It shouldn’t if you play it right. If there’s one thing I know, it’s how to get banned from Google (hey, everyone needs a hobby). But going into this with the actual intent of adding editorial value is what Google’s vague Webmaster Guidelines want.
If you wanted to go a little gray / black on this, there are scripts that can overwrite your RSS feed (where this info is being pulled) and change your titles so that the anchor text that shows in the links is more of a keyword. But if an exact match anchor text is what you want you want in your link, I suppose you could also just name your post with that keyword. Done deal.
I actually find this to be a pretty fun tactic. Not only do I discover good content, but I get to engage in conversations that are relevant to my site and interests. I get to find content ideas, and I get to archive some new potential link prospects for guest posts. I’ve created a shared Google Doc with a few of my close SEO friends where we share a bunch of the good sites that we found using this technique.
Happy link building.
Bill Sebald - Ex-big agency guy, now focused on helping small and medium sized business. I've been practicing SEO since 1998. I started the SEO practice at a major digital agency owned by eBay and helped develop SEO products for one of the largest ecommerce platforms. I'm a proud member of the Philadelphia SEO scene. I'm passionate about search, writing, UX, CRO, and psychology in marketing.
Mert
Not exactly a new trick. The dofollow commentluv list (link below) and many other lists like it were written in 2010 and many site owners switched to dofollow with either the commentluv update or their own choice due to comment spam.
http://www.netchunks.com/huge-list-of-400-dofollow-commentluv-blogs/
@billsebald
Not new but still badass.
Ecomm Smith
I completely agree with Mr Mert here.
Chris M
Wow, if you didn’t win, then we can expect some incredible talks because this is a winning tip! Thank goodness you published it anyway
VLFI
Hey Bill, it’s really the best and cleanest article I read so far about “how to benefit CommentLuv”. I’m not adding an url to my comment to appreciate your great work.
@billsebald
I wouldn’t have minded. I’m a dofollow blog.
VLFI
Hey Bill, it’s really the best and cleanest article I read so far about “how to benefit CommentLuv”. I’m not adding an url to my comment to appreciate your great work.
@billsebald
I wouldn’t have minded. I’m a dofollow blog.
riyas
interesting post Bill, experimenting on it. thanks
- riyas
@billsebald
Not new but still badass.
Shanta D'suza
Yes Bill, i know that. but it is working now properly and now a days commentluv application is very popular. Personally I like it very much.
EHR/EMR
Great post, and extremely helpful instantly — already able to find several linking opportunities. I second Chris M’s sentiment, much thanks.
EHR/EMR
Great post, and extremely helpful instantly — already able to find several linking opportunities. I second Chris M’s sentiment, much thanks.
Muskegon Coupons
Nice article and I appreciate that you’re dofollow! All of this nofollow and dofollow nonsense kinda sucks, but the spambots ruined it for us
Thank you 
Muskegon Coupons
Nice article and I appreciate that you’re dofollow! All of this nofollow and dofollow nonsense kinda sucks, but the spambots ruined it for us
Thank you 
Dave
I have been wondering about this for a few days so this has answered some of my questions, thanks! Bow just to go out and use it, oh and you too kind with sharing your PR ha!
Dave
I have been wondering about this for a few days so this has answered some of my questions, thanks! Bow just to go out and use it, oh and you too kind with sharing your PR ha!
Shalu Sharma
Its all down to the blog owner, some of them allow dofollow and some dont. I prefer to allow dofollow. This gives my fellow commentators some incentive to leave a comment.
Shalu Sharma
Its all down to the blog owner, some of them allow dofollow and some dont. I prefer to allow dofollow. This gives my fellow commentators some incentive to leave a comment.
Becca
Great post!
Becca
Great post!
Shelon
Hi Bill. Thank you very much for sharing this comprehensive tutorial. CommentLuv is a beneficial tool for both the blog owner and the commentor as long as only quality comments are made.
My blog Shyxlifestyle.com is also do-follow and CommentLuv enabled. But I do my best to moderate all comments properly.
Shelon
Hi Bill. Thank you very much for sharing this comprehensive tutorial. CommentLuv is a beneficial tool for both the blog owner and the commentor as long as only quality comments are made.
My blog Shyxlifestyle.com is also do-follow and CommentLuv enabled. But I do my best to moderate all comments properly.
Dave
CommentLuv is undeniably one of the best comment plugins to date.
