I have just installed the dofollow plugin for Wordpress. Ever since Google launched a campaign in 2005 to stop comment spam, they initiated that the attribute rel="nofollow" be placed on all links in the comments on blogs. It made sense in the beginning but recently there as been a big move to remove it.
What the rel="nofollow" attribute does is that search engines will not “follow” links that have that attribute set on a link. Although spammers try to use it from their own benefit by placing phrases like “buy viagra online” etc that then link to their sites which influences search engine rankings and SEO, it kills the real benefit it has for bloggers. So lets fight spam and not blogs.
So from now on any links in my comments will not have that attribute on it, and therefore I will be sharing Pagerank with you as well as connecting bloggers and the web the way it was intended.
Visit the NoNoFollow site to read more on the pros on turning rel="nofollow" off, install the dofollow plugin and start spreading the comment link love again.
25 responses so far ↓
mike // Dec 4, 2006 at 10:12 pm
I agree that the nofollow tag is hurting blogs. I wounder though, how does Technorati deal with that metatag? Your Technorati rank is based on how many blogs link to you. Does a link in the comments to your blog count?
SEO Buzz Box // Dec 5, 2006 at 12:28 am
Excellent, got PR, I’m here!
Just joking and am thinking about doing the same cuz it can not get any worse.
Found you on technorati, good use of tags whomever you are.
Aaron
Andy Beard // Dec 5, 2006 at 12:49 am
Good choice!
Whenever I find a blog that doesn’t use nofollow, the first thing I do is add them to my feedreader, because I believe they care more about whether I visit their community and join in.
If you cultivate pagerank by not wasting it in other ways, sharing a little love with your subscribers can actually prove fairly insignificant to the total PR passed from one page to another. I have written a fair bit on such strategies recently on my blog.
With Technorati, I can’t give a definitive answer. I have had comments I have place on blogs counted in the past, but maybe they are only indexing a single post once, so if you don’t leave a comment soon after a blog post is posted, they might not see it.
Certainly Yahoo ignore nofollow.
I do have a website I will be launching in the near future that will provide a hub for blogs that don’t use nofollow
One suggestion, use a links page rather than a blogroll. This can be especially true for single.php
You should also try to maybe increase the number of internal links on your single.php so that you retain more pagerank on your site.
Being commenter friendly shouldn’t be an act of suicide for your own pagerank, and adding more internal links to internal tag pages, and related content will increase page views.
JBagley // Dec 5, 2006 at 7:39 am
Hey guys, thanks for the comments.
@ Mike: I’m not sure about how Technorati handles the nofollow attribute - will see what I can find out.
@SEO Buzz box: Yeah yeah, no PR here yet!
But give me some time… hehe
@Andy Beard: Thanks for the tips on linking etc. I never thought of it like that regarding the single.php compared to using a blogroll. Definitely going to look into implementing it.
Kian Ann // Dec 6, 2006 at 6:49 pm
I have a different perspective to share, and I use nofollow for my blog comments.
The issue about SEO is not so much about me unwilling to give links to other - but more about me having the control.
First of all, the nofollow attribute is only for SEs, and we all know that human traffic will follow links
So there is no harm. So its just about SEs.
Secondly, I think we must all understand that while many of us in the Internet Marketing industry know about SEO, many commenters many not be in the Internet marketing industry - and the basically don’t care about page rank. I once bumped into a commenter’s site which looks like its delisted from google (its been there some time but pagerank is still N/A)… and I don’t want to risk “advocating” a banned site. The thing is, the comment may not be spam, but the site may be.
I think the best way is to really respond to good comments with a new post addressing the topic, and give the commenter a clean link in your post!
Just my two cents worth.
(sorry if the flow of my comment is a little messy.. haha.. focusing on too many things at a time)
JBagley // Dec 7, 2006 at 10:18 am
Hey Kian, you have a very interesting point regarding the nofollow, and with most things there are always pros and cons.
In turn, I also have the power to determine who is allowed to comment or not. If I do come across a site like you mentioned, I can turn the nofollow on for that site, thus the power is still in my hands!
I’ll see how it goes, but for now nonofollow!
Andy Beard // Dec 8, 2006 at 12:41 am
Kian
I totally understand where you are coming from
The thing is I visit the site of every legitimate commenter on my blog, and where appropriate also subscribe.
I have a clear comments policy.
If when I visit the site I see something I don’t like such a grey listed site, junk site etc, I am going to moderate their comment and remove the link, and probably make fun of them.
That is part of my comments policy
If the comment was relevant it stays, but I delete the link to their name.
My primary blog is in the webmaster and IM niche.
Subscribers and repeat visitors are important to me. Lots of things are experimental, but so far are working out well.
Stop using a blogroll now! | Make money blogging in South Africa // Dec 11, 2006 at 6:03 pm
[…] If you are going to have a blogroll, make sure that you have at least 5 times the number of links on your blogroll pointing internally. Another tip is to add the nofollow attribute to all the links in your blogroll, which will stop Search Engine spiders from moving on to those sites. Obviously if any of these sites are reciprocating the favour, then by all means keep them in your blog roll with the nofollow attribute off. […]
Trip // Jan 4, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Everyone is confusing Comments with Blogrolls. Blogroll share links. Comments share textual comments. Turn nofollow on for Blogrolls and not for comments hey ho share pagerank with sites in your blogroll which is admin edited, rather than comments.
** Proud to support 0 links in comments.
fettisch // Feb 15, 2007 at 3:11 am
In germany we have a big diskussion about this right now, and a strong movement against nofollow. It turns out that some people really are using it out of stingyness, but most people dont even know.
I was searching for english language sites that are aware of the problem, there seem to be very few!
Jane // Feb 26, 2007 at 7:19 am
This a very interesting discussion, seems like it is a 50/50 split on the nofollow attribute.
Seychelles Web Design // Mar 18, 2007 at 10:28 am
Good on ya mate! Well said!
medotblog // Apr 6, 2007 at 10:19 am
That’s great.. I’ll say notonofollow too.
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Audi Modifiye // May 8, 2007 at 8:29 am
I hope that no nofollow policy gets you a higher PR rating and allow more visitors to come to your blog. I suggest making link exchanges with other dofollow blogs.
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Make Money Solutions // Nov 5, 2007 at 6:09 pm
Sounds like follow or nofollow links would make for an interesting case study. Anyone up for the challange?
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good.. This a very interesting discussion, seems like it is a 50/50 split on the nofollow attribute.
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gold dust // Sep 25, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Happy to see someone took that courageous move. The best would be blogmaster could switch between follow / no follow.
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christian // Nov 24, 2009 at 6:07 pm
i’m also want to make my blog dofollow one one of this day i’m new to wordpress and i will try to look for this plugin
Jack Fisher // Jan 3, 2010 at 7:54 pm
It seems that whenever a good use is found for a certain item an opposite use is always invented by the human nature; thats the natural innovation tendency .no one can beat that !!!and lets not try to beat it anyway as a result we can also innovate in return .
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