As bloggers, what do we want? Well, we want traffic and readership. We want readers to engage in conversation through commenting. And we want links back to our blogs.
When I began blogging, I knew commenting on other blogs was important. My comments created interest in my blog, which led to increased traffic, which led to more readers.
I also thought it would lead to more links to my blog. Every day I’d visit and leave comments on anywhere from 12-20 blogs. And each day I’d check for link backs in Technorati and Google Blog Search. But I wasn’t getting any. I didn’t know why. I thought I might be doing something wrong.
It was only later that I learned that almost all blogs don’t reward commenters with link backs. That ticked me off a little bit so I looked into why.
It seems that all blogware – WordPress, TypePad, Blogger, Movable Type, etc – inserts a little piece of code in all outgoing links that come from comments. In an attempt to stop comment spam, this little piece of code tells search engines not to follow and record any outgoing links placed in comments. Essentially it neuters your comments. And, what’s worse, it doesn’t stop comment spam.
So I say, let’s ditch it. Let’s get rid of this little piece of code. And let’s start giving link love to everyone who comments on our blog. Isn’t it the least we can do to thank them for being a part of our conversations?
This little piece of code looks like this rel=”nofollow”. If you haven’t done anything to remove it, you can guarantee it’s still there. With a very little effort, you can remove it from your blog. Below I offer you some simple options:
WordPress
Very, very easy to remove. You just need to install a plugin. There are many, but I like Kimmo Suominen’s Dofollow. The steps to install are easy:
- Download the plugin
- Unzip it
- Upload it to your WordPress plugins folder on your server (wp-content/plugins/)
- Login to your WordPress admin account, go to ‘Plugins’ and activate it.
- That’s it. No more rel=”nofollow”
Blogger
BetaBlogger has the details of how to remove rel=”nofollow” from Googles Blogger.
TypePad
I’ve searched and been asking around – nothing yet. Will update if I find something. UPDATE: After a bit of investigation, it appears that removing rel=”nofollow” from TypePad is a bit more involved – requiring some coding. If anyone has a post about the process, I’d love to know about it.
Movable Type
Found one post from someone who tried to disable nofollow and eventually got nowhere.
If you use WordPress, it’s easy. So what are you waiting for? Remove that nofollow. Because don’t you think it’s time you give your commenters a little more link love?
The Coaches Guide 
My name is Dawud Miracle and I'm a 
162 responses so far ↓
Hi Dawud
You overlooked one ‘link-loving-gift’ you do offer to commentators, which does show on technocaty and the likes:
The Top Commentators list on your blog
Karin H.,
Yeah, I know. I’ve really been thinking about what a conversation with Andy Beard on InstigatorBlog about now sidebar links have been devalued by search engines. He says:
Hi Dawud
To be honest, I had to read his comment post three times before I understood
(Must be my English)
I didn’t know about devaluating, only noticed my blog’s increase of ‘blog links to this blog’ on Technocrati since more and mor blogs I comment on frequently have added The Top List on their blogs. And noticed as in: oh, nice – but still think the contents of my blog(s) should be the ‘driving’ force of amount of visitors and readers.
(And when you have the ‘correct’ keywords in one of your posts, the number of visitors can rocket – as I have noticed this week after posting about Dragon’s Den and the Standby Saver, – wow, that must indeed become a popular device
– but that are just google results, not real ‘readers’)
Think I will try to find out more about typepad “dofollow”, know typepad is ‘proud’ to be one of the no-follow promoters.
This is great, Dawud. Do you mind if I copy it, or if you post it, on The Business Oasis for all the bloggers in there?
Mark,
How about you post an excerpt or synopsis with a link back to full post so that we can carry on the conversation both privately and publicly?
Karin H. it is hard to cover every topic I discuss on my blog in the comments section of another, no matter how much I try.
Followable links in comments are also picked up by search engines and Technorati, though you can nudge Technorati by pinging the individual blog posts too.
You only need one link per 6 months for Technorati, as Technorati rank is based on number of blogs over 6 months.
