Apr
10
Are you familiar with the NOFOLLOW tag? As I mentioned previously, comments are a great way to grow your blog but it could be even better. The NOFOLLOW tag basically tells Google not to count any links back to your site that contain the tag.
Unfortunately, by default Wordpress and other blogging platforms add the NOFOLLOW tag to all links to authors that appear in comments. This issue is being discussed at Weblog Tools Collection today:
NOFOLLOW is a tag that Google created as a means to fight back against spam on blogs. As of today, Google is the only search engine actively using the tag as an integral part of their algorithm. The NOFOLLOW tag simply tells Googlebot to not follow — aka don’t give any link love — to the link you have on your site with that tag. Yahoo! and MSN do not care whether a link has nofollow or not, they will follow the link you provide them.
Spam filtering and prevention has improved to the point where this is no longer an issue and bloggers are beginning to realize that sharing “link love” through the comments on your blog is a good thing. You should reward those who take the time to participate in your community.
There are several plugins that allow you to remove the NOFOLLOW tag already available. Andy Beard has put together the Ultimate List of DoFollow Plugins if you would like to begin sharing a little love.
Hey David I read the post at Beard’s site and did not understand what he was talking about (to follow not to follow ; oh the maddness). Thanks for breaking it down a little a for novices like me. I guess I got some work to do and start showing some link love to those who comment.
Thats interesting, I did not know that google didn’t count those links.
I thought it was a standard tag too, I didn’t realize that Google was the only user of it! Maybe I should remove the tag . . .
i think that the no follow tag is handy when discussing spam sites etc. ie. if you post about a site which is spamming or whatever then you dont want to help their page rank.
removing the no follow tag from registered commentators is an option however people in general cant be bothered doing that - ie. commentating no’s would drop
i think that taking the no follow tag away could cause problems too. How can wordpress distinguish between a good commentator and a bad one.
ie. a regular of your blog could make a very good quality reply and get one link to his site via google…but someone just replying ‘yes i agree’ would get the same.
Therefore, someone who posts more often with two word replys would get more help from the se with regards to links etc
Im not trying to be negative but you need to be realistic too. Spammers look for any hole and look to expose it. Even if the page rank benefit is small for commentators im sure we’d still find a small group of bloggers trailing round blogs leaving poor comments simply to increase their se rankings.
as you mentioned in your post, i think that it could be added as a feature of wordpress so that the webmaster can decide whether the no follow rule is applied. That would allow them to switch it off if spamming is bad or perhaps only use it if an article is a certain length (undisclosed to the public)
I see your point. Unfortunately, no solution is perfect but I would still rather reward regular participants.
Maybe someone will develop a plugin that addresses some of your concerns.
Well, you do have the option of marking those “spammers” as comment spam through Akismet! It would learn and mark all those comments as spam!
I didn’t actually know about that, I am off to go have a read now about it - thanks for the tip!
the plugin already exists. its called top commentators and it displays the top x commentators on your website. Their website url is displayed and the nofollow tag isnt attached
you can download it from http://www.pfadvice.com/wordpress-plugins/show-top-commentators/
I already have that…
I meant maybe someone could develop a more complex nofollow plugin for all comments not just the top commentators list. Maybe only removing the nofollow tag if the comment is at least a certain number of characters long.
The difference is that, all comments get a linkback - not just the top commentators….
you dont need a plugin. just edit your comment template and remove the no follow link and your good to go
[...] want to reward all commentators and remove the nofollow tag. For example, David Culpepper from ProBlogging is keen on removing it (good blog, worth a [...]
[...] like to thank David of Pure Blogging.com for the [...]
[...] few days ago I wrote an article about removing the NOFOLLOW tag from your blog comments. Well, it appears that many other bloggers feel the same way that I [...]
I think all blog platforms should get rid of this. Seriously. It’s effecting the blogosphere as far as linkage goes and hurting people’s PR ratings. I haven’t seen as much spam since I installed the doFollow plugin either so that whole spam thing is a LIE!!
Not a lie, just mis-understood!
[...] read more | digg story [...]
I completely agree that DoFollow helps increase your readership and exposure and that all commenters and not just the top commentators get a link back. I believe in rewarding commenters regardless if they post one contributing comment a month or twenty.
Speaking of which, I found your blog while researching for my latest challenge the DoFollow Pingback Challenge. I have DoFollow turned on for my blog and the challenge is to see how long it takes me to find 100 blogs that have it on as well. Hope you pop over and take a look, either way glad I found your blog.
Hi Susan,
Thanks for stopping by!
I took a quick look and I’ll definitely check in later tonight when I have more time… but right now I’m off to the golf course.
David, thanks for this post. I downloaded the Dofollow plugin from Semiologic a few days ago but haven’t installed it yet. You’ve reminded me that I need to do that.
I don’t understand why others may think that it is a problem to turn off nofollow in the comments. I’m on WP and I use the Akismet plugin which does an excellent job of catching spam. Perhaps I am missing something, though. (?)
I don’t get it either. I use Bad Behavior aalong with Akismet and spam is not a problem.
Just like with everything else, some people will try to “game” the system but I moderate all my comments anyway so I can catch anything that does happen to slip through.
Thanks for the mention of “Bad Behavior” David, I installed it last night.
Previously I thought that Akismet would take care of all spam, but now I understand that BB is the first step.
Thanks!
JoLynn
You’re welcome!
Hey, nice site by the way. I’m always looking for tips and ideas to help me stay committed to my diet so I’ll definitely be checking in regularly.
Thank you David! I hope that you do come back (and bring any friends who may be interested
). It’s also great for anyone interested in learning more about the processed food that they are eating, or simply to maintain their weight.
BTW, I did install the Dofollow plugin a couple days ago. I’ll put up a short post about that today to let my readers know, and to spread the word. I don’t post very often about blogging because it’s off topic for me, but I do have a “site related” category for this kind of post.
I was so surprised to learn that my comments were defaulted to nofollow; I learned this by accident by viewing the source on another site about a week ago, and then I found that mine was the same. Then I forgot about it until I read your post…I have a long “to do” list…
I’m glad that you are posting about it because nofollow would definitely dampen the enthusiasm for commenting.
I’m also glad that I found your site through ProBlogger.net; keep up the great work!
All the best,
JoLynn
[...] I recently learned that by default, Wordpress (the blogging platform that this site runs on) automatically inserts the nofollow tag in all comments. What this means is if you are a blogger and you leave a comment on a blog that is using nofollow in their comments, then Google will not recognize the link to your blog (learn more here). [...]
[...] Pure Blogging - To Follow or Not to Follow [...]
I’ve been using DoFollow for sometime now and participated in all of the hype surrounding it by leaving comments on posts like this. I think it does build more of a community as encourages comments which is what we all like to see right?
I’m using dofollow too. I also use top commentators to show the links on the front page
[...] David over at PureBlogging.com is not only a great blogging resource, but also does not use the “No follow” tag. [...]
[...] Pure Blogging - To Follow or Not to Follow [...]
I prefer do follow for new bloggers to encourgh commenting,
Use dofollow and top commentator plug-in if you want more comments to your blog, but then you have to filter some of them as many marketer tend to get links by simply posting stupid comments…
I wish I could have found this information a months ago. I hope it is not too late. I just installed a do follow plugin on my blog as well.
Nice post!