by Ana Hoffman 56 comments

Friday’s Tips for Keeps: How to Guide to Better Link Building on CommentLuv Blogs



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commentluv deep linking trick image

Ta-da!

No, this post is not about how great CommentLuv plugin is or how to use it.

Chances are you already know it and even have it installed on your blog.

If not, here are a couple of  great posts for me by Gail Gardner of Growmap.com:

and

by Ileane Smith of BasicBlogTips.com.

Today, I’d like to give away a little trick that I’ve been using for a long time now.

I wouldn’t have written about it today (or maybe ever) but for Kristi Hines from Kikolani.com mentioning it in her to-the-point and very much Ultimate Guide to Blog Promotion.  I highly recommend you pick up a copy if you haven’t already.

She uses it for a bit different purpose, but the goal is the same: to get a link to a deep page on your blog via your name/website fields, yet still get to pick one of your last post from CommentLuv.

By “deep page” (also referred to as deep links, inner pages), I mean any URL that is not your home page. Any post, in other words.

This is a bit tricky, so let me explain.

When you leave a comment on a blog, chances are you fill out your name, email, and website fields, like you should.

commentluv with home page url

Then after you type up your comment, you go to CommentLuv field and choose one of the last ten posts the plugin produces.

The Problem

Now, what if you didn’t want to link your name field, which might have and really should have your keyword in it, to your home page, like I did above?

What if you wanted to link it to the post you are trying to optimize for that keyword?

You see, when you use anything other than your home page URL in your website field, CommentLuv will give you a choice of only your LAST POST (you can see that at the end of the post).

commentluv with deep link url

And what if it’s not the one you’d rather choose? What if there’s a post on your blog, that perfectly fits in with the post you are commenting on and you’d rather have that link show up as your CommentLuv link?

Now you see where I am getting with this?

Yes, you can have your cake and eat it too.

The Solution

Here’s what you do.

Fill out the comment form with your home page URL to begin with and add the comment in the comment field.

Then choose one of the ten latest posts CommentLuv will show you.

After you are done with that, go back to the “website” section and change the URL from your home page to your post one.

The next step is very important: don’t touch anything else!

Don’t tab, and definitely don’t click the comment section.

Simply press SUBMIT.

comment luv submit button

And viola! Your name/keyword field will be deep-linked to your post and you still get a choice of what CommentLuv post fits the content you are commenting on best.

Marketing Takeaway

I anticipate that several of my readers might feel uneasy about this process.

It does feel like hacking, doesn’t it?

However, let’s look at it this way: the blog owner doesn’t really care whether you link to your home page or any other page on your blog – I know I don’t!

They are much more concerned about abusive keyword usage, which you should be always respectful of.

Take a look at this post to learn more about how not to be labeled as a spammer:

And just because CommentLuv doesn’t yet provide a way to recognize deep pages as ones belonging to the same domain, that doesn’t mean that you cannot ethically bypass the lack of this feature.

Image source: http://www.gotit.co/

Love it or hate it? Comment to show me that you’re alive!

ana hoffman commentluv deep linking


traffic generation cafe comment below

Google+ Comments

{ 56 comments }

Peter February 4, 2012 at 11:30 am

Do you think there’s any difference between the linking power of commentluv links and standard dofollow comment links? I feel that since it’s so easy to search for a commentluv blog “Enter YourName@” that it makes them more prone to spam. do you think G is accounting for this?

Ana Hoffman February 4, 2012 at 1:20 pm

I don’t think so, Peter.

And even I’ve been using CL since the start of my blog, I never noticed much more spam with or without it.

AstroGremlin@superheros August 27, 2011 at 10:17 pm

Just added Comment Luv to my blog and came back to investigate the subtleties. Was wondering about your recommendation for Do Follow settings? Registered users, everyone or no one?

Ana Hoffman August 28, 2011 at 9:57 am

I used to have Dofollow for everyone for ComLuv links, Astro. Now that I can easily get 100+ comments on any given post, it drains too much authority from my site, and since I work very hard on my SEO traffic, I chose to do Nofollow on my ComLuv links.

The other links though (in the commentator into) are still Dofollow.

Lacey August 21, 2011 at 12:07 pm

Hey Ana. I have found Google devaluing links in the name field and putting more emphasis on links in the actual comment.

Ana August 21, 2011 at 1:39 pm

That would be the first one for me, Lacey – hearing about it, I mean.

However, Google does undoubtedly value links within posts more than anywhere else on the page (those are called in-content links).

Dar August 1, 2011 at 10:19 pm

I know this sharing will help on cause from now on I am planing to use commentluv.in short this post of you Anna is the best on me from now on.

Ana July 29, 2011 at 11:31 pm

Thank you, Gary. :-)

logico June 25, 2011 at 11:17 pm

ANA,
nice post…
but if i want to link to my main home page, how to do that???

