13Jul

Steve Renner Introduces Do Follow Comments

Posted by Steve Renner as iNetGlobal

I have decided to share the link love and allow “Do Follow” links on my Blog Comments. There has been a lot of controversy on “No Follow vs Do Follow” links, and I think it time we clarify this.

NoFollow (rel=”nofollow”) was originally introduced by Google in 2005 as a means of preventing Comment Spam from Blogs.

Do Follow puts No Restrictions on the Search Engine Robots from following links on your page, either to other internal pages on your site, or to other web sites.

From: Search Engine Roundtable

Matt Cutts an SEO Expert from Google defines it this way: The nofollow attribute is just a mechanism that gives webmasters the ability to modify PageRank flow at link-level granularity. Plenty of other mechanisms would also work (e.g. a link through a page that is robot.txt’ed out), but nofollow on individual links is simpler for some folks to use. There’s no stigma to using nofollow, even on your own internal links; for Google, nofollow’ed links are dropped out of our link graph; we don’t even use such links for discovery. By the way, the nofollow meta tag does that same thing, but at a page level.

A good rule to follow is: “If the Googlebot can’t access the page, don’t try to pass PageRank to pages. A “sign in” link is a good example of what you should “nofollow”.

He goes on to say: What are some appropriate ways to use the nofollow tag? One good example is the home page of expedia.com. If you visit that page, you’ll see that the “Sign in” link is nofollow’ed. That’s a great use of the tag: Googlebot isn’t going to know how to sign into expedia.com, so why waste that PageRank on a page that wouldn’t benefit users or convert any new visitors?

OK So What About Blog Comments?

In a post on his Blog Matt States: The rel=”nofollow” attribute is an easy way for a website to tell search engines that the website can’t or doesn’t want to vouch for a link. The best-known use for nofollow is blog comment spam, but the mechanism is completely general. Nofollow is recommended anywhere that links can’t be vouched for. If your logs analysis program shows referrers as hyperlinks, I’d recommend using nofollow on those links. If you have a wiki that anyone on the web can edit, I’d recommend nofollow on those links until you can find a way to trust those links. In general, if you have an application that allows others to add links, web spammers will eventually find your pages and start annoying you.

OK so that’s what the Super SEO Experts say, but what does this mean for us Mere Mortals? Basically in everyday normal terms bloggers can understand, here’s the deal..

By default WordPress puts nofollow on most all the links on your blog, including the Comments and Trackbacks. Therefore people will not be receiving a Link Back from your Blog by posting a comment. Most people really don’t know this so they will comment anyway. Or else if your blog gets a lot of traffic, it could be good to comment on to get exposure and possible traffic.

The alternative is give links to Commenters on your blog, to attract more potential visitors. To eliminate the spam problem you will want to Moderate your comments and manually approve them. In order to do this you will need a good DoFollow Plugin.

SemiLogic’s DoFollow - One of the original DoFollow Plugins - Basic design, no frills, it just works. Nofollows will be removed from your Comments and Trackbacks.
Kimmo Suominen DoFollow - This is an interesting one that offers you the option to set a time limit for adding the NoFollow attributes, or have them removed differently from comments left by registered users and other visitors.
All Passions Link Love - This is a Cool Plugin that removes the NoFollow attribute from comments where the commenter has commented 10 (configurable) or more times. This means that you can share the link love with those commenters who are genuinely part of the community and contributing to your blog.
Lucia’s Linky Love - Here’s a cool plugin that, similar to Link Love gives you the option to reware commenters with a DoFollow Link Back after a certain number of comments, but also has other cool features to Thwart Comment Spammers

But What About My Internal Links?

In a post on his blog, Andy Beard offers an interesting option with the “No Follow Dupes” plugin. It’s an SEO plugin for advanced WordPress Search Engine Optimization techniques. Essentially:

Rather than blocking duplicate content pages, they can be used to your advantage, but as customized landing pages and a method of channelling “Google Juice” away from pages that are receiving the majority of links, to pages that you wish to rank well, and also to your homepage to enhance monetization.

This Plugin Allows Internal Links To Be Followed

This plugin adds rel=”nofollow” to all links within the content that are displayed on your home page and duplicate content pages. Search engine followable links remain on page, single and RSS feeds.

Download it here: Nofollow Those Dupes 1.0

So in conclusion, this is really a long round about way of explaining this simple concept…

You Can Get A PR3 Link Back From SteveRenner.Com
Just comment on any of my posts!