I have probably written enough about nofollow to have a whole ebook on the subject, and it is all licensed under GPL (though the badge isn’t showing correct.. so much to fix with new theme)
http://andybeard.eu/tag/nofollow
Got mine up and running. Well, at least I think it’s working.
I used the same one as you, Dawud, and just published an article about it.
Cheers.
Karin H.,
From what I found about TypePad it did seem that they are quite proud of the nofollow attribute. Oh well. I talked to Mike Sansone and he’s going to take nofollow out of Converstation – a TypePad site – over the weekend. Perhaps I can get him to post something on it.
Andy,
Hey, I think that’s a great idea – an ebook about nofollow.
Seriously, thanks for all your efforts on this topic. I enjoy your blog and I’m certainly glad that you cover this nofollow issue so well. Thanks.
David,
I just looked at your code – I can verify that there is no-nofollow. So it’s working. Spread the word…
By the way, great graphic on your post about nofollow.
Great tip. Lots of little-guy blogs would benefit from letting their comments be search engine follow-able. I’m going to make the same change on my site so anyone who cares for a link should come and comment.
David,
Thanks. I’m heading over right now to take a look at your blog. Thanks for your comment. Hope to see you around.
yup, what you said is right. somehow leaving comments really get other readers interested.
and i’ve done what you said already, i read betablogger 4 dummies and that’s where I first saw that tip… thanks
Claine,
You’re certainly welcome. Welcome to my blog and thanks for leaving your comment. Hopefully I’ll see you around.
Dear Andy
I wasn’t blaming you, it was my (sometimes lack of) English – not my native language. Glad I got want you meant in the end (and also everything from your latest link).
Asked typepad about how to remove no-follow, received a nice message back from them, but have to find time now to check their suggestions out (if I can work it out, that is).
Update on typepad no-follow.
‘Followed’ their advice and converted on of my blogs to ‘Advanced Templates’ (safe to do, original is cloned and still available should things go pear-shaped).
Looking forward to see how Mike Sansone will be doing with his typepad, so I can follow his lead and change, add, create the necessary template (am running out of time today to give it a try myself, coding takes time and needs to be done with a clear head!)
Spend a little time on it, take lots of screenshots of how you do it, include the instructions from Typepad support as an introduction and I guarantee you some links
If Mike does the same I will include you both
Thank you Dawud.
I have just installed the plugin.
Karin H.,
Thanks for the update.
Andy,
I’ll pass a message on to Mike.
Jens,
Welcome aboard. Please spread the word…
Well said Dawud, and as I’m sure you’ll know I absolutely agree with you on this one. I don’t see a good reason for the nofollow to exist in comments, because if my opinion if a comment is good enough to be displayed on my blog, it deserves what little SE recognition it can get from it as well.
Lars-Christian,
Neither do I. I, too, feel that a good comment should ‘reward’ the commenter. Seems to me this would be a part of the openness and sharing of the blogosphere.
Let’s keep spreading the message. And thanks for you comment.
Morning Dawud
Found yet another problem (again) with trackbacks: typepad only manages to send trackbacks to typepad blogs.
So, I’ll resort back to a preferred way anyway:
Managing your business, managing your blog and time to manage lists
Karin H.,
I’ve been playing with TypePad a bunch too. I see that it’s possible to remove nofollow – but it’s nowhere near as easy as with WordPress. I’m working on a tutorial, but right now it’s a bit too long.
Hi Dawud
Would love to read everything you have already, long or not. If we join ‘forces’ we might get this done more quickly?
Karin H.,
Okay, today and tomorrow are a bit heavy work-wise. Give me a couple of days.
Same here Dawud
Too many items on too many lists
Dawud,
Her is what some thoughtful bloggers on Typepad do to address the nofollow issue. They post a weekly summary of people who have made substantial comments on their blog. Not only does this provide the link back, it also acknowledges the contribution made in a very personal way. I was warm and fuzzy inside for a day and a half with David Anderson at http://www.agilemanagement.net acknowledged my post and included a link to my blog.
Dennis,
Thanks. I’ve actually gone through the process of removing nofollow from TypePad. I even documented it and took plenty of screenshots for a post. But it’s pretty complicated, really. And the post would be quite long. Not sure what I’ll do with it. Perhaps a video on YouTube???