Tosin June 22, 2011 at 1:15 pm

Thanks for explaining this Ana. I actually read Kikolani’s post, that is where I first found out about CommentLuv and KeywordLuv (only yesterday!) However, I did not understand what she meant. As your post provides screenshots, it is a lot easier to follow…. However, ironically, this is all very well but I don’t actually have a WordPress blog, or last blog post, or indeed ANY blog post to link to – at least for this site… but CommentLuv is looking more and more like a “must have” option for my current WP sites, at least to “get the ball rolling” (sorry for the cliches!) ;)

Ana June 23, 2011 at 2:57 am

Tosin, it seems like you will just have to find a blog to link to! :-) Get it going wherever you can.

Tosin June 23, 2011 at 5:37 am

Thanks for your reply Ana. Actually, between yesterday and today I’ve actually gone ahead to set up a WordPress blog to make the most of CommentLuv and KeywordLuv! I’m looking forward to seeing what difference it will make traffic wise….! ;)

Shaan @GeekyStuffs May 16, 2011 at 1:51 am

I use CommentLuv basically to get exposure than to get backlinks from the blogs…It helps in spreading words that what you are posting on your blog recently

Ana May 16, 2011 at 6:08 am

That’s another good use of this excellent plugin.

Shaan @GeekyStuffs May 16, 2011 at 7:00 am

Very true…. Its really helping in the communications of bloggers and building relationships :)

Ana May 17, 2011 at 11:13 am

Luv it! :-)

Steve@What it Takes to Succeed May 11, 2011 at 6:21 am

Ana,

This is a great tip. It is not completely transparent, but is something that with all the commenting i have done, i feel I should have known already. I will certainly be putting this to use. This is certainly another great tool for the toolbox.

Ana May 11, 2011 at 10:22 am

Few of the tools are completely transparent and it’s up to us to find the techniques to optimize it. You should certainly give it a try!

Joshua May 8, 2011 at 7:38 pm

I love CommentLuv for the single reason that it encourages people to become simply engaged. To communicate and share ideas beyond the “oh, great post!” thing. Useful to share tips on how to use this feature at its optimum potential. Thanks!

Ana May 8, 2011 at 10:05 pm

It’s only a pleasure, Joshua.

Jonathan May 8, 2011 at 3:38 pm

I still remain skeptical of whether going to such lengths to manipulate out keywords is really all that beneficial. I tend to think that it is better to simply comments, and build a reputation rather than links.

I tried CommentLuv for a while but ultimately turned it off because I got tired of all the spammy comments it attracted, and those keywords instead of names really annoyed me.

I’m taking a wild guess also that Google has by now taken notice and compensated to keywords preceded by an @ symbol, though I could be wrong.

When I am commenting on ComLuv blogs I don’t even bother to choose the post it links to either.

Ana May 8, 2011 at 10:08 pm

Building a reputation is a good strategy indeed. I must admit I don’t get all that much spam, despite using Commentluv. I just like the fact that the tool is so efficient when it comes to linking back to my posts, etc.

Gail Gardner @ GrowMap May 8, 2011 at 11:40 am

Hi Ana,

Great to see that you are benefiting from Kristi’s excellent Blog Promotion Guide. Your screen captures make this strategy much easier to understand and implement than when I wrote about how I used a very similar strategy of blog commenting and then sharing to greatly increase my blog traffic.

I wrote that post over a year ago, but it has some excellent stats on how much doing this can increase blog traffic.

Ana May 8, 2011 at 10:11 pm

Thanks for your comment, Gail and thanks for stopping by.

Ana May 8, 2011 at 12:34 am

Commenting a lot should help, Lou.

Richard May 7, 2011 at 11:48 pm

Awesome tip, Ana. I deep link on occasion (mostly on non-commentluv blogs), but hadn’t done a lot of deep linking with commentluv yet. I’ll have to give this a shot.

Ana May 8, 2011 at 12:13 am

You must – it’s an excellent tool!

Justin | Mazzastick May 7, 2011 at 8:23 pm

Ana,

I will try this out on your blog first. Thank you for the always very useful information.

Ana May 8, 2011 at 12:19 am

It’s my pleasure, Justin.

Dr. Bob Clarke May 7, 2011 at 7:14 pm

Thanks, Ana.

It continues to amaze me just how powerful this plugin is, and how little I seem to know about it! :-)

I’ve used this little trick to bring people directly to my About Page, which I felt was more appropriate than the home page, but I never thought about directly linking to one of my posts.

Thanks for this strategy! I’ll be using it… now!

Ana May 8, 2011 at 12:21 am

Try link it to the posts – you will get better results right away.

Alex@build niche websites May 7, 2011 at 3:35 pm

Nice one Ana.

I honestly thought this tip spoke for itself but obviously not.

Great that you shared it so that it IS obvious now. ;)

Ana May 8, 2011 at 12:31 am

It certainly is :-)

Thanks for stopping by.

James May 7, 2011 at 7:29 am

Thanks Ana for providing detailed information about how to get backlink. During blog commenting I have noticed many comments are deleted after approval. Blog commenting is very good way to generate backlinks but it requires lot of time to find dofollow blog and getting comment approved because of spmming issue.

