You Comment I Follow

I’ve spent some time over the past week tweaking some things here at WiredParentPad - most notably, making some changes to how the comments work in order to spread some link love. Without going into all of the nitty gritty details of blogging and linking and Wordpress (the software that powers this site) and the like, let’s just say that link love is something that other websites and blog authors greatly appreciate - it’s a vital piece in increasing the relevance of a website to Google and other search engines. More external links - links from other websites to yours - means higher rankings in search results on the search engines (among several other factors). So what’s changed here at WiredParentPad? Read on to find out!

commentluv

CommentLuv

Comments on a blog or website like WiredParentPad bring the material to life. For the reader, comments create an interactive dialog that often add valuable additional information to an article. For the comment author, they offer an opportunity for readers of other websites to find your website. This is where CommentLuv steps in.

CommentLuv takes this linking opportunity a step further by finding and displaying the most recent blog post title (if you’re a blogger) within the comment once it’s posted. Sweet!

I first stumbled on CommentLuv while commenting on a blog I regularly read - MomGrind. I immediately fell in love with the concept and have incorporated into WiredParentPad. From here on out, any comments left on WiredParentPad posts will include the CommentLuv option. Head on over to MomGrind to see it in action.

dofollow

DoFollow via Lucia’s Linky Love

The comment section of a post or page on a website often include a field called “Website” or “Your URL” where the comment author can enter a link to their own website. By default, Wordpress powered sites (like this one) include a little thing called “NoFollow” on the Website field (as well as any links entered in the Comment field). NoFollow tells search engines to not follow the link - in other words, don’t give the entered website link any additional importance or relevance in search rankings.

The main purpose for NoFollow being the default behavior is to prevent people (and computers) from creating artificial importance of a given website by spamming comments all over various blogs and websites. Completely innocuous comments like “Cool site” are left just for the opportunity to place that link back to their website, thus increasing their website’s importance in the eyes of the search engines.

On the flip-side of NoFollow is something called “DoFollow“. DoFollow doesn’t really exists as a web programming element, it really just means not using the NoFollow piece of code with relation to links. By omitting NoFollow, search engines will in a sense follow the link, giving the linked website additional importance in terms of search results.

WiredParentPad now includes Lucia’s Linky Love which removes NoFollow from comments of loyal readers. Once a comment author has left at least three comments on various WiredParentPad articles, any links left in the Website or Comment fields will be followed - spreading the link love juice, as us bloggers like to call it.

All of this boils down to the old saying, “I’ll rub your back if you rub mine”. I’ve read and commented on enough sites that have CommentLuv and NoFollow (which has helped spread WiredParentPad links), the least I could do is return the favor!