I received a comment from a reader who seemed disappointed that my blog comments are nofollow.
For those who don’t know, nofollow means that my site’s PageRank is not transferred to your site when you leave a comment along with a link to your site.
In other words, the link from my site to yours, has no influence on your backlinks and PageRank in the eyes of Google.
To make a link nofollow you simply add rel=”nofollow” inside the href HTML code of your hyperlinks like this…
<a href=”http://www.anysite.com” rel=”nofollow”>Name of Site</a>
I’ve never even considered making my comments dofollow (the opposite of nofollow). In fact, WordPress 1.5 and higher automatically assigns the nofollow attribute to all comments, and most bloggers never bother to change this.
The major benefit of having a dofollow blog is you may get more comments. Many bloggers seek out these blogs, and there are numerous directories that list dofollow sites.
The downside to using dofollow, however, is that you could be inundated with spam. This also means you are flowing PageRank to potentially spammy/inappropriate sites, and this could hurt the reputation of your site in Google’s eyes.
So to preserve and protect my reputation and PageRank with Google, I use nofollow for my comments and sponsor ads.
The Obsession Continues
My personal opinion is that the dofollow/nofollow issue is blown out of proportion.
Of course, a few dofollow links from some very relevant sites can positively impact your backlinks and PageRank, but is it worth spending hours per day looking for these sites when you could be using that time to focus more on building quality content?
At the end of the day, if your site is useful, fresh, unique and you are promoting it effectively, you will naturally earn plenty of voluntary dofollow links from other site owners who value your content.
There’s nothing wrong with keeping track of your PageRank and backlinks, but when it becomes obsessive, you could be putting too much attention in the wrong areas.
Let’s also not forget that you can still generate plenty of traffic from commenting on nofollow blogs. Even though you may not be earning a backlink for SEO purposes, you can still build quite the traffic flow if you perfect your commenting strategy. (See How to Write Killer Blog Comments.)
Remember, you are not just working to please spiders. Humans read blogs too, and capturing their attention is just as important.
I wish people would stop obsessing over dofollow links (especially on blogs). Posting solid comments on nofollow blogs can still lead to dofollow links in the long run simply because people may value your site and recommend it to their readers.
The case study I posted last week is a great example. Because Kiesha has an outstanding blog that I wanted to feature, she still earned a voluntary dofollow link from a relevant blog.
Why did I feature her? Because she has an outstanding blog with fabulous content. Thus she was rewarded with a dofollow link. These are the results you get when you publish quality content.
You’ll also find that you won’t have to spend so much time actively seeking out dofollow links. Instead, they will find you.
Even though my comments are nofollow, most links in my posts are not. So I’m happy to reward and recommend sites that are worthy of a mention.
What Does Google Say About This?
Matt Cutts (Google’s lead engineer) published a video about this a few months back, and it made me even more confident that I made the right decision about nofollow comments.
What’s your blog’s linking policy? Why did you choose it?
Am I right in thinking Google bot does not even crawl no-follow?
They crawl them but no PageRank/link juice is passed to them.
There are pros and cons to do follow and no follow blog comments. In the end you have to do what benefits your website and also be considerate of your followers.
If your intent is to add a quality comment it could never be a waste of your time 🙂
Hello madam,
Thanks for see me and posting a good content. i actually wanted to know what is best for WordPress SEO purpose , using No follow or remove No follow. Help me to choose correct one. Thanks.
I experienced that making blog No Follow and then alerting it to people before comment worked for me. I mean; I putted a text saying that this blog is no follow blog just above comment section. I thought it will hurt. It did for sometime.
However, I found two great changes – Less on spam and quality in comments. So; I agree with ya.
how can we “nofollow” on blogger?
I use nofollow for all external links on my website.
Hi Lissa i am looking for the webstart to sign from your page but I cann’t find it. are you still promoting it? I want to get it from your page as I hve got lots of help from your posts.
I did not but i like both No follow and Do Follow comments. Too many of either and you are ineffective. My hope is that one day, backlinks from comments or forum posts become completely irrelevant. What value does it serve?
I prefer talking about certain topics, but if I want my website to rank well – I must consider what works and strive to ensure my business gets the kind of traffic that is necessary.