Ana May 7, 2011 at 12:48 pm

Yes, blog commenting is a time-consuming, yet necessary link building and networking method, James.

I am surprised to hear that some comments get deleted after approval – the only way it would ever happen on my blog is if the comment is spammy and somehow managed to pass my spam filters. :)

Riya May 7, 2011 at 2:34 am

Hi Ana,

This is another great tip I have learned here just now. Thanks for sharing such important info. This is great way to optimize deep or inner pages of the site. :D

Ana May 7, 2011 at 6:20 am

It is indeed. You’re welcome as always, Riya.

Brad Harmon May 6, 2011 at 6:05 pm

Thanks, Ana. I started to do this about a year ago, but quit doing it because of the latest post issue with CommentLuv. This is an interesting workaround.

I have some commenters that change it every time they post on my site. Sometimes they’ll do multiple replies to comments on the same page with different keywords. Having to approve each of these is a little frustrating. I seems like they are taking it too far. What do you think?

How often would you suggest changing your keywords on one site?

Ana May 8, 2011 at 8:43 pm

If we are talking about commentators that come back, read my articles, share them, I absolutely don’t mind them changing their keywords – I completely understand the need for link building.

However, when I get someone I’ve never heard of, posting 5-10 comments per day with varying anchor text, I don’t care who they are, I won’t approve their comments.

Does it take an extra step? You bet. Is it worth it with my regulars? Absolutely!

Dakota May 6, 2011 at 12:36 pm

Hi Ana,
Thank you for sharing these tips. I had recently discovered ‘something’ about CommentLuv put didn’t fully understand what it all meant. :) You cleared it all up for me. I love when I learn something that will save time, possible generate more opportunities to earn money. I’m sooo happy! Thanks.
Piano Lesson Girl
P.S. I love your site! Coffee, yumm, that and dark chocolate ;)
P.S.S. My site is not a blog, but I’m working on building one so this is very helpful.

Ana May 7, 2011 at 12:44 am

Thanks for stopping by, Dakota. Glad you learned things and glad you like my site. Every girl needs, coffee, chocolate and a blog!:-)

rohan {at} 365 Things to do in DC May 6, 2011 at 12:35 pm

Great idea, would you say to have both links deeplinking to the same post? Because I do think that if both links deep link to the same post then google will apply the text that comes first on the page. i.e the linked text in your name will override the linked text in the comment luv deep post that comes further down the page. Feel free to correct me on this while I search for evidence to support this (i think it was seomoz)

Ana May 8, 2011 at 2:25 pm

No, you are absolutely correct, Rohan – Google will count the first link leading to the same page on a page.

However, not sure what it has to do with this post. Did I say something that made you think about it?

Darlene May 6, 2011 at 12:33 pm

Ana I think you have given great value to this topic and there are probably some networkers who are not familiar with “deep-linking” their blog posts. Great step by step instructions that anyone should be able to follow

~Darlene

Ana May 7, 2011 at 12:46 am

You’re always welcome, Darlene. Thanks for stopping by.

James Pruitt May 6, 2011 at 12:29 pm

This is awesome. thanks. I have often wondered about doing that myself. Now I know ( just used it here!) I generally look for commentluv blogs myself. its an awesome way to get loads of traffic tomy blog.

Ana May 7, 2011 at 12:47 am

It definitely is. Thanks for stopping by!

DiTesco May 6, 2011 at 12:04 pm

I like it very much. I have been doing something different but this works well for “extra” deep linking indeed. Like Ileane, I often have the same problems with “cached response” and I noticed that if I use any other link but that of the homepage, ComLuv picks up the most recent post. Combined with this trick, it would go a long way. Thanks

Ana May 7, 2011 at 6:23 am

I’m glad you find the post useful. All the best!

Ileane May 6, 2011 at 11:38 am

Ana, thanks for sharing this tip! I also need to use this when I get a message that says “Response cached until Fri 6 @ 20:34 GMT (Refreshes in 60 Minutes)” but it only works when you have additional URL’s on your account. This just happened to me here because I’ve been blog hopping most of the afternoon.
Andy assures us that this message will go away when he gives birth to the new version of CommentLuv :)

Ana May 8, 2011 at 8:25 pm

Good to know, Ileane – thanks for the tip!

Thomas May 6, 2011 at 10:04 am

Hi Ana
That really is a great “hack” that I will try out here on your blog right away. Yep you just told me that you don’t mind ;-) I am a fan of Commentluv and I am really excited to see what Andy are working on for the next version.

Ana May 7, 2011 at 6:27 am

That’s great, Thomas – hope it works for you!

Andrew Bailey May 6, 2011 at 9:14 am

Great tips, this has been a ‘shhh!’ type 0f feature for a long time.
When new commentluv comes around, things will be slightly different, it will be up to the blog owner to allow 10 last posts to everyone or not. (if they do, you can use deep links in the url field and still get 10 posts to choose from).

Ana May 7, 2011 at 1:02 am

Thanks for stopping by, Andrew. Great news!

Thomas May 7, 2011 at 2:22 am

Sounds very interesting Andy. Keep up the good work :)

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