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10 Ways to Link to Comments – Keep the discussion rolling!

by Dave Doolin on February 11, 2010 · 20 comments

(Reading time: 3 – 4 minutes)

Commenting is on other people’s blog is fun, and it’s great when people comment on your blog too. It turns out that many WordPress themes provide a permalink allowing you to link directly to a comment.

This is really cool. It’s so cool, I even wrote Practical WordPress Tip #19.

The upshot: continue your discussions forward by backlinking to existing comments.

Each theme and commenting system has a slightly different method for presenting the permalink to each comment. Some themes, unfortunately, don’t have this capability. Here’s how comment permalinks work in a few themes and commenting systems you may be familiar with.

1. Three Column Red theme

2. Disqus-based blogs

3. Atahualpa theme

4. Thesis Theme

5. Intense Debate system

6. Kelly Diel’s Custom Theme

7. Theme name

It’s not hard, give it a shot.

8. Theme name

Think about it: your link and screenshot right here.

9. Theme name

Backlinks are cool, really.

10. Theme name

It’s ok to be last.

Who’s in?

Let’s have 5 4 more from readers, match the above with

  • Theme name.
  • Link to appropriate comment. Be creative!
  • Screenshot showing how the link to that comment is presented.



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{ 18 comments }

Amanda February 11, 2010 at 2:13 am

Great post, Dave. I was working on linking to comments for Cleavage and devised a way to provide permalinks for all comments, nested or no.

Theme: Cleavage
Link
Screenshot

Sorry about the dual comment!
Amanda´s last blog ..Embracing emptiness, silence, and darkness. My ComLuv Profile

Dr Wordpress! February 11, 2010 at 4:23 pm

Linked. Thanks!

Heather Kephart February 11, 2010 at 4:21 pm

Hey cool, Dave! I never thought about linking to a comment to continue a discussion, as you suggested. I use the Thesis theme, and I never would have figured it out, so thank you.

I wonder if others can get link juice if I link to my or another person’s comment on their blog? Hmm…
Heather Kephart´s last blog ..Fiction or Bust My ComLuv Profile

Dr Wordpress! February 11, 2010 at 4:31 pm

Good question.

Search engines change how algorithms at will so I don’t worry so much about the link juice.

I see comment linking as a relationship builder.

And here’s the cool thing: search engines *really* hard to figure out these real relationships. In a sense, what we’re doing may be ahead of the search engine game. I don’t know whether it “hurts” or not, but I don’t really care.
Dr Wordpress!´s last blog ..Pre-Writing Is Your Friend – With Benefits (Part 1) My ComLuv Profile

Heather Kephart February 11, 2010 at 5:10 pm

I agree! I never really understood about link juice, anyway. But I hear about it all the time.

Take care.
Heather Kephart´s last blog ..Fiction or Bust My ComLuv Profile

Dr Wordpress! February 11, 2010 at 5:13 pm

Heather, if your web pages make lot of people happy for a long time, you don’t need to worry about link juice. It will find you.
Dr Wordpress!´s last blog ..Your First AWeber Autoresponder Followup Series My ComLuv Profile

Heather Kephart February 11, 2010 at 6:11 pm

I hope so! And by the way, please do note that I was hoping to bring link juice to the websites whose comments I linked to on my own blog, not to procure link juice for myself. I prefer a Patron Cadillac Margarita. :)
Heather Kephart´s last blog ..Fiction or Bust My ComLuv Profile

Deacon February 11, 2010 at 4:34 pm

JL had to postpone our plans till tomorrow, so it looks like I’ve got a work night ahead of me. I’ve got a few things to tackle on the comment side of my site, I might as well make this one of those things.
Deacon´s last blog ..101 things I learned from making 101 prints, Part 3 My ComLuv Profile

Dr Wordpress! February 11, 2010 at 4:54 pm

Make those backups before getting started.

I have a couple of ideas that I think could increase your conversion rate, we should talk at some point.
Dr Wordpress!´s last blog ..Pre-Writing Is Your Friend – With Benefits (Part 2) My ComLuv Profile

Deacon February 12, 2010 at 8:31 am

I know I have some overhauls to make.

I’m listening…
Deacon´s last blog ..101 things I learned from making 101 prints, Part 4 My ComLuv Profile

Rancho Murieta February 11, 2010 at 5:38 pm

What’s the point of a direct link to the comments? Isn’t the content of your post what matters not the comments themselves. What is the benefit?
Rancho Murieta´s last blog ..Should Summerfest Continue at Stonehouse? My ComLuv Profile

Dr Wordpress! February 11, 2010 at 6:02 pm

@RM – Linking to comments allows you to continue the discussion.

Like linking to individual tweets.

If you’re looking for magic google link juice, this is the wrong place. If you want bring readers into ongoing conversations, you just made bank.

Hint: Everything all search engines do is attempting as hard as the can, with algorithms, to find real people on the web. Because that’s where the value is.
Dr Wordpress!´s last blog ..Romance & Misery, Your Blog is Calling (It’s that dang Week in Review) My ComLuv Profile

Cebu Tech Blogger February 11, 2010 at 7:33 pm

Hey, Dave… I actually noticed this technique since I started reading your articles, and I can say that it’s effective. One thing I was wondering though- commentluv is not updating my latest posts. But I’m going into it, maybe I can fix this problem in the next few minutes.
Cebu Tech Blogger´s last blog ..Microsoft Office 2010 RC Torrent Download My ComLuv Profile

Dr Wordpress! February 11, 2010 at 8:15 pm

Bert, there’s lots of cool stuff you can do with hypertext. Read back through some of my articles for hints and tips.
Dr Wordpress!´s last blog ..Pre-Writing Is Your Friend – With Benefits (Part 2) My ComLuv Profile

Cebu Tech Blogger February 12, 2010 at 2:22 am

I’m done with the commentluv mess… Now it’s updating already… thanks
Cebu Tech Blogger´s last blog ..The Conscious Me Pre-Writing Challenge My ComLuv Profile

Deacon February 12, 2010 at 8:40 am

So it turns out my theme already had permalinks to individual comments. Whocoodanode?

I spent last night overhauling comments anyway, making some subtle tweaks to the code and style sheet.

Theme: Bad Deacon Design Custom
Link: Are we not men?
Screenshot here
Deacon´s last blog ..101 things I learned from making 101 prints, Part 4 My ComLuv Profile

Valentina February 12, 2010 at 11:52 am

OK…. here goes

Theme: three column red
Link: Red Mittens
Screenshot:

not sure about how any of this will show up … have a feeling that the screenshot may not be right.

living dangerously … pressing “submit”
Valentina´s last blog ..The Mitts That Were Seen Around the World! My ComLuv Profile

Valentina February 12, 2010 at 11:55 am

just as I thought! No screenshot!
50% not a passing grade.
How do I get that screenshot to appear here?
Valentina´s last blog ..The Mitts That Were Seen Around the World! My ComLuv Profile

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