KeywordLuv Commenting: Effective Link Building or Black Hat Strategy?
| Posted by: Jennifer Gregory |
KeywordLuv, for those who don’t know, is a Wordpress Plugin that allows commenters to place their main keywords in the “Name” field of the comment, and KeywordLuv only hyperlinks the keywords. Here’s an example…
If the commenter puts TheirName@Keywords as shown here:
Then it will show up once the comment is posted to look like this:
Jenn from SEM Hints Says:
Which is a much better backlink than the other alternatives, which either just hyperlink your name, or you only put your keywords in the name field, which looks spammy.
So the question becomes…Is this good link building or black hat tactics?
First let’s look at why a blog owner would install this plugin. Everyone knows that comments play a big role in getting new people to comment, which makes your blog look busy and authoritative. So how do you get more comments? Give your blog readers incentive to comment by giving a good quality keyword-rich link back to their website with KeywordLuv.
So the blog owner is installing the plugin to get more comments and subscribers, so why not use it?
Well, some people would argue that this sort of commenting is purely self-serving and therefore blog spamming. And, one could say that this plugin would encourage ridiculous comments like “Good post” and the like, just to get a link. And, that’s true! With every great new tool that comes along, there will always be those that try to take advantage of it and ruin it for the rest of us.
So use it responsibly, give the blog owners more of what they want with good quality comments that contribute to the value of their blog, and get you a keyword rich incoming link to your site. Besides, if you leave a spammy comment on someone’s blog just for the link, you’ll only be tearing down your own online personality and reputation.
I think KeywordLuv is a great tool for both blog owners looking for more comments, and site owners looking to build better quality incoming links.
Note: If you’re planning on installing the KeywordLuv plugin, make sure you check out Stephen’s Dofollow plugin suggestions as well. It’s no use allowing keyword linking, if the links are the default rel=”nofollow”.
July 14th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
I see how it can be a win-win, but also how it’ll be harder to maintain quality comments. I guess it’ll be up to the blog owner to manage the comments more carefully.
July 17th, 2008 at 6:03 am
installing luv comment and keywordluv is the two greatest things i’ve done to my blog. It helped increase traffic my blog and traffic increased 3folds! Amazing isn it. I’m sure you’ll be a great success!
July 30th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
When monitored and used properly, I think KeywordLuv is a fantastic plugin to use on a site, even if it is a “nofollow” blog.
The benefit I see is that your readers can use their name and then whatever anchor text they want for their site. So if you need to respond to them, you can do it by name instead of “Hi Total Home Audio,”
Not only that, but it encourages reader participation whether you have a dofollow or nofollow blog.
As a commentor, it also gives other visitors an idea of what your site is about if you have left a comment or multiple comments on a blog. People may wonder just who “Mary” is and take a look at her site if they find the anchor text interesting.
Of course, with anything like this, it will bring out the black hatters looking for links to all of their sites. Although, after enabling Keyword Luv, I really have not seen that much of an increase in spam comments.
As a blog owner, you just have to monitor your comments more closely, approve those who have a decent site you feel comfortable linking to and who have made a thoughtful comment. That is my opinion anyway.
I have been reading around the blog and I hope you don’t mind, but I would like to share your site with my readers. As many of them are just starting out, much of the information contained here would greatly benefit them.
August 4th, 2008 at 10:32 am
I just discovered the KeywordLuv plugin (great idea!) earlier today, but sadly my theme seems to be incompatible. This probably doesn’t matter much, however; people seem to be doing a good enough job of putting their keywords in the name field anyway
August 5th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
That is a cool plugin, and I would assume it would help make people want to comment on blogs since they will get some link benefits. However why would a blog owner go through the trouble of installing the plugin, but then making the link a “no follow”? I would think if the links were followed even more people might take the time to comment on a post.
August 11th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
When your readers leave a comment, they should leave their name and keywords in the Name field, using the following format: name@keywords.
When posts are displayed, the plugin searches for the @ character, strips it out and moves the name to front (outside the link).
August 18th, 2008 at 2:53 am
Interesting!
KeywordLuv helps you reward your commentators by separating their name from their keywords in the link to their site. This gives them improved anchor text, which can help their site rank higher in the search engine results.
You can now leave a comment with your name as well as a keyword of your choice here and get a PR5 link back to your site! How cool is that? People pay big bucks for that and all you have to do is comment here.
August 18th, 2008 at 11:30 am
I think it’s ironic that this blog, which uses Keywordluv, if NOFOLLOW. Actually, it makes no sense for Keywordluv blogs to use nofollow.
First of all, the altruistic commenter you are looking for won’t put an anchor text in the name field ANYWAY (why would he?), as having this plugin does not do anything for him/her at all. And given that, if you do reply to his comment, you’d be using his real name anyway, and thus you won’t have to worry about calling him as his anchor text, as he will not use ANY in the first place.
And if you want a legitimate commenter who does not mind a win-win situation (where he comments a GOOD comment, and just expects a courtesy backlink that counts), he MIGHT comment if he likes your post, but he will only bother adding the anchor text portion of the name field if he THINKS he’s getting a dofollow link out of it. Otherwise it’s a waste of time to even add that portion! Unless, he’s too ignorant or too lazy to check and find out whether your particular blog is nofollow or dofollow.
Bottom line, Keywordluv blogs NEEDS to be dofollow by logic. The ones that are nofollow and use Keywordluv will actually comes across as dishonest in my opinion. (Yes, I know, this blog is NOFOLLOW as of right now. I’m only commenting here to make this issue known).
Maybe I’m missing something. I’d appreciate it if you can give me some good reasons why you are using Keywordluv when your blog is NOFOLLOW. Enlighten me.
August 19th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
What is interesting is that it seems to me as though people commenting on KeywordLuv blogs understand better the symbiotic relationship between link building and blog owner, and as such tend to provide better comments than the spam crap that normally comes through. It’s kind of counter-intuitiuve but it works!
August 20th, 2008 at 10:29 am
I just installed KeywordLuv plugin, I am hoping this will increase the communication with visitors to my site. I really like finding KeywordLuv plugin sites, I think this is one of the more interesting Wordpress plugins. I’m dofollow too, come visit if you want to make a good comment!