Dennis, what a simple and straightforward idea! Thanks for that, will keep that in mind until someone shows, tells, teach me how to remove the nofollow
(Have too much on my desk at the moment to dive into solving the ‘problem’ myself, but acknowledging my dear conversationalist once a week is a great step in that direction already).
Karin H.,
As I mentioned above, I’ve managed to remove nofollow in my TypePad blog (just used for testing). It’s just about 30 steps – more than half of which involve small recoding on a number of TypePad modules. I’ve yet to figure out an effective way to share. I’m considering a screencast.
Excellent article. As a relatively new blogger I must admit the nofollow setting was something I was unfortunately unaware of, as sure many others are as well. I downloaded the WP plugin and activated it immediately
Mike,
Great. I’m certainly happy to help out. Stay tuned for more…
Thanks Dawud ~ I feel so much more, well, generous now. Who knew I was being so darned stingy?
Thanks again to you and David for pointing out the errors of my ways.
Gayla,
That’s how I felt. You’re welcome. Happy to help. Pass the word on nofollow as I’m on a bit of a crusade.
I’ll be spreading the word
Thanks again
Gayla,
You’re welcome. Please spread the word.
Dawud — re the TypePad nofollow thing — you might check with John T. Unger over at the TypePad Hacks blog and see if he has a solution.
http://www.typepadhacks.org/
That would be a great way to spread the word, too. He gets a lot of traffic.
Kathy,
Thanks for the tip.
I have actually removed the rel=nofollow attribute in TypePad, so I know how to do it.
But it’s not simple nor straight-forward. Many steps, understanding TypePad’s template system and come minor coding – many times over.
What I’ve not found is a way to post a simple tutorial about how to do it. Maybe John has an easy way – though I’m not sure an easy way is possible.
Mike,
This is awesome. I thought I had it until I saw you post this morning. I didn’t get this piece on the hack I was working on. So thanks.
I’ll do a post on your post this weekend or Monday.
I loved this no sooner I added this feature on my blog I could see my linkl appear on other blogs too. I am really grateful to you for this tip. Thanks
Manisha,
Great. I had the same experience. Love that I could help you out.
I installed the plug-in yesterday and am reaping the rewards of “do follow” today. Feel free to leave intelligent comments on The Article Writer whenever you want.
Matt,
Great. I will do so. And please, pass the word. I’d like every blogger to know about this issue. Thanks.
Hey, I’m with you on giving us link love, but isn’t this post the same as ‘Hey Google, Follow Me: Giving More Link Love’?
Matt,
No, not at all. With Hey Google, Follow Me I was announcing that I removed nofollow and why.
This post was about creating a movement and inviting other bloggers to do the same. That’s what’s happening.
Thanks for asking. What’s your sense of removing nofollow?
Thank you for bringing bloggers’ attention to this issue, and for describing the steps to fix it so clearly. I’ve added the WordPress plugin to my blog.
Melissa,
You’re welcome. Thank you for your read and your comment. I’m glad I could help. Check back and let me know if it changes your commenting.
Thanks for the tip! Chewonthat is now rocking the dofollow movement (with the help of a little icon from Randa Clay).
Woot.
Caley,
Certainly. Welcome. More link love the merrier.
Thanks for posting this Dawud. I finally got around to removing it from my blogger blog.
Take care,
Laura
Laura,
Welcome. Glad to see you’ve joined us. Be sure to let all your commenters and readers know they’ll get link love from comments.
And please, pass the word.
Typepad can be very frustrating at times!
Goldy,
I hear you. I’ve been playing with TypePad a bit and I find it much more cumbersome to use at the code/template level than WordPress.
Its really nice to see a blogger reply each comment one by one. Congratulations on your dofollow. I wish I had time to set up a personal blog. I believe dofollow keeps the blogs moderated all the time.
BTW,
you have most of your wp-content listed on google. check it by making a search with “site:http://dmiracle.com/wp-”
you need to block them with robots.txt
Unluler,
Thanks. I’m here for the conversation and relationships. Traffic’s nice, but the interaction with people is far nicer.
