Jun 17

5 Reasons why I became a dofollow hippy

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Today I installed the dofollow plugin for wordpress by Kimmo Suominen. This popular plugin removes the default rel=’nofollow’ microformat from Wordpress visitor comment links. It’s just one of a range of plugins available. Andy Beard, a leading supporter and member of the dofollow community, has kindly put together a comprehensive guide to removing the nofollow from a wide range of blogging engines.

So why did I take this step? Here’s just a few reasons…

1. So not to deceive my visitors

I think that the vast majority of people who see the ‘website’ box on my comments form will believe that they are receiving the full value from that link. Therefore without removing the ‘nofollow’ I am, by default, deceiving my visitors. This isn’t acceptable to me.

2. Show appreciation for participation

I think comments enrich the content. Many times I have read an article and scrolled down looking for a quick link to something relating to the topic. Comments also show that my posts have authority and have been approved/disapproved by the wider online community. This mandate is incredibly valuable.

3. I’m not an information dead-end

Call me a hippy, but without outgoing links your users will have to go back to square one and open Google, Stumbleupon, etc to search for more relevant information. Just like a river, current has to flow out as well as in from a website for it to become a major pathway on the ‘blogosphere’.

4. Nofollow is a plaster over a bullet wound

Nofollow should be a perfect solution to the blog spam problem. Unfortunately it has proved far less than sufficient. There is still great value in standard click through traffic when spam posting is automated. Matt Mullenweg from Wordpress has stated that nofollow is a failure.

5. Spam filters work better

Spam filters aren’t perfect, but they are still pretty damn good. I don’t mind occasionally pruning the few bad apples that slipped through the net for the benefit of my other users. There’s a fairly comprehensive guide to spam filtering and other techniques on Sixapart.

Popularity: 36% [?]

Your comments


  1. AvatarHobo Design
    Posted: Jun 20th, 2007 at 2:14 am
    1

    We’ve removed it too on our news blog. It’s a pointless tag.

    You might want to consider adding a subscribe to this post plugin so people can keep track of conversations :)
  2. AvatarMark Kempton
    Posted: Jun 20th, 2007 at 11:12 am
    2
    Author Comment

    Yeah that was my thinking when I learned about it. Added ’subscribe to comments’ cheers for the tip m8 ;)
  3. AvatarNoddegamra
    Posted: Jun 27th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
    3

    Unfortunately I cannot control it on my blog, but I’m looking into getting my own host for it soon so that I do (aswel as control over other things).

    I’m in support of do-follow as I feel those who contribute something to a site, article or blog deserve a link. Giving a link and then adding a no-follow is a bit like giving candy to a child and then taking it away. The taste remains vaguely there, but it’s not as good as finishing it!

    I prefer it when blogs/sites actually take the time to moderate comments/content. I do it all the time on my forum. If people don’t have the time, why not sign up moderators etc?

    Great article :)
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    4

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    5

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  6. Avatarmlankton
    Posted: Sep 29th, 2007 at 3:18 am
    6

    You’ve been dofollow for a while now. What kind of increase in traffic and comments did dofollow net you?
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    Posted: Sep 29th, 2007 at 8:32 am
    7

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    Posted: Oct 2nd, 2007 at 12:30 pm
    8

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  9. AvatarLin
    Posted: Oct 25th, 2007 at 12:11 am
    9

    I’m glad to see you’ve joined the dofollow movement. I am also glad you don’t require anyone to “log in” just to leave you a comment. I stumbled here myself, and am giving you a thumbs up, ’cause I like what you have here. You’ve earned it! :)
  10. AvatarbLuefRogX
    Posted: Nov 21st, 2007 at 11:03 am
    10

    Its a nice concept, but it also leads to increased ’spam’ with comments like ‘Good Job’ or ‘Nice blog’ that are not actually relevant to the post, but are just there because the poster saw a ‘DoFollow’ badge on the blog and wanted a backlink.

    I suppose you could call this a double edged sword, it’d definitely get your more comments, but also increase your moderation work.
  11. AvatarOffice Space
    Posted: Dec 14th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
    11

    Well you’ve don a good job of convincing me. There really is no reason to keep the nofollow on our blog.
  12. AvatarMaximus
    Posted: Dec 20th, 2007 at 7:11 am
    12

    I would like to see a continuation of the topic
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    13

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    14

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  15. Avatarsafetycorner
    Posted: Feb 1st, 2008 at 6:20 pm
    15

    I agree. But I hope some people will not take advantage of it and post nonsense spams in your site.
  16. AvatarDom
    Posted: Feb 12th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
    16

    I think you’re right.
    I doubt I’ll *bother* implementing dofollow on my current blog since it’s practically dead right now, but it looks like I’ll be making my future blogs dofollows!

    Dom
  17. AvatarIT Recruitment
    Posted: Mar 10th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
    17

    I agree that spam filters should prevail over nofollow. Its only fair that link juice be passed to those who contribute to the site and therefore its success.
  18. AvatarDenver Web Design
    Posted: May 5th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
    18

    Completely agree. Spammers are going to spam all kinds of forms, whether they follow or not. By using dofollow, you’re rewarding your participants and encouraging conversation (at least the more tech savvy ones!)
  19. AvatarHobo
    Posted: May 7th, 2008 at 12:12 am
    19

    I see you added the subscribe LOL! :)
  20. Avataripod guy
    Posted: May 18th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
    20

    When I owned a blog I had nofollow. Mind you, the only comments I ever received were spam ones. I hoped that having nofollow would stop the spamming but it doesn’t. Bots which spam do not take any notice.

    John
  21. AvatarTrekking Bikes
    Posted: Jun 8th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
    21

    @1 - All blogging software is by defoult setup to do “nofollow”, I don’t think you are deceiving people if you leave it as it is.

    @2 - If you do enable Dpfollow the comments you receive will sometimes be plain garbage. I’d say it is the comments that you receive even when yo Nofollow that are worth it.

    @3 - no comment ;)

    @ 4 - yes it is. Makiong the whole world go nofollow just because search engines want it to is a bit stupid in my opinion, but then again - it does give you the choice to do so or otherwise.

    @5 - I run a 3 level spamfiltering on all my blogs and think you are definetly right - having a good spamfilter is mandatory to survive nowadays.