CommentLuv and FeedBurner Don’t Mix (Or Do They?)
Posted on April 19, 2008
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FiddyP created an amazing WordPress Plugin last year called CommentLuv and it’s been steadily working its way around the blogosphere. 
Essentially, CommentLuv uses fellow blogger’s RSS feeds to automatically append a link to their latest blog post to any comments they leave on a CommentLuv enabled blog. I installed it here at Philaahzophy about 6 months ago and it’s quickly became my favorite WordPress plug-in.
However, a few months back word slowly started spreading that people who use FeedBurner’s excellent RSS service to serve their feeds may be losing out on the advantages of commenting on CommentLuv enabled blogs. The best post I’ve seen on the topic is Stephen Cronin’s Don’t Let Your CommentLuv Be Stolen Away-
Some people are not taking full advantage of the benefit provided by CommentLuv on DoFollow blogs. They could be improving their PageRank and their position in the SERPs, but instead this is being stolen away.
How? The link for their latest post points to a FeedBurner redirect URL, not to the original post on their site.
This doesn’t stop people getting to the post, as FeedBurner will redirect them to the site. However, it means that the PageRank / SERPs benefits are going to FeedBurner, instead of the commentator’s site. Some of this may be passed on by FeedBurner, or it may not be. It’s not worth the risk.
Fortunately, there’s a simple step one can take to ensure FeedBurner isn’t “stealing” away one of the advantages of the CommentLuv Plugin - simply uncheck the ‘Item Link Clicks’ option within the FeedBurner Stats PRO section of your feed’s control panel at FeedBurner.
Not only will this ensure that you receive link credit in the search engines from CommentLuv’d comments, but it will also make it easier for other people to find the direct link to your post should they so desire. And an awful lot of the ‘promotion’ we tend to do as bloggers is about getting readers back to our site, so why send them to FeedBurner instead?
If you’re not sure if your links are pointing to your blog or your FeedBurner feed, feel free to leave a comment on this post. CommentLuv is enabled so when you reload the page you should see a link to your latest post. Hover over it to see where the link leads.
Tags: Blogging, CommentLuv, comments, FeedBurner, More Than Scratch The Surface, PageRank, philaahzophy, plugins, promotion, search engine, WordPressRelated Posts: » Filed Under: Blogging, SEO
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Great tip. I don’t use CommentLuv on my main site as the lady who hosts it for me has disallowed it as a plugin. I get very good hosting from her with great technical support but the only drawback is that sometimes she decides that certain plugins are not good (she says it really draws on server resources). Anyway I have a few other sites that will be using it so I will make sure I apply this little trick.
Really glad I found your article - I’ve been considering hooking commentluv up on my site, but had read the “cons” you mentioned. This makes it easy. Thanks!
metroknow - AlmostFit.com’s last blog post..Friday Recipe: Sauteed Chicken in a Late Harvest Moscato Sauce
This is a great tip and something I will be looking into as I use both of these services.
Holly’s last blog post..Grow a garden and cash in
Morning,
I just wrote about that this morning! It’s astounding how many people will let their backlinks be snarfed up by Feedburner.
Data points,
Barbara
Barbara Ling’s last blog post..Danger Will Robinson! CommentLuv and Feedburner DANGER and how you can fix it
I’m not using FeedBurner for rss feed, so I don’t have such a problem.
Mary Elections’s last blog post..Polls before Pennsylvania primary: Obama most popular
Great information! Thanks for writing this. It is an honor to participate in the discussion.
Thanks for the informative post.. and thanks for adding our comment to the blog. I am subscribing to your feed so I don\’t miss the next post!
I dont agree with you, please hook me up on msn at jucan329@hotmail.com for further discussion !!
the latest version of CommentLuv is 1.98 and is compatible with all valid feeds. thanks for the mention
Andy Baileys last blog post..Euromillions MASSIVE Rollover and Free Contest - 1 more week!
Great information! Thanks for writing this. It is an honor to participate in the discussion.
Great post ! I want to know when you update your blog, where can i subscribe to your blog?
What a great plug-in. I had never heard of it before and am going to start using it. Thanks!
CommentLuv is my new favorite plug-in! But until this evening, I had no idea about the Feedburner issue. Guess I never bothered to hover over those links and see exactly where they were going. Thanks for the info!
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Great post, very valuable of course it means I have to be thinking better oabout the title on my posts so they look interesting
Kath Ibbetsons last blog post..Today’s the Day you Stop Making Pennies and Start Making Real Money from the Internet
Thanx, Kath! Glad you found it useful.
Title writing is certainly an art, especially when trying to balance good SEO practices with intriguing human readers. Unfortunately, I don’t believe it’s a skill that can be taught. We’ve all got to just keep doing are best and try to learn from our own experiences.
Thanks for info. I had an issue with the feedburner plugin that forces all feeds to feedburner. It did not work at all with commentluv. It was one or the other.
Square Politicss last blog post..House passes economic stimulus
Thanks for explaining that! Since google took over Feedburner the option is now under “Configure stats” but is still called “Item link clicks”. I have turned it off though if you leave it turned on they let you choose 302 or 301 redirects which may (or may not) pas SE juice.
Victorias last blog post..It’s Carnival Time in Gran Canaria!
I know alot of people do not realize that feedburner is getting the link not thier site. I see the feed in alot of peoples comments. I just started seeing people write about turning feedburner off so you get the links to your blog not feedburner.
freestuffs last blog post..Freeloans
Thank you thank you thank you. So much link value wasted because I didn’t know what was causing the problem.
/Mikael
Mikael @ Retire Richs last blog post..How to Retire Early – I’ll Help You
Hmm… didn’t work
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I am getting the names of the latest post from each person that comments, but there is no hyperlink, any ideas?
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