CommentLuv plugin is one of the standard plugins I use on most of my blogs. I recommend it also to other bloggers.
If you don’t know the plugin yet, it is one of the best plugins to reward your readers for leaving comments. To find out more about it watch how David Maddux shows the backend and benefits of CommentLuv plugin in a 5-minute easy to follow video.
What he didn’t mention in the video is that the deep link to one of your blog posts left in the comment section after you make a comment, receives a dofollow attribute. Well…. it used to be by default a dofollow attribute but it has changed after the recent plugin’s update.
Now, the nofollow attribute is the default setting of the plugin.
What does it mean?
When a link is nofollowed you don’t receive any link love from it. In other words, if you want to reward your readers giving them a dofollow link generated by the CommentLuv plugin, you need to change the default plugin’s settings.
To do that, go to Settings >>>> CommentLuv and then scroll down to the bottom of the plugin’s admin panel to >>>>>>>>>>>Technical Settings.
The first picture below shows the default settings of CommentLuv. You can easily see that the links are set to nofollow.
Commentluv plugin default nofollow settings
The next picture below shows what you need to change to get back to dofollow attribute for the comments links. That’s what I chose in my CL settings.
Commentluv plugin dofollow settings
How to check if a link is dofollow or nofollow?
Whenever you want to check if a certain link on a certain blog has a dofollow/nofollow attribute, use an excellent free Firefox plugin SEO for Firefox.
What I’ve noticed is that not many bloggers changed the new default CommentLuv plugin settings.
If you are a CommentLuv blogger will you switch the plugin back to dofollow or just leave it nofollow?
Joel on 
{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Justyna
I’m always unsure – nofollow or dofollow.
The SEO advice used to be that with dofollow links you are losing link juice but more recently people have said that is not true.
What do you suggest Justyna – nofollow or dofollow.
BTW – thanks for the heads up on this.
Keith Davis@Pubic Speaking and Presentation Skills blogged recently about …Keep it short- keep it sharp
Comment luv sure is a great new thing and very useful. It totally changes the way of blogging, and everyone should use this plugin on their website. For dofollow check there is a great firefox addon which shows you dofollow links in blue and nofollow in red, just do a search for dofollow on the firefox addons page and you will find it easily. Thanks for putting this up !
Paula @ Cool Birthday Gifts blogged recently about …How to pick Cool Birthday Gifts for Dad
Justyna
I think that David Maddux should only have one x at the end of his surname.
Can’t find the website he shows in the video.
Can find his site, but it looks completely different and doesn’t have a blog.
Do you have a URL?
Keith Davis@Pubic Speaking and Presentation Skills blogged recently about …Keep it short- keep it sharp
Hi Keith,
Thanks for commenting!
1. Nofollow/dofollow – when using dofollow attribute you pass some of link juice to the linking websites. But Google algorithm is sophisticated so you can’t really calculate how much exactly you will lose with certain links. As a frequent reader of your blog, I’ve noticed your blog gained PR 3 even though you had dofollow CommentLuv links. Your blog is not the only example of websites which used dofollow CommentLuv and even some of them KeywordLuv with the whole section of comments set to dofollow and in total were able to get high PR and value of the website. I would not worry much about having dofollow in CommentLuv settings, but instead I would create great, valuable content for the readers, which you are really good at
2. The video guy – I was not looking for his website. The video is good to show some of the benefits of using CommentLuv. But I know Kikolani website, which he mentions in the video. It is a great site with a lot of very good articles. It is one of the blogs I visit quite often
I love commentluv and keywordluv as well. I think this is a great incentive to encourage interaction between bloggers and their readers. It is also a great way to avoid spammers or meaningless comments (as you don’t need to reward those).
Mohammed blogged recently about …Common Symptoms of Mange in Dogs
Twitter: justynabizdra
April 28, 2011 at 11:42 pm
Great point Mohammed! We should definitely moderate our comments to spot the spammers.