I thought I’d blocked the wp-content from bots. I’ll have to revisit that. Thanks for bringing it up.
Thanks for the great info! I came here by way of http://thiseclecticlife.com/
Figga,
Thanks. Great to meet you.
And thanks for letting me know where you came from.
I found a more serious problem: You need to make a search for “site:dmiracle.com *** -view” on google!
you have lots of supplementals! You need to block /category/ and archive pages on robots.txt as well. Those are very nice pages with good info, they should not be on the supplementals. When you remove the duplicate content from google, they will be released from supplementals.
Unluler,
Thanks. I’ll take a look and make the needed changes. Thanks, again, for your help.
Maybe you should ask Google to first of all correct the reporting of supplemental results, and also read what Matt Cutts has said on SEOmoz, it was enough to get Rand to offer an apology.
I have close to 7000 pages reported as being cached, and 8 supplemental on a PR5 blog.
SEOmoz has 10x the number of links compared to me, but less pages indexed, but is reporting 2000+ pages supplemental.
They are a PR7 domain
Something is very broken with supplemental results reporting.
I don’t block off any duplicate content with robots.txt or changes in the meta, but then neither does Matt Cutts
I totally agree with this perspective. I think the nofollow is one of the worst things to happen to the internet atm. All it does is create information islands and a ‘defend my turf/pagerank’ attitude.
Grumpycoder,
Yeah, exactly. And that seems to be so contradictory of the blogosphere – where it’s all about linking and sharing. That’s why I’ve gotten behind this movement.
Thanks, I downloaded the plugin this morning and installed. I appreciate learning new things from you as I’m a beginner at this stuff!
MichelleVan,
It’s my pleasure. If I can be of any help, please let me know.
I think you should install the the plugin that disables you from pinging your own posts. If you already link to them in the article, there is no need to show them in the trackbacks.
Kral,
You know, that’s a great idea. Something on my todo list that I just haven’t gotten too. But I know it’s an easy install so I think I’ll move it up on my list. I’m also going to separate comments from trackbacks. Thank you.
This is a thing I will most certainly do with my blog.
Marko,
Great. Happy to have helped out. And please, stop back by and tell me if you notice how it helps your blogging.
I added the plugins and I follow badge to my blogs recently too, it’s a such a great (and free!)way to generate traffic for everyone.
Yeah, I know that linking to people has always been a good way to pay people back for taking the time to comment on your thoughts. I used to use a plugin to do that, but the dofollow is much nicer.
Kalamaf,
Great. Let me know how it goes.
Amy,
I recently switched to Dofollow as well. Thanks for your comment
I was shocked tonight to realize my blog had the nofollow attribute. And I am totally against this. Fortunately I ran into this blog and learnt about the plugin that would allow me to really thank my contributors for their awesome content.
“You comment .. I follow” .. let’s be more and more in this “movement” and learn to reward good content once again. Excellent article.
Dojo,
Thanks. I’ve really seen this make a difference. Pass the word…
Wow, this is such an awesome thing!! everyone needs support, and this is the perfect way!!
And if anyone has some time, please visit my blog too at http://funnfud.blogspot.com as I need feedback on my new venture…
Thanks for spreading the idea.
-Mansi
http://funnfud.blogspot.com
Thanx Dawud, I really didn’t know why my comments did not show up in google blogsearch results!
I’ve joined the DO FOLLOW movement as well. I have certainly noticed not only a spike in reader comments but overall blog growth as well. This is definately the #1 way to give something back to your blog friends.
Ilove this suggestion. It’s one of those tips that helps me help you. Terrific. So is there any other SEO upside or downside to using the dofollow plugin?
Jerry
mansi, lukadium, Paul & Jerry,
Great to have you each on board with DO FOLLOW. Spread the word and let your readers – and other bloggers – know. It’s time nofollow is removed from blogs.
Well,let me try it out and hope this works..
Rony,
Give it a run and let me know.
