Why I’m Choosing To Remove DoFollow
November 15, 2007
I originally added DoFollow to give a little back to those who commented on my site. They gave me a comment, and I gave them a real link. I didn’t want to do all the taking, and I really did appreciate all the comments from everyone.
And I still do! However, I have removed DoFollow now. This site has gotten a lot bigger than it was in July, and some posts receive a lot of comments and trackbacks. For every one of those, I lose some PageRank within that post. Since the newest PageRank update, I noticed my internal pages didn’t rank as well as they could have and I’m blaming a lot of that on DoFollow.
However, that’s not the only reason. Sometimes I notice people comment on this blog solely to get a free link, instead of providing valuable insight into the conversation. This isn’t what I had originally intended to happen.
DoFollow was a very nice experiment, and I’m glad I had implemented it. I used it to give a little back to my readers, and even though this blog won’t be DoFollow anymore, I will still give back to my readers. I do weekly roundups where I link to your articles, and if you wanted to be noticed and linked to just comment, or feel free to let me know if you’ve written something worthy! And apart from that, I will occasionally do free giveaways where you can get some advertising space on this blog without paying a cent (so keep your eyes peeled)!
I wrote this post about removing DoFollow because I did not want to mislead anyone. I’ve known blogs that wrote about being DoFollow, and then later on removed it without saying a word. While there is no obligation to be a DoFollow site, since the blogger is doing it out of the kindness of their heart, I still feel like all of you deserve to know.
So thank you, and I still do appreciate all of your comments just as much as ever. And like I said, you’ll still be getting free links when I do my roundups. This time, all you have to do for your link is work a little harder and write some nice content for me to read, which you should be doing anyway! ;)
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26 Responses to “Why I’m Choosing To Remove DoFollow”
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[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerpt [IMG Great Helpful Sites on the Internet]Back in July I announced that Super Blogging was a DoFollow blog, but now that is about to change. Today I have removed the DoFollow plugin from this site, and I am letting you know why. If you don’t know what DoFollow is, it is basically a plugin you can put on your Wordpress blog that removes the nofollow attribute from links in the comments section. Links marked as nofollow do not pass on PageRank and do not count with Google. If you use DoFollow, th [...]
That is a though decision, but I think it is a good one. People will still comment as long as the content is good. So you are safe!
Thanks Thomas. I’m also going to start making more of an effort to link to my commentators in my weekly roundups, instead of mostly linking to sites I’m subscribed to. You guys deserve it! :)
I honestly don’t see the point in worrying about pagerank so much. Overall, it seems to be quite inaccurate, or at least it has lately.
It is a good choice and by announcing it, you don’t make people upset about it. I should say this is an action of a good blogger. ;-)
I guess most of your commentators like me won’t go away as long as the contents are still good.
I don’t really care if a blog is do-follow or not. For me, it’s about liking the content and the style of writing of the blog author. I’ll comment on a blog as long as I like it, whether it’s do-follow or not…
I’ll surely still comment on your blog, since I seem to like it very much ;)
Maybe a better alternative will be to use the Top Commentators widget.
@Jake - I’m not worrying about PageRank, but every blogger wants their blog to be successful. I wanted higher rankings and so I am setting goals for myself. PageRank is not THE MOST valuable tool of judging a site, but it is still one used by mostly everyone. I’ve had DoFollow for quite a while, and like I said, there is no obligation to using it so I am not anymore.
@Wayne Liew - Thank you! Yes, I didn’t want people to feel cheated or mislead, and I also wanted to get my reasons across. I appreciate all your comments. :)
@Ruchir - Aw, thanks! I’m flattered. Even if this blog does not give out links anymore, I hope you receive some traffic from your comments.
@Joyce Babu - Thanks for your suggestion. Since the Top Commentators rewards only the people that are most loyal and deserving, that would be a good pick. I will definitely consider it! :)
With the incredible amount of pre-holiday spam that I’m sure we’ll start to see, I can understand why this would be a good move for a lot of people. You’ll still see some die-hard “dofollow” blogs that won’t switch, but they’ll become fewer and fewer as time goes by.
Oh my god, that idiot with the bahamas23.info splog took this post. I told him to stop scraping my feed earlier today and got a “sorry.” Looks like his site is down now.
I recently decided that following all links was counterproductive also, but instead of not following all links, I only follow links for 30 or so days.
This is a little more fair: kinda like how Technorati only counts your links for a certain amount of time.
