Do you appreciate comments on your blog?

Recent announcements with the way Google Pagerank flows via nofollow links at Google has bloggers… concerned. So, this has prompted a new WordPress plugin that rewards regular contributers with a link, but removes the actual link from comments from those that haven’t bothered to continue participating on your blog past that first comment.

So Basically;

• Regular commentors will get a dofollow link that passes link love – with this, you really reward regular contributors
• Those with less than say 3 comments will not get a link at all (although you can modify this) but when they do hit 3 comments, hey presto, link love, and with anchor text value!
• Pagerank won’t evaporate through nofollowed links from link droppers because they won’t be links!
  You can see it in action below once comments appear (or on any other post on the WebDog site) when you comment.

What does this mean? Well, if we’re to believe Google, this may help increase the amount of pagerank circulating on your site and indeed improve your overall Pagerank score, just by watching who you’re linking to using nofollow.

Download the plugin here – It works on WordPress 2.8, and should be backward compatible (though clearly no warranties – it’s free – use at your own risk)

We are using this plugin ourselves, so if you want a link on your comment, be sure to participate in the discussion often!

Installation is simple – just install as you would any other plugin, and go to the admin section (Settings > Hobo Link Love) and ensure in the field;

“Keep dofollow off comments less than some number of days old?” – You insert the value ‘0′.

This plugin is based on Lucia’s LInky Love so you MUST UNINSTALL THAT PLUGIN FIRST FOR IT TO WORK (if you have that installed).