If you turn off nofollow, do you think it’s appropriate to be a little more restrictive about what comments you permit? I don’t want to get in trouble with bloggers, and yet I also want to make sure the comments add value to my site.
Jerry,
IMO, it’s your blog. I think the comments you allow are fully up to you. I’ve found, at least with my clients, that having a commenting policy is helpful. It, at the very least, establishes parameters. Of course, I don’t have one – but I will soon.
I use the Link-Love plugin – but I set the limit very low to two comments. I just feel better that way, keeps spam to a minimum (not a problem really on my site for some reason.) and it rewards regular commentators rather than people dropping single quick-fire comments and never coming back…
Zane,
I like Link-Love. Thinking about using it with my next redesign.
good article to motivate other bloggers to take rel=”nofollow” tag from heir blogs,
but why you using urchintracker on everylink onclick
I reward my commentors with a free blog review
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.
seo expert,
I just want to track where links are going and originating from.
ProBlogReviews,
I’ll keep that in mind, thanks.
bLuefRogX,
Somewhat true. The only increase I’ve seen from removing no-follow that I can contribute with certainty to it are those spammers who are targeting the lists of do-followers out there.
But for me, I’d rather have the conversation be as easy as possible for people. So I don’t mind the bit of extra work – if any.
I really think we all need to pass on PR value, at least to the commenters on your blog. I don’t see the point behind no follow, ofcourse when someone spams you for back links, that sucks, but when you have a spam blocking plug in, then i simply don’t see the need for no follow at all.
Cheers ..
I am very grateful that you appreciate the comments from your commenters. Like bloggers, commenters too are overwhelmed when they are being appreciated.
Guru,
I hear you. Nofollow goes against the fabric of blogging.
paulette,
I’m here for you. I blog for you. That’s just what I do. And do I benefit? Certainly. But only because of you.
In my opinion blogging is a socialand interactive. Backlink is like a reference of who took time to read your blog for a second and maybe it is very appreciated if you give back link as a token for giving attention to your blog.
Couldn’t agree more. Social media is about giving. And how can you be giving with nofollow?
Thanks for the great info!
thanks a lot
güzel,
You’re welcome. Let me know how I can continue to help.
This is great, Dawud. Do you mind if I copy it, or if you post it, on The Business Oasis for all the bloggers in there?
oyun,
Better to put a link in the Oasis and encourage people to view the post on my site. You’re welcome to write a synopsis, but I’d prefer that it not be copied.
And thanks for the suggestion.
thanks a good.
Bookmarked your site.pretty good.
Great set of thoughts on the subject. So much so that I share it with the folks over at ActiveRain (a Real Estate Social Network) http://activerain.com/blogsvie.....nhancement
usa,
Thanks.
Colleen,
That’s great. Thank you.
We should also be thanking you for the time you have put into your blog and the useful info you have been providing your readers.
I haven’t been here a long time. Seeing how well some of your articles were written made me want to be a part of your blog.
Thanks buddy
It doesn’t make any sense to me if my comment has been followed or not. If I can comment is enough for me, because some times the spam filter is filtering my comments and I hate that when it is an useful comment.
I am very grateful that you appreciate the comments from your commenters.
The problem with comment spam is that most of the spammers don’t know about “nofollow” or don’t look for it when they spam. If people want a backlink, just post a quality comment.
Thanks for the great idea. I’m going to remove “nofollow” from my blog as well!
To show courtesy, it’s good to thanks the people who comments in our blogs and pay a visit to their blogs as well.
Great attitude, and I can see you obviously get a good increase in visitors as a result. You’ve inspired me to follow your lead.
It’s great plugin and, I’ll be using it on my blog.
P.S. Great post!10x
That’s a nice plugin and also the idea of removing nofollow is great! Will most likely do the same in my own organic cotton blog.
thanks for opinion nofollow blogs negative effect for pageranks
Great post! Demonstrates appreciation for your readers! Thank you!!!!
Thanks for very interesting article.I really enjoyed reading all of your posts. It’s interesting to read ideas, makes you think more.
Great article, thank you.
