As a longtime supporter of the “do follow” movement, it is really hard for me to do this – going back to “nofollow”. This is certainly not the way that I ever think, but there comes a time when person has to say “enough”. If you are fuzzy about “do follow” and “nofollow”, feel free to read my explanation below.
What is “nofollow”?
Google designed the rel=nofollow hyperlink attribute back in 2005 to prevent the “larry page rank” or PageRank from being passed from link to link. WordPress was modified to include this feature in comment posts shortly after that.
The author links as well as any links embedded in the comment content would be automatically “nofollowed” and Google was very happy because its PageRank will not be exploited.
What is “do follow”?
I’m not sure who started the movement, I’m guessing it has been started before the existence of this blog. “Do follow” is a movement that try to pass the PageRank to other website from link to link. A lot of plugin have been created for the purpose of disabling the rel=nofollow. I’ve only use one of them.
This movement was enormous though they knew that this act will lead to major casualty for their blog/site – loosing PR.
Reason for going back to “nofollow”..
I have my own strong reason why I leave this movement and went back to what Google desire. Despite my reason, it is really hard for me to leave the movement. I like helping potential blogs, expose them and help them build PageRank. But when thinking of my problem, it is better for me to pull-out from the movement. The problem I have is the same problem that majority of blog owners were force to face – Comment spammers.
Those comments posted by them were not intended for the purpose of discussion but more to taking advantage of my “do follow” movement. Although I’ve not been very decisive about it, I’ve been watching about how this situation branch out. For the past few months, I’ve been spending more time filtering and checking comments than writing which is not good for the health of this blog.
I have to admit that “do follow” has helped me increase total comments that I got for each posts. I am prepare if those numbers diminish, I would rather have a few good comments that specially made to contribute to the discussion.
Are you still do follow?
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OMG, this is so ironic! Wanna know why? Right now most bloggers are thinking of making their blogs dofollow to reward their commenter. reason being, Matt cutts revealed a while ago that pagerank sculpting is no longer at work. So you wont actually save the PR by removing dofollow, you’ll let it evaporate!
dofollow is important… but if you have dofollow that annoying with spamm comments.. that means enough for that. Stop and go grab the no follow style.
True, but like norhafidz I am also confused about whether I should make my blog a dofollow because of the risk of increased spam.
Really you describe the best about do follow and no follow. Great post for everyone who have running blog. Thanks for such a nice and informative post..
If you have a large number of spam comment than there is no other way to have nofollow. That is last option. But I think that Do follow is important.
On my wordpress blog I do have dofollow comments. And you are right, i notice an increase in spammers. However i hope you don’t remove the top commentator section.
Oh no… I guess sometimes Google does not like dofollow blogs. However regardless if your blog is dofollow or no follow, I’ll still provide my comments
I heard Google was going to make all blogs Do Follow? has anyone else heard that?
i think you should stick with Do follow
However regardless if your blog is dofollow or no follow, I’ll still provide my comments
Hi,
You may be right,but i am not agree with you i think do-follow blogs provide good links and more considerable according to google.
I know exactly how you feel, my blog is flooded with comments that are not even close to on topic. What I did though was add keywordluv to several of my blogs and now I just delete all that cannot give a name along with their keyword. Many are still there for the link but they are participating as I would like them to.
I am actually caught in between. Dealing with comment spammers is -at times – frustrating and time consuming. However, i had been a newbie in the blogging world once. A little help could really do some good. Am still undecided at this point.
I’m a supporter of dofollow, but even on my blog I’ve realized various spam attempts since I enabled it. It’s a tough call, but this was a great write up on it
you must be aware of link sculpting and recent announce of mattcutt, now there is no meaning to put nofollow to pass page rank for important pages.
as far as spamming is concern, i am agree with your decision, that will definitely reduce spam posting.
I’m always dealing with comment spammers it really does gets annoying, but that’s what akismet is for on my blog. Can’t blame you for your decision.
I myself allow do follow because my comments require moderation. It’s easy to spot spammers anyway. Basically all the comments that have links in them. And reading the first line of the post can already tell you if its spam or not.
