26 Jun 2009

Blog Comments

You may have noticed we’ve recently changed the layout of comments on the Blog – some of you may now be lucky enough to have a clean, followed link from our blog to your site.

If your URL is Green – congratulations you’ve earned a link from us by taking part in our community, otherwise your URL will be a completely unlinked in a grey colour.

We have written a custom Wordpress Plugin so we can reward those who participate on the site more. In order to obtain a link you will need to have made a minimum of 10 comments (subject to change). Once you’ve reached this threshold your site will also be given an Editorial Review if your site is deemed link worthy, you will get links on all earlier posts. Our decision on whether your site is link worthy is final.

So happy commenting :)

Cheers,
Anthony – Follow me on Twitter!

anthony

42 Comments

  • 1

    Will you be releasing the plugin? I imagine it might be quite popular…

    David Whitehouse | http://www.david-whitehouse.org/

    26th June 2009 @ 14:14

  • 2

    Is this at all related to the whole change with how nofollow is dealt with? *If* nofollow now works the way Matt Cutts has hinted, then it’s nice solution to it all. If you released it as a plugin, I’d totally take it.

    Shark SEO | http://sharkseo.com

    26th June 2009 @ 15:08

  • 3

    Hey Shark – Yes I believe it is, if PageRank is split up how Matt explains NoFollows are useless from an SEO’s perspective. However we’ve even been doing some testing with regards to whether GoogleBot will follow plain text URL citations as and other bits as well – we will publish all our findings when we have completed it.

    We (Me & Dave) have discussed releasing it and probably will be in the not so distant future.

    anthony | http://www.anthonyshapley.co.uk

    26th June 2009 @ 15:16

  • 4

    My comments seem to be blocked :(

    Allan Stewart | http://www.pulsejobs.com

    26th June 2009 @ 15:18

  • 5

    Not sure I understand Allan, your comments don’t seem to be blocked to me – and your site is linking nicely :)

    anthony | http://www.anthonyshapley.co.uk

    26th June 2009 @ 15:24

  • 6

    So… you guys don’t trust Becky? =)

    just Guido | http://www.justguido.com

    26th June 2009 @ 15:25

  • 7

    Would you trust Becky? =D

    anthony | http://www.anthonyshapley.co.uk

    26th June 2009 @ 15:32

  • 8

    Great news that people are not scared to using followed links when they see fit!

    Chis | http://www.pixeldistribution.co.uk

    26th June 2009 @ 15:47

  • 9

    Great idea for a WP plugin, I’ll add my vote for it to get a public release.

    Quality Nonsense | http://www.qualitynonsense.com

    26th June 2009 @ 18:44

  • 10

    Hi Antony,

    Yeah, Pulse is my day job but I am more well know and prefer to be known under the Firely SEO name. Anyhow, not sure why but when ever I comment with Firefly SEO (had to add a space) of include that word, or anything to do with it, it doesn’t get through?

    Many thanks,

    Allan

    Allan Stewart | http://www.pulsestaffing.co.uk

    26th June 2009 @ 19:07

  • 11

    Interesting idea, I did something similar yesterday which means only registered users get to leave a link, part of a wider plan to give links to legitimate users and not give anything (nofollow or otherwise) to people too lazy to register.

    Patrick Altoft | http://blogstorm.co.uk

    26th June 2009 @ 21:37

  • 12

    Is this a WP plugin that you may eventually release? Very clever idea though.

    Shane | http://www.shanedj.com

    29th June 2009 @ 00:21

  • 13

    Nice work Antony – looking forward to seeing the plugin released. So are you releasing it soon?

    richardbaxterseo | http://seogadget.co.uk/

    29th June 2009 @ 08:38

  • 14

    Besides my personal question, sorry, great work on the plugin. Looks fantastic. This is something I remember you were first talking about some time ago, so was shoe and so was Joost. First to get it done though, thats cool. It will be interesting to see what if any effect it has on your domain trust and or traffic. Do let us all know.

    Allan Stewart | http://www.pulsejobs.com

    29th June 2009 @ 08:42

  • 15

    I can’t remember how many times I’ve commented on this blog, and I’m truthfully only posting on this article to check and see if I get a shiny green link back.

    Would be really interested in the plugin if you released it though :)

    Andy | http://www.andrewblackburn.co.uk

    29th June 2009 @ 09:22

  • 16

    Great idea, as for the plugin, I’d get it released asap, before someone else jumps on your idea.

    Paul | http://www.northsouthmedia.co.uk/

    29th June 2009 @ 10:10

  • 17

    I wouldnt be surprised if I was mannually blcked off – I think Dave is still sore at me for the ketchup incident…

    rishil | http://designer-watches.org

    29th June 2009 @ 11:38

  • 18

    Link Lucia’s Linky Love with some added CSS, but stingy on the anchor text?

    Andy Beard | http://andybeard.eu

    29th June 2009 @ 11:41

  • 19

    Creating quite a bit of buzz, looks like this one could be quite big. I wonder what Matt’s thought on nofollowing comments will be. I suspect he might have something to say, perhaps not directly, but this is the sort of thing that might well make Google Quality teams job a little bit more difficult.

    Allan Stewart | http://www.fireflyseo.com

    29th June 2009 @ 11:42

  • 20

    Now all you need to add is Ajax Edit Comments so idiots like me who make a typo can fix them before someone else gets to read them.