10x..
remove rel=nofollow equal to share your love to your reader…thank you
I signed up for Performancing Ads, does it work on wordpress? I have a wordpress blog that needs some life…
my opinion no follow very important plugin for blog but I’m going to remove “nofollow” from my all blogs as well…!
In my opinion blogging is a socialand interactive. Backlink is like a reference of who took time to read your blog for a second and maybe it is very appreciated if you give back link as a token for giving attention to your blog.
I know that linking to people has always been a good way to pay people back for taking the time to comment on your thoughts. I used to use a plugin to do that, but the dofollow is much nicer.
As mentioned, URL and URLConnection rely on protocol handlers which must be present, otherwise an Exception is thrown. This is the major difference with URIs which only identify resources, and therefore don’t need to have access to the protocol handler. So, while it is possible to create an URI with any kind of protocol scheme (e.g. myproto://myhost.mydomain/resource/), a similar URL will try to instantiate the handler for the specified protocol, if it doesn’t exist an exception will be thrown.
I know that linking to people has always been a good way to pay people back for taking the time to comment on your thoughts. I used to use a plugin to do that, but the dofollow is much nicer.
Glad to see that lots of people share my same interests and thoughts on gaming.Great Blog. I will continue reading it in the future. Nice layout too.
ı have followed your writing for a long time.really you have given very successful information.
In spite of my english trouale,I am trying to read and understand your writing.
And ı am following frequently.I hope that you will be with us together with much more scharings.
I hope that your success will go on.
Great post and I very much agree with you. That’s why I’m here. Link building is definitely important, but nurturing the blogosphere as it’s called is definitely important as well!!
Thanks for posting this Dawud. I finally got around to removing it from my blogger blog.
Take care,
Glad to see that lots of people share my same interests and thoughts on gaming.Great Blog. I will continue reading it in the future. Nice layout too.
I’m glad the nofollow movement has gained so much traction. Keep it up everyone!
Thanks for posting this Dawud. I finally got around to removing it from my blogger blog.
Take care,
Great post and I very much agree with you. That’s why I’m here. Link building is definitely important, but nurturing the blogosphere as it’s called is definitely important as well!!
this is great
I used to use a plugin to do that, but the dofollow is much nicer.
The problem with do-follow is people will spam. If a blog is good enough then the blog owner won’t need to have do-follow because people will comment to put their point of view accross, not to gain a back link.
The BBC is a perfect example of this. There are no links in the forums and blogs, yet they have many users.
However, when a blog is starting and it wants to get a upper hand, their is no harm in attracting people who want do-follow links, because some will become hooked, so even if you change to no-follow, people will still comment.
I think follow links are good idea for new blogs, because people will keep coming back. Recently I changed my blogs to “follow” and my traffic is doubled.
It is really great. I also used same technic in my web site and it works.
I’ve removing no follow tag on my new blog, but most people doesn’t leave their comment yet, because it’s PR0.
It comes to question, is PR the indication of how worthy the blog to be commented?
Great post, Dawud
Dofollow hunters suck and are pretty easy to spot. You’ll see a new visitor popping in via an online dofollow blog spam list of some sort, followed by a comment from someone named ‘Profesional SEO company’ -which is a pretty weird name, even for a misspelling-, leaving a comment that barely says anything… Yuck!
It’s stupid not to mention your URL when you’re commenting on a blog while you’re building links, but it’s even more stupid to just drop your link because you’re building links…
I also support do follow,indeed you’ll get more spammy comments but nofollow blogs are spammed too.Using Askimet and WP-SpamFree plugins should solve most of spam problems.
I think follow links are good idea for new blogs, because people will keep coming back. Recently I changed my blogs to “follow” and my traffic is doubled.
Ooh dang i just typed a long comment and as soon as i hit reply it come up blank! Please tell me it worked right? I dont want to write it again if i do not have to! Either the blog bugged out or i am just stuipd, the second option doesnt surprise me lol.
Thanks for doing good job by helping your readers!
If blogger puts a noffolow tah to his comments it is the same thing as disable comments at all.
Now a days its very hard to find blogs without nofollow tags, and this will really helpful for blog owners to add quality links to their blogs.