The “U Comment, I Follow” Revolution
Recently I became aware that the default installation of WordPress marks all comment links with the rel=’nofollow’ tag. The effect of this tag is that search engine spiders such as GoogleBot will not follow the link to your site, thus the only effect of the comment is if a human follows the link.
The origins of the nofollow tag are steeped in the early days of blogging where spammers were common place, and spam control mechanisms were not. The nofollow thus presented the nefarious activities of the spammer resulting in a profit from the increased sales of whatever product they were pushing.
In the current day however there are multiple spam control options available to combat this disgraceful activity. In fact one is shipped with WordPress by default in akismet. They are very effective and constantly updated. They are not faultless so the blog administrator should review all comments. However, the amount of illegitimate spam is vastly reduced. As a result the nofollow tag is less a legitimate spam control mechanism.
Given the effects of the spam control mechanisms I believe that commenters should be rewarded for their commentary. So I thought I would check the WordPress Dashboard and look for a simple toggle option for enabling/disabling the tag. Unfortunately, it is not a natively user configurable option. I hope that makes it into WordPress 2.5.
As such I have over the previous few days been investigating ways to remove the nofollow tag from comments. After a brief Google search I found the dofollow plugin by Kimmo Suominen. The plugin is highly configurable, but as mentioned earlier an administrator should still check comments regularly to ensure they are relevant and are not some clever spam.
I also found a complimentary plugin called CommentLuv. This plugin will interrogate the supplied URL and if possible retrieve the commenters last blog and place a direct deep nofollow free backlink to it. In this way other blog commenters will see potentially interesting content and visit. Further, search robots will also follow the link to the post.
With these natural advantages I decided to display that SCHWOIT is a proud believer in the I Follow Movement. Again looking at the fiddyp site I found the fast friends follow fair comments post. I liked the design and so decided to integrate it with my design. It is displayed in the header floating over the Bird Of Paradise leaf.
I am a proud member of this movement and encourage all bloggers to embrace the movement.
Popularity: 62% [?]
January 8th, 2008 at 2:00 am
I also support the movement even though I didn’t put the widget in my blog but I used CommentLuv plugin from last year…hope you can find those who have same interest with you (gardening)…I don’t really like gardening although I like the result from it …
nimrodjo’s last blog post..There Is A Big Problem With Adverlets
January 8th, 2008 at 7:19 am
hey there..
This was a good informative article! And thanks for mentioning the plugins.. very helpful!
Also, an improvement for your blog: You anchor text does not stand out from your normal text. This is not good.. try to make your anchor text more visible to the eye.
- Wakish -
Wakish’s last blog post..Stop, Look, Listen!
January 8th, 2008 at 9:37 am
I use the dofollow and commentluv on a lot of my blogs as well. It seems to work pretty well. I’m glad to see you joined the crowd.
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January 8th, 2008 at 11:55 am
yeah, being a dofollwer myself, i’ve noticed that people are more interested to comment and come back to your site more often. it has attracted more commentators to my blog posts.
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January 8th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
i’m confuse to use u follow. it is wise to install it since you say googlebot not follow the link? what is the great benefit of it?
thanks.
edwin.
webringnet.com’s last blog post..Cool Gadgets Part 1
January 8th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Edwin,
The benefits of the “U Comment, I Follow” program is that search engine spiders will crawl and index your site from the link from another. In this instance it will crawl webringnet.com from the comment above. This will register as a backlink to your site within the search engines. This will give you more of an opportunity to show up in search engine results.
Also, the CommentLuv plugin advertises your last post. In this case “Cool Gadgets Part 1″. Not only does the search engine spider see your main link it will also crawl to the story. This is a deep link, and will mean that this page is also indexed separately to crawling your site. It also gains a greater credibility.
In the case of Google all of this goes toward the PageRank calculation of your site. PageRank is Google’s measure of your sites importance based upon their own commercial and secret algorithm. Whilst PageRank is not as important as it once was, it is still a lauded statistic amongst web masters and plays a part in how your site appears in the Google search results.
So building backlinks is a key to good search engine results. By embracing the “U Comment, I Follow” revolution my site now plays a part in the indexing of your sites, thus increasing their credibility.
Hope that helps.
January 8th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Hi,
thanks for the post, I have just started experimenting with wordpress for a new site that I am setting up (sort of a food blog…but not really “just a blog”) Anyway, I was not are of this, and it will help me out greatly! Bookmarked this info for future reference for when I bring it online. Thanks!
kmcgra’s last blog post..We Are…Marshall!
January 8th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
I’m still a blogspot user and I’ve found it easy to remove the nofollow tag in blogger.:)
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January 8th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Wakish,
Thanks for pointing out the template short comings. I have now tweaked it to better reflect a link from text.
January 8th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
I am a new blogger and have been using wordpress for just a couple of months. I have been reading about SEO and all that stuff. I just have one question regarding the do follow. What if someone posted a bogus URL in the comment? Will this affect your website having a broken link? I want to support the do follow and i will be researching how to configure my site to do that. Thanks for clearing this issue.
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January 8th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Louie,
You make a valid point. Most spam control/management plugins do detect these dodgy links and will capture the comment for your later inspection. That said some material may still get through the net.
So my advice is to not trust bloggers blindly, you will over time get a feeling for the legitimate bloggers and the shady types. If upon inspection of the link you feel that it is a nefarious link then you can remove it. I would not reinvoke the “nofollow” tag and simply remove the link.
Also, there are options within the dofollow plugin that will allow you to further control when, and when not to remove the nofollow tag. It is a nifty plugin that should be included in the new WordPress version 2.5 due in March.