If you are in the Internet Marketing, Make Money Online, or Affiliate Marketing niches then this is perfect for you. Leave a comment and let mew know what you think!

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

50 Responses to Steve Renner Introduces Do Follow Comments

Daniel McGonagle

July 13th, 2008 at 8:10 pm

Hey Steve,

Dan McGonagle here. Haven\’t seen much of you at Digg lately. Nice post you wrote here, I\’ve been asked to change over to DO follow on my blog (click my name) but I see no reason to do that. PR isn\’t really a big concern of mine as I\’m more focused on time sepnt on site and % adding to favorites.

Then again, from what I\’ve been reading on SEO lately, it\’s good to link outwardly to relevant sites as this makes your site more of a HUB.

One thing I\’ve noticed is that people don\’t leave as many good comments when they realize the site is DO follow because of all those blog finder tools out there delivering results based on DO follow, NO follow attributes.

What\’s your experience with this?

Are you getting a lot of \"nice post, looking to hear more\"

style comments or is the quality of comments unaffected by this recent change from Nofollow to DO follow?

Thanks,

Dan

Steve Renner

July 14th, 2008 at 7:57 am

Hi Don,
Yes I get quite a few Spammy Posts, but I have decided to switch over to Do Follow, to give my loyal readers a Link Back.

I have noticed quite a jump in my traffic, since I started posting on a regular basis. I think this will be a win win for all of us.

I checked out your Blog, and you have a lot of good content there, way to go!

Thanks for the comments,

Steve

July 14th, 2008 at 1:00 pm

Hey Steve, just added you to the the blog roll, FYI.

I also noticed that the DidYouPassMath plugin with WP 2.5 doesn\’t work as well as it used to, for whatever reason, still getting a lot of Spam comments via the blog.

Didn\’t happen before I upgraded WP, go figure.

Can you add the subscribe-to-comments plugin to your blog so I know if/when you respond to comments?

I find it hlepful to keep blog readers coming back and taking part of the conversation

Later,

Elle

July 14th, 2008 at 2:43 pm

I think it’s kind of you to extend this courtesy to other websites; thanks for helping support other websites.

Does it still count, though, if the “Do Follow” comes from a blog post on its own page with a PR-1? I’m a newbie to internet marketing and all that it entails, so I’m working my way through it, but from what I’ve read so far, PR is based on the individual page, not the site as a whole. So even though your home page is PR 3, leaving a comment with a link on a blog post that has a PR-1 shouldn’t make that big of a difference, right? Or does the home page lend some of its PR-3 importance to the PR-1 entry? Or do I have it wrong completely, and blog posts take on the PR of the home page?

July 14th, 2008 at 3:45 pm

I think you are kind to open up your comments to allow link following.

I’m new to internet marketing and have a question about this: what I’ve read says that each page has its own PR and it isn’t the site overall that has a PR. So if a site’s home page has a PR-5 but a blog post page only has a PR-2, then a link from the blog post comments section won’t help as much as a link from the body of the blog post shown on the front page, correct?

July 14th, 2008 at 4:09 pm

Hi Dan,

> Can you add the subscribe-to-comments plugin

Yes I certainly can, great idea. And thanks for adding me to the Blog Roll!

July 14th, 2008 at 6:11 pm

Hi Elle,
The key here is the page rank of the site itself. The better the rank of the site the more it is indexed.

This site gets crawled 100+ times a day, basically we have the search engines trained. The individual page is of less importance.

The key is that the comment will get spidered and indexed.

July 14th, 2008 at 6:19 pm

Hi Elle,
Again, the PR of the site will dictate how the site is crawled and indexed. A Do-Follow link from a PR3 site like this one, which gets crawled all day long, on any page, will get get followed back to your site, and will certainly count as an incoming link.

Now it may not be as powerfull as a link from the home page of DIGG, but it will cetainly help with your search engine ranking.

Cut and past the title from any of my blog posts into Google and you will see what I mean.

Erica

July 15th, 2008 at 3:56 am

Well,there are many strategies we have to develop the sites,one of the best and easy process is commenting the sites!!! Commenting is nothing but sharing of views……

Ishmael

July 15th, 2008 at 6:49 am

I totally agree with the dofollow approach, and thanks for your outline of the issue here (which I came across whilst searching Google for details about the debate).