Surprisingly, even though my Anti Spambot plugin prevents from bot comments, sometimes I get comments which are spam and total nonsense, but must have been submitted by a human due to the plugin’s settings.
Weird!
I’ll switch it to DoFollow but i need to really monitor comments to prevent my blog from linking to a spamy bad website, as this will heart my rankings. Thanks for mentioning that, i didn’t know about it.
Edgar@Marketing tools blogged recently about …3 easy tips that will increase your website traffic
Twitter: justynabizdra
May 2, 2011 at 5:41 pm
Hi Edgar,
You are right with the flood of spammy comments!!
There are 2 things I do to control them: I use excellent free plugin Growmap Anti Spambot which doesn’t allow any spam robots to come through. Secondly I check the websites of people who left comments before accepting them
Hi Justyna
Agree with you on the GASP plugin but trackback spam still gets through.
To stop trackback spam I use “Simple Trackback Validation.” plugin.
It has stopped all my trackback spam.
Keith Davis@Pubic Speaking and Presentation Skills blogged recently about …Online Video- Un Art… Une Technique
Twitter: justynabizdra
May 3, 2011 at 11:47 pm
Hi Keith,
Thanks for the valuable plugin recommendation!
However, recently I’ve bought one smart plugin, recommended by a colleague. The plugin makes a great use of trackbacks and pingbacks. I’ll be testing it very soon and probably will write an article about it.
Hi Justyna
I’m spam free at the moment – it’s like heaven – but I look forward to your article on the new plugin.
Keith
Keith Davis@Pubic Speaking and Presentation Skills blogged recently about …Online Video- Un Art… Une Technique
Twitter: erydavline
May 3, 2011 at 5:03 pm
Hey Justyna.
I really interest about your article about comment luv. For me I dont care about do follow or no do follow. I belive all blog commenting will increase traffic
But it’s good idea to change to be do follow to attract more readers to comment.
Thanks for sharing
Regards
Ery
ery@improve website traffic blogged recently about …Building link Popularity – Secrets You Should Know about Link Building Popularity
Twitter: justynabizdra
May 3, 2011 at 11:50 pm
Hi Ery
Thanks for commenting!
You are right that both dofollow and nofollow blog commenting increases traffic, assuming of course that the blogs you comment on are valuable and read by others
Twitter: fat4lity85
May 4, 2011 at 6:27 am
I love commentluv and keywordluv as well. I think this is a great incentive to encourage interaction between bloggers and their readers. It is also a great way to avoid spammers or meaningless comments (as you don’t need to reward those).
Robuster blogged recently about …Game of Thrones Season 1 Episode 4- Cripples- Bastards- and Broken Things
Of cpurse dofollow is better, however most people are reluctant to give out a link even to their frequent commenters
Mark blogged recently about …Lookee 6636D01 Desktop WiFi Internet TV
This is the main reason we are blogging. To share the goodness of our products/services. To share valuable content. I am glad to have commentluv and keywordluv in our blogging world.
Thanks for the reward.
I will be visiting your blog from time to time to get more rewards. 
Daniel@retirement planning advice blogged recently about …Planning for Retirement Activities
Thanks for the information, Justyna! I love CommentLuv so much (and KeywordLuv as well). I appreciate how it provides communication between the blog owner and his/her readers. It’s a great avenue for exploration and improvement (both for the site owner and followers). CommentLuv’s additional update is really good news!
It’s good to reward your reader with a DoFollow link as this is proven to increase site interaction. I just make sure to check every comment before it’s approved. If i don’t have time, i outsource it. Thanks for bringing this
Edgar@project management blogged recently about …Benefits of project management courses
I tend to actively seek out, dofollow blogs that use the keyword and commentluv plug-ins.
I think it shows that they are prepared to encourage and actually value me taking the time out to comment.