    Andy Beard | http://andybeard.eu

    29th June 2009 @ 11:42

  • 21

    smiles @rishil – the ketchup incident?

    richardbaxterseo | http://seogadget.co.uk/

    29th June 2009 @ 11:58

  • 22

    Brilliant stuff. Perhaps this is the first sign of the nofollow changes actually helping those bloggers that enter into regular debates and comments with the blogs that the usually read.

    Much more sensible than a blanket nofollow.

    Having said that, it does encourage spammers to target lots of pages on your blog – but WP shows new comments in such a way that it’s easy to delete those comments.

    Nice work.

    Gregor | http://www.massmediadesign.co.uk

    29th June 2009 @ 12:24

  • 23

    @ andy think about it when you comment on my blog it says name not what anchor text would you like to get from me, I want to promote people not keywords,I might had a tagline link later where you could get link equity, but at the moment you are going to have to stick with what you get, and it’s easier for to control i can see spammers trending and resetting is just one click away ;)

    DaveN

    29th June 2009 @ 12:44

  • 24

    Great solution, bit like SEOmoz links on profile of those active participants.

    Darrell Freeman | http://www.darrellfreeman.co.uk

    29th June 2009 @ 12:49

  • 25

    @Darrell Freeman
    kinda but I hand checker a lot of the sites :)

    DaveN

    29th June 2009 @ 13:10

  • 26

    What’s the betting that this (& subsequent) post(s) get more comments than you’ve ever had before?

    TTFN

    BFG

    BFG 9000 | http://blog.bfg9000.co.uk/

    29th June 2009 @ 19:11

  • 27

    I would love to see the plugin for this great idea!

    Janilink | http://www.janilink.com/

    29th June 2009 @ 21:16

  • 28

    Very cool idea. Did you write that in, or was it available in a pre-existing plugin ?

    Vancouver Web Design | http://www.build1.ca

    30th June 2009 @ 04:09

  • 29

    Hobo have an offering.

    Allan Stewart | http://www.fireflyseo.com

    30th June 2009 @ 08:56

  • 30

    Very cool idea. I just recently started following your blog, but I look forward to contributing more in the future.

    Justin | http://www.emarketing-newsletter.com

    30th June 2009 @ 22:28

  • 31

    Dave, Anthony – this is outstanding. I have long wanted some way to do exactly this – “your name is your name and not the keywords you want to stuff in.” So, when does the plug-in go on sale?

    Dan Thies | http://www.seofaststart.com/

    17th July 2009 @ 22:46

  • 32

    ” So, when does the plug-in go on sale? ”

    On Sale? – surely these very altrustic guys will be giving it away in exchange for a “Thank You”…..

    TTFN

    BFG

    BFG 9000 | http://blog.bfg9000.co.uk/

    18th July 2009 @ 07:04

  • 33

    The irony here is that the author of this post doesn’t have a highlighted link for his comments…yet!

    Cutts said that the way google handles no follow has changed a long time ago but it went public recently.

    Since then all the SEO’s are trying to think of a new way to handle the changes….

    I am sure Cutts will come up with something else about it in a few months so as to keep us all busy :)

    george | http://www.seotalk.gr

    19th July 2009 @ 18:20

  • 34

    I love the idea. My only problem would be on my own blog I wouldn’t have time to do that. I suppose if you have a really popular blog you can get volunteers.

    Efusjon

    19th July 2009 @ 20:08

  • 35

    I think the hyper-focus on comments based on a few remarks from a Google employee is quiet amazing. I would say that Google already take into account the low value of comment links on blogs – particularly as it is so easy to spam comments – so I’m not going to worry about it :-)

    Tony Murphy | http://www.webbusinessarchitecture.com

    20th July 2009 @ 15:14

  • 36

    Hi, I can’t understand how to add your site in my rss reader. Can you Help me, please :)

    ElenaLisvato

    4th August 2009 @ 16:11

  • 37

    Back links has become very important for google page rank. This idea of providing links through comment is very good. Great idea.

    Sandip | http://www.makemylink.com

    8th August 2009 @ 19:01

  • 38

    [...] Dave Naylor is also doing something similar [...]

  • 39

    This blog rocks! I gotta say, that I read a lot of blogs on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say I’m glad I found your blog. Thanks,

    A definite great read…

    - Bill Bartmann

    Bill Bartmann-

    12th September 2009 @ 21:15

  • 40

    Nice idea and good I’m following this blog now. I’m now discovering the benefits from this blog aside from the informative and up to date posts. Thank you.

    Justine | http://www.mesrianilaw.com

    21st October 2009 @ 00:39

  • 41

    Thanks for the hint, I was looking for sth. like that for months :-)

    john | http://www.lc32-lcdtv.com/

    22nd December 2009 @ 04:52

  • 42

    Anthony/Dave –
    This seems like a fantastic idea/policy to implement. How are you finding the results? Is it leading to more/better comments? What about the SEO perks?

    Joshua Dorkin @ BiggerPockets | http://www.biggerpockets.com

    2nd January 2010 @ 17:35

Write a Comment

*

*

*

Hear me speak at SES London 2010 Subscribe
to the David Naylor feed
Follow
David Naylor's Twitter feed

View Dave's Blog