I’m in a community of photobloggers, and the knowledge that I am able to boost my own site’s ranking by commenting on other’s photoblogs is a powerful incentive to critique other people’s images. As it is, with Google’s nofollow approach, I know many photobloggers will only comment on images from photoblogs which do not invoke the attribute (i.e. not Blogger-hosted). Thus computer-literate photobloggers will receive more coverage and engagement with the community, even if their images are not as good as those hosted elsewhere.

Surely there’s a less clumsy way for Google to follow comment links, rather than penalising those who are active in their blogging communities but are not purely altruistic in commenting - after all, who is?!

July 15th, 2008 at 9:30 am

Hi Ishmael,
Thanks for the comment. I agree, getting a link back is a great incentive for posting, and can actually stimulate some good discussions on important issues.

Checked out your Photo Blog, it looks cool, your work is very artistic!

Ben

July 23rd, 2008 at 11:22 pm

It is great news you made this blog do follow. I’ve always hated the no follow tag and strongly encourage to spread the ‘link love’!

July 31st, 2008 at 1:19 pm

I just checked back and realized the first post I thought had disappeared actually posted. Sorry for the double post!

Matt

August 8th, 2008 at 1:17 pm

It was a great idea to make your blog comments do follow. I’ll be joining the movement on one of my wordpress blogs soon. Thanks for all the helpful info you provide on your site!

debra

August 27th, 2008 at 12:28 am

If you’ve used any of the dofollow blog lists on the Internet, you may have noticed many of them are actually using the “nofollow” tag. I believe these blogs simply got on the list to get traffic and either added nofollow after getting on the lists or where never dofollow blogs in the first place. I’d say at least 40% of the blogs I found on the various “dofollow” lists did not make the cut, because they actually use the “nofollow” tag, use a script that hides the links, or have comments turned off.
—————
debra
social media

email:drivenwide@yahoo.com

Christopher Arnell

November 6th, 2008 at 12:52 pm

Thanks for the tips and links to the plugins.

Jerry

November 22nd, 2008 at 1:13 pm

Thanks for the change! Can you tell me if making comments “do follow” dilutes your site’s page rank in any way? I also didn’t realize that page rank affected how often sites are spidered. Interesting.

November 23rd, 2008 at 5:28 pm

Hi Jerry,
My site has moved up to Page Rank 5 - and that’s after I set “Do-Follow” on my comments. So I guess I would have to say it has not effected me so far.

I think there has to be a balance between in-coming and out-going links. You don’t want to bleed all of your “link juice” but like my grandma used to say, all things in Moderation.

Diane

December 3rd, 2008 at 7:18 am

This is quite interesting because do follow blogs can invite more and more visitors and although there will be more seo freaks, there could be genuine visitors who are interested in what you right and at the same time need a quality backlink to their website. I think it is a win win situation for everyone, so happy do follow blogging … cheers

tyas

December 4th, 2008 at 3:56 am

hi Steve..
thanks a lot for sharing the info..
i’ve made my blog do follow, too..
although there’s alot of controversy about that, i still believe that be a do follow will bring a lot advantages for our blog..

December 4th, 2008 at 5:57 am

Yes, It really is a win-win for everyone. We attract more commentors, (is that a word?) and you never know where that will lead.

I see from my ststs that people spend an average of 5 min on my site, so they must be reading my stuff.

Cheers Mate!

December 4th, 2008 at 5:58 am

Hi Tyas,
Checked out your site, looks very cool. You are from Indonesia i see. I was not aware you had a choice on Blogger of setting comments to “Do Follow”.

Very Cool!

Ethical SEO |

December 12th, 2008 at 12:40 am

Thanks for adding Do-follow. Great design features too! Kudos!

Rick

December 19th, 2008 at 8:43 am

You have an amazing grasp of this stuff !

It really is cool to read your posts about the tech end of it.

It’s like you thrive on maximizing out every little thing in spite of a very confusing assortment of available options.

I suppose it makes sense to add more little tenticles to your site to ad relevance and wider acceptibility as a valid resource.

A lot of us operate under the don’t let em get away concept and this may prove why that’s wrong.

Thanks Steve for putting yourself out there everyday and sharing what you know with us so freely.

December 19th, 2008 at 8:53 am

Hi Rick,
Keep with it buddy, and you will be successful!

Drive Traffic To Your Blog | Steve Renner

December 20th, 2008 at 5:36 pm

[...] a little luck you will get on some “Do Follow” blogs, (Like this one) and get the Back Link [...]

