WordPress Plugins for Encouraging Traffic
Category: How To Use | 357 views | 3 Comments |
1) DoFollow Plugin
By default, WordPress marks all links (including trackbacks) within the comments section as “nofollow” which means that the Google spider does not follow those links. If you install a plugin that removes this tag, then every time somebody leaves a comment on your blog they get a useful backlink to their site. This does have its downsides of course - it also attracts more spam comments.
There is more than one do-follow plugin to choose from, Dofollow simply strips the nofollow tag from all links in the comments. If you want more control, Lucia’s Linky Love is a little more selective over which nofollow tags are removed. It encourages the blogger to set a minimum number of posts that must be set by a commenter before the nofollow tag is stripped for them. It will also leave nofollow on comments left on older posts.
The two plugins above are specific to WordPress but it is also possible to remove the nofollow tag from Blogger, Typepad and Moveable Type blogs.
2) Top Commentator Plugin
This is a method that I use here on this blog. It is a widget that shows the people who have made the most comments within the specified time period. You can select how many people to show in the list and what the time period is. My widget resets itself every month giving newcomers a chance to get on the list and I show 10 people.
The links in this widget are dofollow and they stay there for the duration of the timeframe as long as that person is not dropped off the list by another commenter. Because the widget is installed site-wide, it creates a semi-permanent link from the blog home page.
There are several plugins to choose from, I use one by Nate Sanden and if you go for that one, be sure to check our Wayne Liew’s tips on it.
