Do You DoFollow?

Do You DoFollow? Almost two months ago, I read an article on something called “NoFollow” and “DoFollow.” At that point, I didn’t know what that meant, and I didn’t fully understand the implications of it. As time went by, I have realized the importance of enabling the DoFollow tag. So, let’s explore the NoFollow and DoFollow components of web design and blogging.

What is NoFollow and DoFollow?
As most of y’all know, search engines rely on links to rank their listings. The more links you have - the better you do in the listings. And further more, the “bigger” the site that links to you, the more the link is worth. For example, if you were to get a link to your blog from ProBlogger, it would probably be worth over 100 links from MySpace Profiles. (Note: That is by no means accurate - I’m just making a point)
The NoFollow and DoFollow tags classify a link as to whether the search engine uses it in its rankings. However, all links are automatically DoFollow unless otherwise specified. And again, for example, if that same link from ProBlogger had the NoFollow tag in it, then your web site/blog would not get the benefit of that link - search engine-wise.

Wordpress Automatically Disables DoFollow in the Comment Links
So what does that imply?
If someone comments on your blog, they do not get the search engine rewards for that link. In my opinion, that isn’t a good way to reward your blog’s commenters for actually commenting on your blog.

What Can Be Done About That?
That is easy.
There is a Wordpress plug-in out there called Link Love. This not only plug-in enables DoFollow on your blog’s comments, but it only enables them after the commenter has responded ten times.

Want to lower that number?
No problem.
I have three quick and easy steps for you.

Step 1
Open allpassion-linklove.php - located in the allpassion-linklove folder.
Step 2
change the following in red:
Coding var $allpassion_comment_count = 10;
to the number of comments you would like to be required before DoFollow is enabled.
It will look like this:
Coding var $allpassion_comment_count = 2;
Step 3
Save and upload the allpassion-linklove folder to blog’s root directory > wp-content > plugins and you’re done!

There, you can’t get more dummy proof than that.
Now get out there and reward your regular commenters!

Download Link Love Download the Link Love Plug-In
Thanks to ProBlogDesign.com for the plug-in heads-up.

 

15 Responses to “Do You DoFollow?”

  • Do I get rewards? I like chocolate……

     

  • You do get rewards - but not chocolate…

     

  • Good article Brian (especially for explaining to others where exactly to edit the plugin). And thanks for the link love. :)

     

  • Thanks!
    And no-problem for the link love! I love your blog!

     

  • [...] if you do, you’ll be penalized. Update: However, if those links have “nofollow” (What’s NoFollow?) enabled, then it’s alright to have them. However, Google can be finiky, so things could get [...]

     

  • [...] and give you links. Further more, if the blog you’re commenting on has DoFollow enabled (Learn more about DoFollow), then you’ll get some PageRank credit from that as [...]

     

  • Brian, I stumbled on your blog after it was up on popurls.com for your discussion on Google PageRank. You’ve got some great articles. I’ve already tagged a few for del.icio.us for later reading.

    What a great way to encourage active comments by removing nofollow. That’s a novel approach, I had not seen before.

    I’ve been exploring SEO and PageRank for the past week for multiple different clients I’ve been working with. It’s amazing how much power Google wields via search and PageRank. If you’re not on the first page of results, your business goes down. As far as I can tell, there’s no easy way to find out why your search results change unless you know of something that I’m missing.

     

  • Really?
    Awesome!
    Thanks!

    Enabling DoFollow was a wave I caught on a few months ago. However, I am now reconsidering my DoFollow/NoFollow policy.
    Financial Freedom Ideas recently wrote an article on why he doesn’t follow - and it was quite interesting.
    Apparently you may be penalized by Google for allowing DoFollow in your comments.
    Another part of his reasoning was quite thought provoking.
    He talked about how much bloggers strive for backlinks and how valuable they are. He then wondered why someone should get the credit of a backlink simply by commenting?

    Though I still have DoFollow enabled, I am seriously considering changing that.
    :-/

    Aye, it is incredible how much power the Google God has.
    Well, I see you found my posts on how Google PR works and how to increase PR.
    If you have any further questions, feel free to email me!

     

  • Thanks.

    You mentioned in your posts on Google Page Rank, that google actually deflates the value of links if there are a large quantity of links on the same page.

    Hypothesis: If you had a very popular blog post, wouldn’t that mean the comments with dofollow would actually deflate the pagerank applied to them since there would be a large quantity of links on the same page?

    The article you pointed me to has some good thoughts on who should control the link power given by the hosted conversation. Should the blog host control it? or Once you host the conversation, Do you cede control to the cloud? Good questions that I think ultimately is up to the blog owner.

    I still think dofollow serves an excellent purpose of positive reinforcement for joining your conversation. As you demonstrated in the your dofollow post, one could raise the value of how many comments are needed to receive dofollow over time, and of course moderate comments to keep spam off them.

     

  • Your hypothesis true.
    It would also deflate the power the power of the links in your post.

    Hm…
    interesting thoughts.
    I would agree. If the blog host wanted to, he could individually control links power in the comments. However, think about if someone like Darren Rowse (ProBlogger) controlled all of that himself. :-/

    I agree.
    DoFollow adds incentive for visitors to return and participate in the discussion.

     

  • Really good explanation, thanks Brian

     

  • Hi! I’m new to blogging and I’m trying to increase my PR. This article is very interesting although I’m not quite sure how to use it. :) We’ll read some more later and try to decipher this.

     

  • Hey Ice!
    I sent you an email, but if you’d like to learn more, check out these two articles.
    The Quest for PageRank - How PageRank Works
    The Quest for PageRank - How to Increase PageRank

     

  • You’ll only be penalized for dofollow links if you’re charging for them or if you’re site is a different context from the site that you’re linking to. In other words, there has to be obvious intent to spam the link system.

    If the link could in some way be useful to your readers, then it’s good Usability and you’re fine. It’s all about the users.

     

  • Dofollow is one of the best thing to do with your WordPress, it reaches the true essence of the internet. Nofollow is false, IMO and it should be dropped but I think Google sustains this and requires it.Sucks, really!

     

    • Leave a Reply