My point is, don’t blame all the spammers who are trying to get backlinks…blame Google’s algorithm for not being smart enough yet to determine quality over quantity. Everyone else is just trying to compete to keep their businesses healthy by marketing within the all mighty Google algorithmic parameters.
I have my blog set to dofollow but I’m going to remove the announcement I by the comment section. I personally don’t look for blogs with DoFollow.. I’d much rather look for a blog with CommenLuv than dofollow. I know the value of leaving a good comment with a link back to a specific post..
I still leave comments on blogs without commentluv.. As long as I like the post, I’ll leave a comment..
Most of the time when I come to a blog with no comments and some good comment, I’ll just do what I call “comment giving”.
I know how it feels to create what you feel is great content and get no comments at all.. Boy it sucks. I’ll leave genuine comment just to lift their spirits up. May gain a new follower like that..
Moral of the story: leave comments because you like the post and want to give some props to the writer..
You dont need a dofollow here!
1. You have enough comments here,
2. Amount of dofollow links somehow affecting the weight of each link
If you will enable dofollow here lot of link weight will pass from your site and sites you really trust or featuring to sites from comments
This so imporatnt and scary to me. Is there any wordpress plugins that best for setting Dofollow blogs turn into Nofollow blog.
Thank you & Please regard.
excellent piece of information, I had come to know about your website from my friend kishore, pune,i have read atleast 8 posts of yours by now, and let me tell you, your site gives the best and the most interesting information. This is just the kind of information that i had been looking for, i’m already your rss reader now and i would regularly watch out for the new posts, once again hats off to you! Thanx a lot once again,
Regards,
people
I have discovered that the nofollow tag does link pagerank. I had a small one page site with one link from my authority site (PR3). Within a few weeks my one page site got PR3. To prove this I withdrew my link and the PR disappeared of the one page site in a few weeks.
My blog was dofollow till now but I will convert it to nofollow. I’m only feeling bad because I think my blog will experience sudden decline in traffic because users and readers like dofollow blogs to gather as many backlinks for SEO as possible.
I used to have an older blog a few years ago where it was Do follow, got filled up with spam. I never made it no-follow, just moderated all comments. Worked out for the best.
Don’t have that blog anymore sadly 🙁 trying to start up a new one with a new niche – will moderate comments as they start coming in.
Good post!
Hey Lisa!
first of all thanks for the lovely post, second i want to know do you still use the nofollow attribute on Feedburner and other sitewide external links? Will you consider removing them?
I don’t agree with this .. I don’t agree with this at all .. we all need to start somewhere .. we all know that the internet is full of spammers and stuff like that but .. don’t forget that we have people who are working really hard and doing there best to do something good .. and the links that popular blogs offer to them .. I think it’s kinda selfish to do that .. because personally I am making blogs and I’m serious about it and I work 10+ hours a day .. and I don’t spam .. I just go to blogs read their articles and leave good comments .. I’m working hard and I need to get links .. so why would I comment on your blog if I don’t get a link ? .. I’m talking about myself here .. I like the things you do but I don’t leave many comments on your blog just because of the nofollow .. I know that it prevents your from spam .. but .. as you can see you lose people as well .. because not all the people who are looking for backlinks are spammers .. there are thousands of serious bloggers out there ..
I like both nofollow and dofollow comments. Too many of either and you are ineffective. My hope is that one day, backlinks from comments or forum posts become completely irrelevant. What value does it serve?
I prefer talking about certain topics, but if I want my website to rank well – I must consider what works and strive to ensure my business gets the kind of traffic that is necessary.
My point is, don’t blame all the spammers who are trying to get backlinks…blame Google’s algorithm for not being smart enough yet to determine quality over quantity. Everyone else is just trying to compete to keep their businesses healthy by marketing within the all mighty Google algorithmic parameters. lol
A link is a link. Despite what many google-ites may say, nofollow links count for something. Having backlinks that are relevant to your niche is a factor in ranking websites. Authority counts for something. Snag a few nofollows from a site like wikipedia and then try to tell me they don’t matter.
Spam has gotten incredibly worse these last couple years as the barriers to entry have decreased. Spam tools are cheap now and there are plenty to choose from. Captchas do not even stop some of them. You have to protect your site as best you can.