Dave
CommentLuv is undeniably one of the best comment plugins to date.
David
Much appreciated Bill. Especially the part about how to locate suitable blogs in one’s area to connect with. I’m slowly … educating myself on these processes and articles like yours are very generous. Thank you.
David
Much appreciated Bill. Especially the part about how to locate suitable blogs in one’s area to connect with. I’m slowly … educating myself on these processes and articles like yours are very generous. Thank you.
Felipe Veiga
Thank you for sharing this tactic.
Felipe Veiga
Thank you for sharing this tactic.
Sharon Philips
I really like commentluv but i am having real trouble installing it on my blog about my pet rat, has anyone else seen this error message – ’404 error can not establish registry’???
Sharon Philips
I really like commentluv but i am having real trouble installing it on my blog about my pet rat, has anyone else seen this error message – ’404 error can not establish registry’???
IamRex
Great.
But a downside to this would be giving spam bots (and spammers in general) more convenience in searching for do follow blogs. Anyway, This is still great.
IamRex
Great.
But a downside to this would be giving spam bots (and spammers in general) more convenience in searching for do follow blogs. Anyway, This is still great.
Globalecommercegroup
Hi,
I totally agree with Shallu “Its all down to the blog owner, some of them allow dofollow and some dont. I prefer to allow dofollow. This gives my fellow commentators some incentive to leave a comment. ”
Anyways thanks for the post……
Carl Potts
Thank you very much Bill, I’m still trying to figure out how to put Comment luv titles within my posts and I’m keen not to irritate other bloggers
Frank
I was looking for commentluv but actually ended up finding the search qualifier that I couldn’t find originally. Go figure. I always forget those things; the only one I ever remember is inurl:
I’ve seen quite a few SEO bloggers saying that comment love is not bad for blogs. Basically, because of the page rendering times and the lost link juice for internal links. I have it installed on all my blogs, and now I’m wondering if I should remove it. SEO for Firefox is a great rank checking tool, by the way.
Eric : Manila Blog
I was not aware CommentLuv has premium version. I thought it’s free all the way.
Anyway, i didn’t get the part on how to know if the site is dofollow or not by using Google’s operator inurl. did i miss something?
Rohith VR
CommentLuv is a great tool that allow bloggers to help each other and interact more. As long as commentors are responsible enough to leave quality comments, it should be a win-win situation for both parties. Amazing plugin.
Rohith VR
CommentLuv is a great tool that allow bloggers to help each other and interact more. As long as commentors are responsible enough to leave quality comments, it should be a win-win situation for both parties. Amazing plugin.
Ben
Hey Bill, thanks for this. I’m new to the whole world of SEO and so I’m finding the white/black hat thing quite off-putting. It’s good to see some good white hat tactics out there – provided, of course, that you contribute to the debate! Or at least make a semi-sensible comment…
Mick@Garner SEO
I have to applaud you on a very detailed meaningful and original post on CommentLuv. To use Frank Zappa as an illustration is giving me some weird flashbacks.
Habitaciones Londres
Thanks for the article, I was really interested in Comment Luv and even I found out (thanks to you Bill) its not really suitable for my website, I enjoyed the reading till the end. Like the walking on the grey hat line. Cheers for saving my time.
Krishna Parmar
Yes! Comluv is one of the best method and tool which plays a very vital role in keeping our website’s readers engaged with us!
Edmund
Many websites that are so called do-follow end up being nofollow to be exact. Most of them are trying to bait for content or let people think that it is dofollow when it isn’t. I guess it’s a little like fishing when the fish thinks there’s food and the fisherman is taking a risk by offering some free bait that could be eaten for free if the fish manages to escape in time.
Rob Calhoun
Bill,
This is a great post on the merits of Comment Luv. I’m surprised you don’t use it yourself.
RC
Bill Sebald
I actually did (for years!) until it had a fight with my new theme. I’m trying to fix that!
NAmisi
I have met many guys arguing that Commentluv may have many disadvantages, but on the brighter side it keeps your blog busy and interactive.
Siegfried
Well, I am gonna give commentluv a try, I am just beginning so my blog need comments and visitors!
Laura
Good overview of the features, thanks for sharing your experiences. Many people in the SEO world say that CommentLuv is overrated, but it is truly beneficial due to the built in social media sharing features.
Charlie
Not exactly new concept, but super valuable none the less.
I love your writing style too, I actually found myself chuckling along, especially the “everyone needs a hobby” line.