277 • JSSpamBlock http://digwp.com/u/197 JavaScript-based anti-spam plugin. Uses JavaScript to filter out spam quietly and discretely. Users without JavaScript must prove their legitimacy via numerical CAPTCHA exercise. • bcSpamBlock http://digwp.com/u/98 Another good JavaScript-based anti-spam plugin that uses JavaScript to filter out spam quietly and discretely. Users without JavaScript must prove their legitimacy via copy-&-paste CAPTCHA exercise. • reCAPTCHA Plugin http://digwp.com/u/99 Displays words from old books that users must correctly interpret. Uses the popular reCAPTCHA service that is used on popular sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and StumbleUpon. Upside: use of this service helps to digitize old books. Downside: requires a key to work. • Challenge http://digwp.com/u/100 CAPTCHA-based anti-spam plugin that provides a variety of challenge questions that the user must answer correctly before comment submission. Bonus: includes Admin Options page. • Comment Spam Stopper http://digwp.com/u/101 CAPTCHA-based anti-spam plugin that also contains JavaScript validation to ensure that required fields in the comment form have been populated with data. • WP-HashCash http://digwp.com/u/102 CAPTCHA-based anti-spam plugin that claims to be 100% effective. JavaScript is required to generate a secret number that is verified by the plugin script. • Word Verify http://digwp.com/u/103 CAPTCHA-based anti-spam plugin that includes its own configuration options. • Simple Trackback Validation http://digwp.com/u/104 Simple Trackback Validation provides solid protection against trackback spam. If your site suffers from relentless rounds of trackback spam, this plugin is for you. 278 • Referrer Bouncer http://digwp.com/u/105 Referrer Bouncer provides powerful protection against referrer spam. Easy to use and requires no configuration. If referrer spam has got you down, check out this plugin. • ProtectWebForm Captcha http://digwp.com/u/106 CAPTCHA-based anti-spam plugin designed with usability in mind. Provides a way for users to refresh the CAPTCHA or even listen to a recorded version. Also enables users to customize the CAPTCHA image. • Did You Pass Math? http://digwp.com/u/107 CAPTCHA-based anti-spam plugin that requires the user to successfully solve a random math problem. We’re talking simple math here – no algebra required. • Comment Spam Trap http://digwp.com/u/108 Comment Spam Trap employs two different filtering methods for stopping comment spam. Simple yet effective. • Spam Free http://digwp.com/u/109 Spam Free is a powerful anti-spam plugin that virtually eliminates automated comment spam. Recommended. • Cookies for Comments http://digwp.com/u/110 Uses a cookie-method to drastically reduce the amount of spam that makes it through to your site. Very effective. 7.7.1 Other Considerations & Techniques Clearly, the WordPress comments area is one of the most highly configurable and flexible parts of the entire application. To round out the chapter, here are a few more considerations that will help you maximize your comments area to its fullest potential. 279 7.7.2 Enhancing and Encouraging Comments As we have seen, there are many ways to enhance and encourage comments on WordPress-powered sites. In addition to the numerous methods covered so far, there are also many ways to advance comment functionality using plugins. With WordPress, there is a plugin for just about anything and everything, and the comment area is no exception. In this section, we present some of the most useful and beneficial plugins for enhancing and encouraging comments on your site. • @ Reply http://digwp.com/u/198 This plugin automates the process of replying to comments using the “@ commentator” convention. Instead of manually typing the “@commentator” for each reply, simply click on the “Reply” link of the original comment and the @ Reply plugin will automagically include a “@commentator” link in your comment’s textarea. This facilitates the process of replying to other comments, encourages readers to participate in the conversation, and enhances the usability of your comments area. • Keyword Luv http://digwp.com/u/199 The Keyword Luv plugin rewards your commentators by separating their name from their keywords in their website link. This enables commentators to leave their name without sacrificing the keywords they want for the link to their website. From an SEO perspective, more focused and relevant anchor text benefits their site and thus encourages additional comments. • CommentLuv http://digwp.com/u/200 CommentLuv creates a titled link to the commentator’s most recent post. This encourages comments by giving commentators a general site link and a more specifically targeted post link. CommentLuv also enables click-tracking and provides statistics at commentluv.com. 280 7.7.3 “nofollow” Links