Nofollow / Dofollow, It's Your Choice
December 24, 2007 – 12:29 pm
We've all read the big hoohaa over Google and it's whole nofollow issues. Are you going to be penalised for not using nofollow on blog comments? Or even in your posts?! Personally, I don't believe in using nofollow on any links I trust and choose to link to, or on any commentators I wholely trust and effectively choose to link to via their comment. I've had the dofollow plugin installed in all my blogs since I discovered that it wasn't there by default.
However there are occasions where I would like to have a nofollow on links I'm not keen on. Sometimes I'll remove a link as I feel that the person isn't really trying to contribute to a post, just get a link back to their own site. Othertimes, if I don't know the commentator I may prefer to 'nofollow' their link(s) until I can see they are someone to trust (and not change their site next week after they've gained a tonne of backlinks!).
So we've had an option of either or, either leave the nofollow on and not show any thanks to your contributors, or remove the nofollow and keep a check on various links left by new commentators. However, there is now a modified version of one of the dofollow plugins that allows you to make your default choice eg. dofollow on all links, but it also gives you the option to change your mind on individual comments, so you can set those untrustworthy links back to nofollow too.
The plugin is from Greg Boser and can be found at Dofollow Plugin. I'll be adding this on to all my sites now as I think it's a much better idea.
Also, this will be my last post now until after Christmas. So have a happy holiday whatever you celebrate and eat, drink and be merry 
Update: The current version of this doesn't work with WordPress 2.3+. However this is a one line change on line 535. Replace the line there with the one below:
$replace="/\<a href=\"comment\.php\?action=deletecomment&[amp|#038];
[dt=spam&]?[amp;|#038;]?p=(.*)&[amp|#038] ;c=(.*)&(.*)Spam\<\/a\>/Um";
7 Responses to “Nofollow / Dofollow, It's Your Choice”
Sarah,
Good catch here … I hadn't seen this selective plug-in announced before. Like you, I did not want to run "wide open" and follow every link, and especially since so many visitors want "no follow" I've really been meaning to do smething about it … now it looks like I can. Thanks again and the very warmest of Christmas and New Year's wishes to you and yours.
By Dave Starr --- ROI Guy on Dec 24, 2007
I dofollow as well. I will remove the link if its not trustworthy, much like you. I'd love to see a mashup of this and the link love plugin. I go with linklove and set it to 3 comments. So if someone has made 3 comments on the blog, it will dofollow. This weeds out most people who only comment in hopes they get a link.
Merry Christmas!
By ses5909 on Dec 25, 2007
Dave have you had anyone specifically asking you to nofollow their comment links then?
Sara, I'm sure it's possible, I'll take a look in the new year and see what I can come up with
Post merry Christmas and happy new year to you both
By Sarah on Dec 27, 2007
yep, dofollower here as well. I just figure that if people are going to be kind enough to me to hang around my blog long enough to actually read and article and feel motivated enough to comment, I owe them a little something..albeit a small something.
Have a good new year Sarah!
By Deron Sizemore on Dec 29, 2007
Seems like this doesn't work on WordPress 2.3 versions
I can only get it working on 2.2.* versions. Left a message on the plugin page and will see if I can tinker with it myself if I get no response as I do think this is a good idea.
Deron - I completely agree. Have a good new year yourself
By Sarah on Dec 30, 2007
Dofollow can drive traffic and really get your comments rolling, but there are rude people who do nothing in exchange for their link.
You're absolutely right. I should not get link love if all I do is show up and say "Great! Nice site!"
By Michael Lankton on Dec 31, 2007
Michael, to true. Plenty of people drop a couple of comments and then just disappear again, adding nothing much to the site and clearly just did it for their own gain.
Anyhow, I've now fixed this plugin to work on both 2.2.* and 2.3.*. The line to change is 535 and it needs to be changed to:
$replace="/\<a href=\"comment\.php\?action=deletecomment&[amp|#038] ;[dt=spam&]?[amp;|#038;]?p=(.*)&[amp|#038] ;c=(.*)&(.*)Spam\<\/a\>/Um";That now works for me on both 2.3.1 and 2.3.2.
By Sarah on Dec 31, 2007