Most of you probably already know that you can boost your search engine rankings by getting back links to your site, but how many of you are using blog comments to get back links?
There are a lot of people out there that will tell you don't bother to use blog comments because all the blogs have no follow tags now and the search engines don't record the links.
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.
The default installation of WordPress automatically adds the no follow tags to the comments but if you know what you are doing you can find blogs that don't have the no follow tag or will remove the no follow tag in return for you making a certain number of posts.
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.
If the post you are commenting on is about WordPress plugins don't leave a comment about sports fishing. This is common sense but you would be surprise at how many comments like this I delete.
Don't put links in the body of your comment. This is very bad etiquette unless the link is to a resource that expands on your comment. This doesn't mean if you have a site on sports fishing you can put a link to your site in the comment body but if the post is on a new way to string a leader you can put a link to a page (on your site or another) that shows how to do this.
I personally have my comments set up so that if you put links in the body of the comment it will go to moderation and not be posted until I get around to reviewing the links. This might be done quickly or it might take me a week to get to it. Remember, some people never check the comment moderation.
The name field for the comment form should only be filled with your name or moniker and a moniker should only be used if it describes you or your business accurately. Don't stuff the name with keywords if you start doing this you might have some blog masters ban you and put you on the spam lists. You can have keywords in your moniker but only if they apply (as stated above) to you personally or your business but you are always better of using a name that can be used to recognize you.
That is a general overview of blog etiquette but you should never do anything in a blog comment that you wouldn't want done on your blog. Even with the no follow tags you should still be posting comments, I bet you are wondering why?
There are a few reasons why you should leave comments even if there are no follow tags, such as:
1.With or without the no follow tag it is still a link to your site. You can get over 1000 links to your site by leaving 5 comments a day for a year. These links will be seen by 1000's of people that might come to your site.
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.If you are selling advertising on your site through a service like text link ads they sometimes do their own back link research and ignore the no follow tag. This could result in you receiving more income from your 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.
This plugin will provide you with a lot of SEO information but it will also highlight any links that have no follow tags in red. If you find a post with comments if the name for the comment is highlighted in red it has no follow tags. Don't worry if you get tired of the red highlights you can turn the plugin off with a click at the bottom of your browser.
There are a couple of plugins that blog masters will add to their blogs that automatically removes the no follow tag from the comments and another plugin that will reward the people that comment frequently by removing the no follow tags from that individuals comments. This plugin is Lucia's Linky Love.
How it works it the owner of the blog can set the plugin so that after so many posts the no follow tag is removed from the comments of that person.
It checks the name and email address to see if this person has ever commented before and keeps track of all the ones that match. If you use different names (which has already been pointed out as a no no) or different emails you will never have the no follow tags removed.
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.
You might now be wondering how you find blogs that are using Lucia's Linky Love, the easiest way to do this is to go to Google's Blogsearch and search for your keywords in quotes plus Lucia's Linky in quotes (it should look like this "keyword phrase"+"Lucia's Linky" ) and you should find some posts for your keywords that this will apply to.
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.
There are a lot of people out there that will tell you don't bother to use blog comments because all the blogs have no follow tags now and the search engines don't record the links.
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.
The default installation of WordPress automatically adds the no follow tags to the comments but if you know what you are doing you can find blogs that don't have the no follow tag or will remove the no follow tag in return for you making a certain number of posts.
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.
If the post you are commenting on is about WordPress plugins don't leave a comment about sports fishing. This is common sense but you would be surprise at how many comments like this I delete.
Don't put links in the body of your comment. This is very bad etiquette unless the link is to a resource that expands on your comment. This doesn't mean if you have a site on sports fishing you can put a link to your site in the comment body but if the post is on a new way to string a leader you can put a link to a page (on your site or another) that shows how to do this.
I personally have my comments set up so that if you put links in the body of the comment it will go to moderation and not be posted until I get around to reviewing the links. This might be done quickly or it might take me a week to get to it. Remember, some people never check the comment moderation.
The name field for the comment form should only be filled with your name or moniker and a moniker should only be used if it describes you or your business accurately. Don't stuff the name with keywords if you start doing this you might have some blog masters ban you and put you on the spam lists. You can have keywords in your moniker but only if they apply (as stated above) to you personally or your business but you are always better of using a name that can be used to recognize you.
That is a general overview of blog etiquette but you should never do anything in a blog comment that you wouldn't want done on your blog. Even with the no follow tags you should still be posting comments, I bet you are wondering why?
There are a few reasons why you should leave comments even if there are no follow tags, such as:
1.With or without the no follow tag it is still a link to your site. You can get over 1000 links to your site by leaving 5 comments a day for a year. These links will be seen by 1000's of people that might come to your site.
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.If you are selling advertising on your site through a service like text link ads they sometimes do their own back link research and ignore the no follow tag. This could result in you receiving more income from your 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.
This plugin will provide you with a lot of SEO information but it will also highlight any links that have no follow tags in red. If you find a post with comments if the name for the comment is highlighted in red it has no follow tags. Don't worry if you get tired of the red highlights you can turn the plugin off with a click at the bottom of your browser.
There are a couple of plugins that blog masters will add to their blogs that automatically removes the no follow tag from the comments and another plugin that will reward the people that comment frequently by removing the no follow tags from that individuals comments. This plugin is Lucia's Linky Love.
How it works it the owner of the blog can set the plugin so that after so many posts the no follow tag is removed from the comments of that person.
It checks the name and email address to see if this person has ever commented before and keeps track of all the ones that match. If you use different names (which has already been pointed out as a no no) or different emails you will never have the no follow tags removed.
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.
You might now be wondering how you find blogs that are using Lucia's Linky Love, the easiest way to do this is to go to Google's Blogsearch and search for your keywords in quotes plus Lucia's Linky in quotes (it should look like this "keyword phrase"+"Lucia's Linky" ) and you should find some posts for your keywords that this will apply to.
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
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