In January of 2005, Google began pushing a new “nofollow” attribute for anchor elements. Soon thereafter, MSN and Yahoo!, along with other lesser search companies, also began support for the new nofollow attribute. The nofollow attribute is utilized as follows: <a href="http://domain.tld/" title="Example of a nofollow link" rel="nofollow">This is a nofollow link</a> Links including the nofollow attribute are flagged by supportive search engines as not being endorsed by the site owner and/or author of the page content. The search engines then proceed to treat the link as follows: • nofollow links will not be followed through to the next page • nofollow links will not be included in the calculation of page rank (Google recently announced that they do include nofollow links when determining PR) • nofollow links will not include the anchor text in determining the linked page’s relevant keywords Basically, a nofollow link will be ignored by MSN/Bing and Yahoo!, and partially ignored by Google. Many SEO-savvy people selectively employ nofollow attributes to influence the flow of link equity throughout their site. An extreme example of this is seen when sites decide to hoard page rank by not sharing it with other websites. By “nofollowing” all links that point to external sites, such sites retain the flow of link juice within their own domain and theoretically improve the value of their own pages. Unfortunately for many SEOs, this strategy no longer works as it once did with Google, whose policy is now such that link equity not transferred through nofollow links is no longer redistributed to the source page. Nofollow remains a useful tool, but it is no longer effective for conserving page rank with the world’s biggest search engine. Google + Nofollow Confused about Google’s new nofollow policy? Here are some great sources for more information: http://digwp.com/u/201 http://digwp.com/u/202 http://digwp.com/u/203 281 In any case, not too long after nofollow was established, the WordPress development team decided to implement the nofollow attribute into the comments display area. By adding nofollow attributes to every link in the comments area, WordPress was heeding Google’s recommendation that nofollow attributes should be included on any publicly placed links. Thus, every comment- related link is now a nofollow link; this includes author links, pingbacks, trackbacks, and even links within comments themselves. Unfortunately, not everyone is thrilled about the idea of nofollow. In fact, four years after the creation of the nofollow attribute, an uprising of “dofollow” bloggers and supporters has grown into a full-fledged movement. The central idea behind the dofollow movement is that commentators deserve credit for the links they use when taking the time to comment on your site. By slapping your commentators’ links with nofollow attributes, you remove incentive and diminish the reward of commenting on your site. Or so the argument goes. You know, “it’s like, be cool man, and share the link love with your fellow bloggers.” So, if you find yourself agreeing with the dofollow blogging movement and think that punishing commentators with nofollow links is just plain wrong, then you will definitely want to remove the nofollow attributes that WordPress places on comment links. Fortunately, there are plenty of great plugins to help you do this. Here are a few of the best: • DoFollow http://digwp.com/u/205 One of the first WordPress dofollow plugins, DoFollow has evolved into a highly flexible method for nofollow removal. The admin option page is clear, simple, and provides granular control over all options. This plugin is ideal for users of all experience levels and provides control over many important aspects of dofollow strategy. Excellent for distinguishing between comment links, trackbacks, and pingbacks. Highly recommended. • Lucia’s Linky Love Plugin http://digwp.com/u/206 Lucia’s Linky Love provides the greatest amount of control over SEO-related aspects of the nofollow-removal process. Although the admin options page may prove confusing for novice users, those familiar with basic principles of SEO will Dofollow Plugin Library For a complete review of all currently available WordPress dofollow plugins, check out Perishable Press: http://digwp.com/u/204 282 find everything they need to control the flow of comment link love throughout their site. If you are looking for a versatile, customizable dofollow plugin, Lucia’s Linky Love is one of the best. • NoFollow Free http://digwp.com/u/207 NoFollow Free provides many options currently unavailable anywhere else. Beyond the ability to display the number of comments for each author, require a minimum number of comments for nofollow-removal, and specify which types of comments to follow, NoFollow Free also features a customizable nofollow blacklist for spam words. Plus, NoFollow Free throws in an optional “NoFollow Free” image band just to seal the deal. Overall, NoFollow Free is a comprehensive solution that provides robust functionality for the effective implementation of your nofollow-removal strategy. Five Stars. 