Web Hosting And Domain Names

However, you need to make sure you’re getting links from good blogs, which is covered in the next section…

Choosing Good Blogs

Dofollow

Not all blogs are created equal, particularly when it comes to commenting. You need to look for authoritative blogs which have ‘dofollow’ links in comments.

‘Dofollow’ was coined as an opposing term to ‘nofollow’; a dofollow link is loosely defined as one that search engines are able to follow, and so credit is given to the linked site as being a valuable resource. These are the kinds of links you want as Google ignores nofollow links.

Dofollow links are highlighted in purple using the NoDoFollow for FireFox plugin

All WordPress installs now have nofollow comment links by default to reduce spam. However, there are plenty of website owners out there who have chosen to alter this default setting or have installed plugins such as CommentLuv or KeywordLuv which create dofollow links.

Simply search Google using terms such as ‘dofollow blogs’ or ‘commentluv blogs’.

Value

Searching Google for dofollow blogs will throw up enough results to last a lifetime, so the next step is to pick out high-quality, relevant blogs that will help your efforts.

There are plenty of signals you can use to determine whether a website will give you a decent backlink or not, but here are a few of the most common:

• PageRank – Don’t overestimate its value (it’s just a guide), but by checking the toolbar PR of a site you can get a rough idea of what Google thinks of it. If you’re unfamiliar with PageRank, you can find out more here. Note that the site’s blog entry itself will show a PageRank score of ‘unranked’ unless it’s been around prior to a Toolbar PageRank update, and not every page will gain PR even after that time. Old entries with established PR guarantee you a good link, but it’s harder to get comments approved on them.

• Alexa Rank – Another measure of popularity, sites with great Alexa scores have lots of traffic which is a big indication of good authority. Find out more here.

• Indications of visitors – High numbers of social media shares, plenty of comments, filled advertising slots and regular posts all indicate a good website. Trust your instincts.

There are also various backlink checking tools available on the internet – both free and paid – but research carefully before installing software or handing over any money. A great tool to start with is Open Site Explorer.


Relevancy

Search engines expect you to link to sites which have similar content to your own, so when choosing blogs for backlinks it’s best to stick to blogs on the same topic or in the same industry if you can. Enhance this effect by choosing blog entries directly related to your link’s topic, e.g. if you have a design site and you want to leave a link to your free icons page, then find a design blog with an entry listing different icon resource websites or a tutorial on making icons. This isn’t always possible, but it’s often a nice bonus.

Getting your comments approved

What is the blog author looking for?

When moderating comments, most blog authors go through a mental checklist to decide when a comment should be rejected. Here’s a quick checklist of some of the ways your comment is likely to be assessed:

• Name – Is it a common name/does it include a common name somewhere in it? (E.g. ‘John from Creative Designs’ rather than ‘Cheap Gucci Handbag’).
• URL – Is it a short URL that is a brand name rather than being keyword-rich? (E.g. heartinternet.co.uk compared to reseller-web-hosting-uk.co.uk)
• Comment body – Does it make sense? Is it written in good English? Does it reference the blog author or the topic of the post directly in any way? Is it at least a couple of lines long? Does it contain one link or no links? Does it add value to the post in some way?

More tips:

• Get yourself signed up to Gravatar and add a photo avatar if you haven’t already. Even if the site owner doesn’t have them set to display on the blog, WordPress shows gravatars in the dashboard.

• Become known to the blog author(s). If you have a reputation for leaving good comments and are known as a repeat visitor and commenter, then your comments are more likely to be approved. This can have a lot of benefits for small niches, blogging networks and multi-author blogs where you can become recognised and trusted.

• Use your real name – if getting your comment accepted is more important to you than the increased chance of rejection but having your own choice of anchor text.

• If you’re including your own link in the comment body, make sure it’s relevant to the blog entry and your comment. If it’s not, you probably shouldn’t be trying to get a backlink from that site anyway.

• Aim for entries with fewer comments to get more link juice coming to your website.