January 8th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
I’m a big supporter of the movement, though I have adopted a variant - Lucia’s Linky Love, which allows to you set the number of comments, before a link is followable. It gives me that piece of mind that a new commenter has to word that “little bit harder”… I see it as a nice way of recognising repeat commenters.
I’ve also recently added CommentLuv and I like the top commenters plugin - link love all around
Meg’s last blog post..Blogiversary
January 8th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
make that “work” not “word” - long day!
Meg’s last blog post..Blogiversary
January 9th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
i think the u comment, i follow movement is a great idea. i just found out about it yesterday. (i’ve only been blogging for a month now so i’m new to it all.) but blogging seems to be more link exchange friendly than websties (i have 2 of those). thanks!!!
January 10th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
I use askimet on libdrone.info and so far it has caught and stopped every single spam. And our new chaindrop.com is a Do Follow blog. We value our visitors and commentators and are pleased to give them a little link love.
Alan’s last blog post..Introducing Chain Drop: Social Networking Blog Promotion
January 23rd, 2008 at 2:01 pm
I am with you on the “do follow” and “commentluv” plugins, anything that will encourage more participation is a good thing! i believe that information is to be shared, and everybody that uses these plugins, is helping to promote everybody! I just wish all WP installs came with these, even as an option to be turned on or off. Getting more visitors is important for many reasons, but having a blog that no one sees but you is depressing. Keep up the good work!
CarpetGuy’s last blog post..Bye bye Fred, OK, now what?
January 24th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
I really like the comment luvplugin but always wonder if it will hurt my googleability… I think it’s good for blogs trying to get readers… but bad for blogs that rely on google traffic… as a compromise I use it on about 1/2 my blogs!
Stock Trading Software’s last blog post..Using eSignal Trading Software
January 25th, 2008 at 9:29 am
given your interest in comment following and commentluv I thought you might also find our plugin useful - http://www.sezwho.com
February 17th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
I just joined the “I-Follow” movement myself with my blog. I believe all blog comments should follow. I can prevent spam, as all commentors who have not had an approved comment before on my blog need to be manually approved by me.
Spam isn’t an issue for me which is my I follow all links on my blog too.
- Dwayne Charrington.
http://www.dwaynecharrington.com
Dwayne Charrington’s last blog post..My blog is now DoFollow
February 26th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Great article.. I’m actually thinking about installing the comment luv plugin now as I’ve ran into it in 5 blogs this afternoon alone and it seems such a good idea…
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February 27th, 2008 at 11:19 am
I’ve had comments increase by about 400% since using Commentluv which I’m happy about
Stu’s last blog post..Classic & Vintage Car Insurance
March 3rd, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Tell me one thing is the pluggin free to install and where and how do I use it. If somebody can help me friends
March 5th, 2008 at 7:24 am
I have just installed the commentluv plug-in on my two newest blogs to try it out. If I see an increase in comments I will install it on my other blogs.
Sire’s last blog post..Looking For Sex In All The Wrong Places
March 13th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Hey thats great you have made it a do follow blog
But my question is always do u get quality comments ??
By this, will your pagerank increase ??? And if i comment these types of blog, then will my blog pagerank ang technorati rank will increase ??
Hope you will answer my question . Because I’m thinking to turn my blog into a do-follow blog .
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April 11th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
It seems like nearly all “I follow” blogs on the web are PR0 or PR ‘n/a’.
It’s hard to find anyone with a PR1+ that follows.
I still think it’s a good thing and I applaud you for following.
unTECHy’s last blog post..Money from Blogging
April 11th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Indeed,it is true, it’s always true. Comments ain’t even necessary.
April 21st, 2008 at 1:56 pm
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April 22nd, 2008 at 4:26 am
You are right about the nofollow tag and dofollow tag. I have a tool that actually finds blogs that are dofollow, that way when I read something relevant and comment, I get a link as well. I rarely read “nofollow” blogs anymore, and I am always educating myself on one subject or another. Great move Schwoit!
April 25th, 2008 at 9:21 am
Pretty good article. I like it, keep it up.
April 27th, 2008 at 9:59 am
Excellent analysis of the nofollow tag, thanks for explaining it.
April 29th, 2008 at 11:22 am
thank you for this useful information
mike’s last blog post..Escape From HellTowers
May 1st, 2008 at 7:29 am
I think that was a pretty good post. I couldn’t do it
. Keep up the good work.
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:16 am
hmmm… I like a blog post that makes me think.
May 9th, 2008 at 6:39 am
Hi i must congratulate you for such an interesting post i did really learn something just from reading your article.
May 9th, 2008 at 6:42 am
Interesting article, i must say thanks for information about these new wordpress plugins.
Junior’s last blog post..How To Get Repeat Web Traffic
May 10th, 2008 at 6:16 am
Thanks for content I’m tryin now comment luv plugin…
May 11th, 2008 at 7:08 am
Great move going to the dofollow movement. I too have gotten into the habit of not really even reading blogs that still use the rel=nofollow attribute. The CommentLuv plugin is wonderful and it ha been taken a step further just recently. Now you can use the KeywordLuv plugin as well. Awesome plugin that will essentially allow you to use keywords with your name. Yuo can read about the keywordluv here: http://www.scratch99.com/wordpress-plugin-keywordluv/
Nice Post!
May 11th, 2008 at 9:10 am
I have adopted to do follow on my blog and I like the way it is working out. Thinking about employing the commentluv as well. Why not?
May 11th, 2008 at 9:13 am
Here’s my dofollow blog. Add a “good” comment and I will approve.
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