Tay,
I’ve been using the DoFollow plugin for a few months and I’ve thought about this too. At this point I have no plans to remove it, but who knows. When I first became familiar with DoFollow blogs it did encourage me to leave a comment, but now it has no influence on my decision to comment at all. I have to say that I’ve seen no real benefit from commenting on DoFollow blogs as opposed to nofollow blogs. I’m not concerned with loosing PR, but sometimes I wonder if I’m linking to “bad neighborhoods” because of the plugin.
I think it’s a good decision. I have had the do follow plugin on some blogs because I wanted to reward the regular commentators. Problem was that the spam comments increased and the comments that didn’t add anything to the conversation. I wouldn’t worry too much about PR though, lately it doesn’t seem to be very accurate at all.
[...] Why I’m Choosing to Remove DoFollow from Super Blogging. [...]
There’s a plugin called Link Love you can download that removes nofollow for people who’ve commented a certain number of times (configurable). I switched to this plugin to reward loyal commenters and to avoid spam.
@J.D. - I didn’t even think about the pre-holiday spam but you’re definitely right! As for the idiot scraper, thanks for letting me know about him. All content thiefs are, and I don’t even mind saying this, complete losers.
@Aaron - That’s a good idea! Thanks for giving me something new to consider.
@Steven - Yes, DoFollow can encourage some people’s decision to comment but I don’t think it influences it too much. For me I decided there are more disadvantages than advantages.
@Sydney - That’s exactly what I wanted to do in the first place: reward loyal commentators, not people just wanting a free link. Thanks for letting me know about this!
personally I leave comments wherever I feel the need to - whether or not it is dofollow or nofollow. The only difference is the PR rank - and frankly the amount of PR one post will have in the future is probably low… Google has been to know to follow nofollow links anyway for spidering reasons - just not for PR reasons.
I use dofollow on my blogs - and other than a lot of spam - i’m not sure that it helps too much..
@Matt Ellsworth: Though it is a few months old, Search Engine Journal has a great article that I have referred to quite a few times about how Ask, Google, and Yahoo! treat nofollow links.
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/how-google-yahoo-askcom-treat-the-no-follow-link-attribute/4801/
I think that using the Top Commentators plugin and/or the ScratchBack TopSpots are a better ways to give visitors a way to promote their site. Top Commentators usually requires coming back and staying active in commenting on a blog. TopSpots requires a monetary contribution.
@Matt Ellsworth - I leave comments whether the blog is following or not, as well. For me it makes no difference. The possible passing of PageRank is very low anyway, and I think the most valuable thing you can get from commenting is building relationships, branding, and getting traffic - not PageRank.
@Jake - Thanks for that link, I read the article and it was actually very helpful. :)
@Frank C - I agree with you. I don’t think people should get rewards for free, for their benefit only. Besides, a slight bit of PageRank from comments isn’t much of a reward. Exposure is always better!
@Tay: Still, there’s no guarantee as to whether the article is still accurate. I wonder if there is more updated article anywhere.
I’m glad you wrote this … I’ve been thinking about removing the nofollow attribute from my own blog, to encourage more comments and hopefully readers. Judging from your experience and some of the comments above, it seems like spam is a big problem. Which is what I’ve been worried about.
Speaking of comment blogging plug ins, though, how did you get the trackbacks to sort to the bottom, under the real comments? I’ve been wanting to do that for a while on my own site.
@Jake - True, it could be outdated, but it was helpful nonetheless. I’m not sure if there is a newer one. The article you linked to was the first I’ve read on the topic. I’ll let you know if I find one. ;)
@Forrest - Yes, DoFollow was a good experience but I don’t think it makes much of a difference for the readers. You’d most likely be better off without it, in my honest opinion.
As for separating trackbacks and comments, that is something I did after reading an article on Pro Blog Design (and I’m glad I did it, it helps keep things organized and the community aspect a bit cleaner). Here it is:
http://www.problogdesign.com/how-to/separating-trackbacks-from-comments/
Wow, thanks for the link!! And also for doing the dofollow experiment so I don’t have to. I’ve been leaning against it for the extra time it might take to moderate comments. And you’re right, that viewers ultimately won’t even notice in the long run…
No problem, Forrest. I’m glad I could help! Keep up the great work on your blog. :)
I’ve recently installed the dofollow plugin and while I have not noted an increase of spam per se, I have noticed an increased number of commenters using anchor text links instead of their nicknames to post comments
@bluefrogx - That’s definitely true. I’ve even been guilty of doing that before, using keywords I’d like to be ranked for on dofollow blogs. :| But anyway, yes, you will definitely see a lot more of that.