DoFollow: No More NoFollow

February 28th, 2007 · 34 Comments

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Starting today, I’ve disabled the “NoFollow” attribute for this blog. I hope this encourages visitors to particpate and comment more on the posts. This is a new blog so I didn’t think I Help You Blog was a target for spammers (since there is little link love to pass around at this point). Instead, I wanted to recognize the people who have taken the time to visit my blog and make a helpful comment. They will now benefit from the “link love” that will be passed around. Similarly, trackbacks will enjoy the same benefits.

When the nofollow attribute first came on the scene over two years ago, I really thought it was the best thing in blogging. Spam was rampant and out of control. Any number of website pages had useless and uphelpful content strewn all about. Spam was taking over everywhere.

Since then, we’ve gotten pretty good at controlling spam. The automated system Akismet is pretty good and new developments like the use of captcha has cut out the majority of automated spam. Therefore, I think the nofollow attribute is no longer necessary (if it ever was). And, being a new blog, I want to do everything reasonable to encourage the building of a community here.

A little over two years ago, Danny Sullivan posted about the uselessness (in his point of view) of the nofollow attribute. It is an interesting read and much of what he said has proven to be true. You can read it here.

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34 responses so far ↓

1 Aniela // Feb 28, 2007 at 7:53 pm

That’s a good initiative ! Second best to ordering a review from John
2 justin // Feb 28, 2007 at 8:19 pm

hi, i like your blog, its interesting to me because i just started my blog, which is about fitness and nutrition. cheers!
3 Zigire // Feb 28, 2007 at 8:24 pm

Nice one, I disabled NoFollow for comments on my blog a while back, good to see others doing the same.
4 Gary // Feb 28, 2007 at 8:44 pm

hi . . congrats on the bump in traffic from John’s blog . . . just wondering how you disabled the nofollow option. I’m thinking about doing the same thing! Good Luck and Keep up the great work!
5 Philip Liu // Feb 28, 2007 at 9:10 pm

Aniela, Justin, Zigire - Thanks for your comments and for visiting!

Gary - Thanks for visiting, the plugin is called “DoFollow” and is available here: http://kimmo.suominen.com/sw/dofollow/
6 Tony // Feb 28, 2007 at 10:22 pm

Sweet. I know that personally I’m really discouraged from commenting on blogs that don’t let me leave _my_ link (blogger, livejournal, weird wordpress setups). It’s like not letting me sign my real name. This is just pure bonus for thoughtful comments.

Good luck with fighting off all the comment spam
7 Philip Liu // Feb 28, 2007 at 10:51 pm

Hi Tony,

Great to hear you’ll be a regular contributor here then!
8 Qwerty_ // Mar 1, 2007 at 1:36 am

I think thats nofollow is a good idea and will certainly encourage comments, perhaps installing top commentators will help as well.
9 Tony // Mar 1, 2007 at 2:26 am

I’ll try. Some of the content is indeed quite helpful here.

Though I would discourage “top commentators” plugin. As awesome as it would be to end up linked to from the front page, I’ve noticed (based on JohnChow’s blog) that while comment numbers shot up, their average quality has substantially dropped.
10 Courtney Tuttle // Mar 1, 2007 at 4:58 am

Wow that’s pretty cool of you to do! Well done.
11 dan // Mar 1, 2007 at 9:22 am

Thats a brave move but its definetly a good way of getting people involved. You’ve got some great content, thats for sure. I’ve already learnt a great deal already from your posts.
12 Gregg // Mar 1, 2007 at 1:22 pm

I’d be curious to see future stories as to whether you found any differences in the amount of spam, quantity and quality of commenting, amount of work for you moderating comments, etc.
13 Don’t Look Now, but You’re Being Followed » Ask Shane.org // Mar 1, 2007 at 2:06 pm

[...] John’s review, I found Philip’s post about disabling nofollow. I think he’s absolutely right, and so as of this morning nofollow is disabled here as [...]
14 Philip Liu // Mar 1, 2007 at 5:33 pm

Great to see all the positive response. I guess people really wanted to see sites do this.

Gregg, I’ll report back in a future post for sure.
15 Some New Features // Mar 5, 2007 at 1:06 am

[...] received many comments and I really appreciate that! Please keep it up and remember that I’ve disabled the nofollow attribute so that everyone who makes a worthwhile comment will get a link back [...]
16 Markk // Mar 10, 2007 at 1:38 pm

Thanks for this eye-opener re-NoFollow. Btw, there’s a lot of sense being disseminated on your blog. Worth visiting again and again.
17 101 Great Posting Ideas That Will Make Your Blog Sizzle // Mar 16, 2007 at 1:40 pm

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18 Diogo Azevedo // Mar 19, 2007 at 10:03 pm

Great idea!
Congratulations for your generosity!
19 Susan // Apr 26, 2007 at 3:17 pm

I agree that Askiment and Bad Behavior plus the other automated systems have significantly cut down on spam and NoFollow simply isn’t the control that it use to be. Rewarding commenters regardless whether they post one valid comment a month or twenty can only help to increase your exposure and overall good will. Glad to see the DoFollow movement is continuing to grow. I found your blog while researching for my latest challenge the DoFollow Pingback Challenge. Hope you pop over and take a look, either way glad I found your blog.
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21 sho'fr // May 1, 2007 at 11:38 am

this is a great move, however it should be noted wordpress uses nofollow as a default, and will need disabled if someone wishes to follow in your footsteps!
22 web live :: 101 Great Posting Ideas That Will Make Your Blog Sizzle :: May :: 2007 // May 3, 2007 at 9:33 am

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23 Hobo Design // May 25, 2007 at 8:03 pm

Congrats on DoFollow. We did the same a while ago with no ill effects.
24 Taufiq’s Latest Ideas To Achieve Financial Freedom | IHelpYouBlog.com - Blogging ideas // Jun 19, 2007 at 7:05 am

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25 Michael // Aug 15, 2007 at 3:54 pm

Nice touch! I had thought about using Link Love but then decided to use the nofollow plug-in just because I didn’t think a comment threshold added any value.
26 Karthik // Aug 22, 2007 at 8:54 am

I’m about to start a new blog myself and reached this page by Googling for the pros and cons of no-follow links - you’ve convinced me not to have them! Nice post.
27 101 ide dalam menulis blog. | Dream is Inspiration // Sep 9, 2007 at 2:46 pm

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28 Bape // Sep 28, 2007 at 2:08 am

Its ironic that many bloggers talk about this but then they actually use no follow.
29 Bree Falk // Oct 4, 2007 at 12:18 am

At first I thought nofollow was a good idea but I have changed my mind on that. My blog now follows links. After a long time procrastinating I have seen the importance of “dofollow” and making sure everything stays connected and links don’t get broken. I will follow comments on my blog, http://www.reallyreally.net I hope more people adopt these principals. Regards Bree.
30 100 ways to make your blog famous | Blogging | Web Design & Graphic Design Blog // Oct 27, 2007 at 7:35 am

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31 阿�?�在线 » Blog Archive » 让你的�?�客炙手�?�热的101个奇�?妙想 // Oct 29, 2007 at 3:09 am

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32 eenx // Feb 22, 2008 at 11:39 pm

I’ve put the badge “You comment I follow”. Thanks for sharing
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