7.7.4 Integrating Twitter Last but not least, we want to look at some of the many ways to integrate everybody’s favorite new microblogging service, Twitter! We love to Twitter almost as much as we love to create beautiful, modern sites with WordPress. And so naturally we are thrilled to have such a wonderful variety of plugins enabling us to combine the two. Let’s have a look at some of the best… • TweetSuite http://digwp.com/u/208 The TweetSuite plugin integrates Twitter with a host of useful tools, including everything from server-side TweetBacks and automatic post tweets to Tweet- This buttons and widget functionality. Recommended for serious Twitter fans who love WordPress. • Tweet This http://digwp.com/u/209 Short and sweet: Tweet-This buttons on every post. Perfect for sharing your posts on Twitter. • WP Twitip ID http://digwp.com/u/210 This plugin makes it possible for users to add their Twitter name along with 283 the usual comment information, such as name and URL. This provides incentive for readers to comment while enhancing the personalization of the comment display area. • TwiBadge http://digwp.com/u/211 TwiBadge makes it easy to display your Twitter badge, which includes your latest tweets, subscriber count, and more. The badge supports both widgetized and non-widgetized themes, and is equipped with shortcode for easy insertion. • The Twitter Updater http://digwp.com/u/212 The Twitter Updater automatically sends tweets to your Twitter account every time you publish or edit one of your posts. Includes Admin panel that enables you to customize the tweets and disable either type of post update. • TwitThis http://digwp.com/u/213 TwitThis makes it easy for readers to share your posts on Twitter by clicking on the automatically generated “TwitThis” links for each post. Before the URL of your post is sent to Twitter, it is shortened via URL-shortening service, TinyURL. • Twitter Tools http://digwp.com/u/214 Twitter Tools boasts “complete integration” between WordPress and Twitter, enabling you to tweet blogs, blog tweets, and much more. Full Admin options makes it easy to customize. • Twitter Wordpress Sidebar Widget http://digwp.com/u/215 This plugin makes it easy to share your Twitter updates in your sidebar. Each status update is linked, and there are several great customization options. • Twitter Feed http://digwp.com/u/216 Uses the Twitterfeed service (requires OpenID account) and your site’s RSS feed to automatically post your blog updates to your Twitter account. • Twitt-Twoo http://digwp.com/u/217 Ever wanted to update your Twitter status from your sidebar? You’re not alone. The Twitt-Twoo plugin makes this possible using the magical powers of Ajax. Stupid Twitter Tricks There’s nothing stupid about the awesome collection of custom Twitter tricks now available at Perishable Press: http://digwp.com/u/420 @Anywhere Twitter has a JavaScript library for integrating Twitter features into other websites. It's a little more involved than a plugin but the possibilities are very cool, like making @usernames automatically pop up "cards" with that users information and a follow button. http://digwp.com/u/469 284 And so… In this action-packed chapter, we have explored the WordPress comment system in considerable depth. With such incredible flexibility, amazing customizations, and awesome plugins available to you, transforming your WordPress Comments Area into a beautiful, well-optimized, user-friendly response system is at your fingertips. Of course, the greatest comment system in the world is of no use if nobody can find your site. In the next chapter, we dig into the fine art of search-engine optimization and explore many useful and effective techniques for doing well in the search engines. Chris’ personal blog (next page) uses some art direction to apply styling appropriate to the content of individual Posts. http://chriscoyier.net/ 285 286 I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. – BILL COSBY . Another good JavaScript-based anti-spam plugin that uses JavaScript to filter out spam quietly and discretely. Users without JavaScript must prove their legitimacy via copy-&-paste CAPTCHA exercise. •. http://digwp.com/u/101 CAPTCHA-based anti-spam plugin that also contains JavaScript validation to ensure that required fields in the comment form have been populated with data. • WP-HashCash http://digwp.com/u/102. encourage comments on WordPress- powered sites. In addition to the numerous methods covered so far, there are also many ways to advance comment functionality using plugins. With WordPress, there