As you said you feeling lot of pain from spammers agree with you post but it would heart your regular reader and true feedback provider but don’t think it will hurt genuine readers of you blog… Don’t wrry Cheers !!!
So has anyone else heard the google is going to throw out the nofollow and make all of them dofollow? Or am I a dunce for believing a good source?
If you are regular reader of blog and you like any post you will comment on that it doesn’t matter it is nofollow or dofollow.
It would be better to post quality and contributory comments. As a blogger, i definitely agree to that. While dofollow helps other blogger, nofollow concept can build a genuine and interactive discussion between the writer and the reader, and vise versa.
Its very long time that you had not update your blog. We are looking forward to your for this. I hope you will make it soon.
aku pun dah remove, do follow
tapi still maintain gak trafik
maknanya diorang datang mmg ikhlas dan tak mengharapka backlink semata
I am working on a plugin that should solve the drive by comments. When we work out the kinks I will let you know. I currently delete comments that are shorter than 20 words in length. Each posts ends by explaining the comment policy. This still didn’t stop the short comments, but this plugin should.
Personally i think do follow is impotant, althoguh this attract many spammers. In definetly it doesnt really metter for the blogger.
I agree with you about wanting to help potential blogs especially if they have a distinct voice, fresh perspective, great content potential. If you reach that position where you can increase readership via page rank it seems almost an obligation to help promote good blogship.
if you go with no do follow your site will feel less traffic
You are damn right as blog spamming has made the people to move from ‘do follow’ to ‘no follow’.
great research mate!
Haha. I would have loved to make my dofollow, but I don’t have time to moderate the comments.
Its very long that you have not update this blog. I hope will be all right and make it very soon. thanks.
Yes can understand your situation, Spammers are big reason but sure your regular readers might hurt from your decision but hope they will understand and co-operate and will follow you as usual.
Im still a do-follow promoter on my blogs. I think it encourages conversation and keeps my blogs active which Google likes…Itd be sad to see so many active blogs revert back to the nofollow links…in my opinion its be a step backwards.
Keyword Luv is a great alternative to comment luv for people who do not have a blog on their site! If you do have a blog on your site, both work great together!Im still a do-follow promoter on my blogs
I still am dofollow on my site despite the couple hundred spam comments a day. But really I do not know why I am. It seems that even a nofollow link will help a good blog get attention. Just not with PageRank benefits.
If you want to be taken seriously as a blogger, then post thoughtful and meaningful comments. Ask yourself how you can contribute to the discussion. As a blogger, I have to take seriously the things I read. While the dofollow feature can help other bloggers, the nofollow approach can establish a fulfilling, interactive discussion between authors and readers.
I absolutely think you made the right decision, I know on my personal blog I used to reward commentators in the same way, but basically I saw alot of spam comments, alot of the comments looked almost like it was bots just doing it, because the comments were not relevant to the post at all!
And there were alot of one liner comments, like “Good post”, etc.
Till then,
Jean
LinkyLuv is a good plugin to stop spam issues when using dofollow, as it allows dofollow after your set number of comments.
I’m a supporter of dofollow, but even on my blog I’ve realized various spam attempts since I enabled it. It’s a tough call, but this was a great write up on it …
Thanks for such a nice and informative post..
The do follows provide the beneficial link to the site and increase the availability of the product and its applications as such.
How do you determine worthwhile versus spammy comments? Do you base them on discussion value or look at how many comments people are posting to decide if you think a user is merely using your site to optimize their own? What if someone is genuinely interested and chatty??
You shouldn’t let the comment spammers spoil your ranking. You would have to learn to just ignore them. After all everything comes for a price.
Thanks for such a nice and informative post..
You shouldn’t let the comment spammers spoil your ranking. You would have to learn to just ignore them. After all everything comes for a price.
I am also facing the same issue on one of my blogs. The nofollow tag saves time. On my blog i have not removed DoFollow tag, instead i have given only 7 days to comment on new posts. And after 7 days no one can comment on any post. This gives me less comments and i can easily moderate them
Great write up, bookmarked the blog in hopes to read more information!