Saurabh Yadav

December 24th, 2008 at 3:19 am

Yes.. Its just luck that you get do follow blogs..

Saurabh yadav

Max Ray

December 26th, 2008 at 3:00 am

Hey thanks a lot for such a wonderful information. I was actually looking for these information for quite a long time and i believe i have landed at the right page. I really liked your ways of expressing thoughts. You write too well. Moreover your article contains some worthy information which i guess will help lot of people. Thanks once again. Keep up the good work. God bless you.

Rob Bish

December 27th, 2008 at 7:29 am

Steve,

When I leave a comment on someone’s blog, like this, is it wrong to put my url after my name. I don’t see it much so maybe it isn’t even allowed.

I am a newbie with a new blog and just trying to figure out how to blog.

Rob Bish
http://trafficlab101.com

Super@Business Success

December 27th, 2008 at 10:20 pm

I am still not sure if it is beneficial to allow DO FOLLOW on backlinks, in addition to comments? Which one does Google penalise?

December 29th, 2008 at 6:42 am

Do Follow on Comments naturally encourages more commenting
from your readers, which is a good thing!

December 29th, 2008 at 6:49 am

Hi Rob,
Your URL is automatically added to your Name. I don’t mind that you add it again.
It pays to “Brand” yourself.

Hey Max,
Appreciate it, thanks for stopping by!

Komara

January 2nd, 2009 at 8:50 am

i used do follow attribute on my blog, that’s increase my visitor..

amar

January 9th, 2009 at 5:10 am

Hai, I am cargo. This is nice. I really liked your ways of expressing thoughts. You write too well. Moreover your article contains some worthy information which i guess will help lot of people. I thankful to you.

Cargo

January 9th, 2009 at 7:34 am

Hi Cargo,
Thanks for dropping by.

Ana

January 20th, 2009 at 1:14 am

Thanks for rewarding your loyal readers by giving them bank link. I find your site very informative. Thanks for sharing what you know you and for helping others.

Szenovera

January 26th, 2009 at 10:25 am

Yes..rel “do follow” is the appreciation for visitor who was given their comments. l love do follow, so I come here from google with “do follow comment” keyword.

January 29th, 2009 at 6:53 am

Hi Szenovera,
Yes this has been one of my most popular posts. I believe in spreading the “Link Love”.

Checked out your site - it’s cool!

Web Hosting

February 7th, 2009 at 6:09 am

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Katherine

February 18th, 2009 at 3:39 pm

I am trying to decide if I want to “do follow”… great article for me to chew on!

Sanjeev Mehra

February 25th, 2009 at 2:31 pm

I really liked your ways of expressing thoughts. Do follow blogs can invite more and more visitors and although there will be more seo freaks, there could be genuine visitors who are interested in what you right and at the same time need a quality backlink to their website.

kemengr

March 20th, 2009 at 8:33 pm

I am not sure I have fully understand the issue. If I don’t include “nofollow” tag in outgoing links, does it automatically suggest “dofollow”? Should I include “dofollow” tag?

Topeljungle

March 29th, 2009 at 6:34 am

Nice post! very interesting topic. keep on posting.

Glitter

March 30th, 2009 at 8:01 am

Thanks for the tips

Miranda

May 3rd, 2009 at 1:00 am

Hello steve,
Thank you for sharing.I am Miranda from China. I haven’t English blog yet. I start a new online shopping site,and want to get traffic. I found “Do Follow Blog Posts” by the key words “do folow blog commenting” through Google.Am I allowed here? I also get much useful info here from your bolg and other commentors’.

May 6th, 2009 at 5:21 am

Hi Miranda,
Yes of course you are welcome here anytime. Good luck with your online shopping business. Links are a great Traffic Magnet” and of course help with your Search Engine visibility.

You should check out http://www.inetglobal.com we offer Blog Service for Business.

tutu

June 8th, 2009 at 4:52 am

time. Good luck with your online shopping business. Links are a great Traffic Magnet” and of course help with your Sea

Monetize Online

June 9th, 2009 at 6:24 am

I’ll be adding you to my blogroll when I get a few more pages established

Leo Fogarty

June 20th, 2009 at 5:55 am

I see you no longer do follow your comments. As a blogger who has just opened his blog to do follow comments. Can you tell me your reasons for this? Just so I’m aware of the negatives.