That said, if i can be controversial for a moment…i think nofollow blogs have some SEO value anyhow. I’ve looked at sites that rank really well but have virtually no dofollow backlinks. If I was only interested in the SEO benefits of commenting on blogs, i’d post on both dofollow and dofollow blogs.
Mark@PR Agency Derby blogged recently about …SMITH OF DERBY ISLAMIC PRAYER CLOCK GIVEN ROYAL APPROVAL
I heard that there is a cool new version of commentLuv (2.9) which is going to be released soon. They say it has wonderful new features.
Hi Justyna
I’ve just installed latest version of CommentLuv on a local install of WordPress but can’t get the heart graphic to show.
Any thoughts?
Keith
Keith Davis@Pubic Speaking and Presentation Skills blogged recently about …The Coolest Voice on the Internet
Twitter: justynabizdra
June 26, 2011 at 5:53 am
Hi Keith,
the latest version has some limitations in comparison with the previous ones. We don’t get the default heart graphic anymore but you can make your own and paste URL to it in the provided box of the plugin’s settings. It seems that Andy Bailey is preparing to launch a paid version of this plugin with some extra features.
Thanks Justyna
Thought that I was missing something.
Pity about the graphic, I loved that small red heart.
Look forward to info on paid version.
Keith Davis@Pubic Speaking and Presentation Skills blogged recently about …The Coolest Voice on the Internet
Hi Justyna,
Thanks for your informative post and for sharing the video. I’m also interested in commentLuv and I must admit that I still get confused about dofollow and nofollow so I make it a point to find all I can about them.
I think commentLuv is a great plug-in since it encourages interaction in the blogging community.
Thanks for sharing!
Theresa Torres blogged recently about …Real Cost of Flying
Twitter: profitmc
July 8, 2011 at 10:06 pm
I personally think that the new commentluv has a lot for everyon. However, I’ve tried upgrading to the latest version on several occasions and it continues to report site offline. I uninstalled about five times now and re-installed but it’s still the same. Right now I’ve reversed to the old version.
Is there any explanation for this?
Chadrack@Making Money Blogging blogged recently about …Autoblogging Revelations PLUS the Power of Creative Internet Marketing!
Twitter: justynabizdra
July 10, 2011 at 4:09 pm
Hi Chadrack,
Maybe the blog template you are using is conflicting with the new version of CommentLuv? You can also go to comluv website to ask for help there. It is possible that others have similar issues with this plugin.
Twitter: LindaCampb8o
July 9, 2011 at 3:59 pm
I am new to this and have to say that this plugin is fantastic. Although I have not seen commentluv being as widely used as I had hoped after learning the advantages. Especially on blogs regarding health related topics. Hopefully this will change in the future.
Linda Campbell blogged recently about …Yeast Cures – Yeast Infection No More Review
Thank you very much for this article! I didn’t know about this commentluv update! I think I’ll install the plugin on my blog, too!!
hayley
Hayley blogged recently about …How To Not Sing Off Key
First of all, you’re right – commentluv is the only reason I found your website, so it definitely does encourage interaction.
I think if you’re going to be using commentluv it’s important to write high quality, non spammy, non stuffed content – this will inspire high quality contents. If you write spammy, the only comments you get will be spammy.
Than being said, you provide some pretty cool content, so it seems to be the perfect situation :]
Johnny Optimo blogged recently about …Installing WordPress
Twitter: mariesmithacne
October 31, 2011 at 4:31 pm
Commentluv is a great pluggin to attract visitors. However, it may bring incorrect visitors. I’m considering adding it to my blog but I haven’t decided yet because of that problem.
Twitter: abcreditcard
January 28, 2012 at 5:38 pm
I love the commentluv plugin and it shows us tons of useful abilities. This plugin has great benefits in developing a beautiful blog and its optimization. In my opinion, it should be a must-have tool for bloggers these days because of its benefits
Joel blogged recently about …Credit Card Payments Blog