Make your blog a ‘do follow’ blog
ByMy Hate of ‘no follow’
I wrote yesterday about my hate of the no follow HTML tag and how it completely ruins natural link building. I don’t see any reasons why not making a blog ‘do follow’. The usual argument is that the no follow tag is used to fight spam. The real truth is that it doesn’t make a single difference for spammers! I experimented with no follow blogs and they were receiving hundreds of spam comments a day. Why not have tools to fight spam and let us build backlinks naturally?
How do I enable ‘do follow’?
That’s where the combination of comment moderation, spam control tool and ‘do follow’ comes into play. First of all, if you have a Wordpress blog, use the following plugin to remove the default ‘no follow’ from all your links:
http://kimmo.suominen.com/sw/dofollow/
Then, make sure to enable whatever spam control plugin you prefer. I personally use Askimet and have always been satisfied with its accuracy. FInally, enable some sort of comment moderation on your blog. This basically mean that you will have to approve every comment on your blog. I agree it’s a little more work for you, but it only takes a couple of minutes per day to do so.
This all sounds good, but what do I personally get from ‘do follow’?
First of all, if most people enabled ‘do follow’, link building would be much more easier because you get links by getting involved in the community and commenting on blogs. You know, the whole purpose of blogs and the web in general.
Then, you can submit your website to ‘do follow’ blogs list. This not only gives you a backlink, but also traffic from that list. Bloggers looking for ‘do follow’ blogs will end up on all these lists across the web and eventually on your website. Once that visitor is on your website, he’ll have to read at least one of your article to make a clever comment that you will approve and if you’re lucky, he’ll subscribe to your feed or write a little something on his blog about your website.
If you want to send your website to one of these ‘do follow’ list, here’s a good one by Tuscon SEO Solutions:
There are many others accross the web but this definitely is a good start.
Wrapping up
So, you get backlinks, more traffic and more clever comments. The only downside is having to approve every comment. I don’t see it as a downside because even with a ‘no follow’ blog, I usually end up approving every single comment because of spam. ‘do follow’ is the way to go.
30 Comments
July 16th, 2008 at 12:57 am
You folks rock… Thanks!
July 16th, 2008 at 1:08 am
No problems!
July 16th, 2008 at 10:54 am
Great timing for this post and I agree with you. I’ll be making my blog ‘do follow’ today.
Question I have - does it make sense to add more security in your comment area then? You see some blogs have the “what is 3+8″ or the box where you have to enter in several random letters. I would think that would get rid of any of the spam from people using auto post software.
However, I don’t see anything like that here. Are you not getting blasted by spam comments? Thanks for the great post!
July 16th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
This morning, i became so frustrated with the unorganized “do follow” lists that I created this site.
Add your blog, and let me know what you think. I just threw together this morning, so I’m open to suggestions.
July 16th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Rob, it does make sense to add more security like Captcha to your comment section only if spam becomes uncontrollable. Otherwise, I don’t like Captcha because it’s annoying for users to enter a verification everytime they want to post. So I say, for usability, avoid that kind of security method unless you really don’t have a choice!
July 16th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
supermom_in_ny, I like the list and added my blog to it. There’s just the fact that the list is actually ‘no follow’ !;) It would be great to have a ‘do follow’ list but I don’t know if you have control over that with squidoo.
July 16th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
That’s a good point. Would it make a difference, if a person grabs the plexo list and puts it on their “do follow” blog?
I don’t think that the “no follow” attribute can be changed on Squidoo. The best way to use the “do follow” list is to find other do follow blogs in your category. Once more blogs are added, the plexo list can be copied and pasted anywhere..forums, blogs and other Squidoo lenses. When people do this, it will bring new visitors, more traffic and backlinks. If they’re added to social media, more bloggers will participate.
It’s something I just created on a whim. It’s an experiment. Let’s see if it works.
So far, I have added it to over 10 social networks including delicious, netvous, blinlklist, connotea, stumbleupon, blogsvine, and others. I broadcast it on blogcatalog, mybloglog, twitter and SquidCast. I’ve also added it to over 32 search engines. I own close to 50 blogs/sites and Squidoo lenses. This is my newest…
Thanks for particpating. Oh and for reading my ramblings.
supermom_in_ny
July 16th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Great, well it looks like you’ve done a great ’social bookmark’ job with the list so I’m sure this will attract some traffic. Keep up the good work!
July 16th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
i feel the same way as you man… if only more bloggers would convert to ‘do-follow’ + the ‘keyword luv’ plugins, the blogging world would be soo much better :/
-Mike
July 16th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Thanks for your comment Mike! I’m thinking about installing the ‘KeywordLuv’ plugin. People can comment with their real name and still get a backlink with good anchor text.
July 16th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Tuscan never added my dofollow blog though i submitted it right after it came out….
Anyhow, my blog also have a dofollow search engine, with 600+ blogs… all you have to do is search by keyword to find blog pages related to your niche, and you can get good relevant dofollow links (the best kind!)
July 16th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Don’t know about Tuscon, my blog was added only a couple of hours after my request.
Really nice service you offer there with your search engine, I added SEO Horror to it!
July 16th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
I use the LinkLove plugin for WordPress. It removes the nofollow tag after a commenter has left 10 (and the quantity is configurable) comments. I think that helps encourage people to return more often and get involved in your blog.
July 17th, 2008 at 12:06 am
Yep, it’s definitely a good tactic if you don’t want to enable ‘do follow’ for everyone
July 24th, 2008 at 5:09 am
Hi
I agree with you. This is good way that u explained.
Thanks for sharing here.
July 24th, 2008 at 5:24 am
hello
This ia a good information that you have explained here.
Thank you for sharing here.
July 27th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
I think that’s the whole point of blogs and search engines, backlinks and all that stuff. I hear the ” no follow fights spam” and also the “more outgoing links ruins your blogs SEO/PR” but I’m just not sure how true that is.
I don’t know, I’m still learning and blogs like yours are helping me along. I’ve been do follow from the beginning and don’t plan on changing anytime soon.
July 27th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
I’m not sure either about the “more outgoing” links. I have great doubt about it. I don’t mind giving a backlink if someone post a good comment, it’s the whole purpose of blogs.
July 27th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Hi Ben,
I love your blog - some great advice here and quite novel too.
However, this question of ‘dofollow’ does give me a problem.
My blogs are all ‘nofollow’ and at this point in time I am in no hurry to change that. If I see a blog I like, at some point I will write about it and provide a decent link which is followed and has keywords in the link and a good title tag as well.
But commenting on a ‘dofollow’ blog, when my own blog is ‘nofollow’ provides me with a problem. I feel unable to make a comment on posts without feeling as if I am spamming your blog for a backlink (or that other ‘dofollow’ readers whill assume I am), but I am not.
I comment on blogs because I want to add something to the conversation - it is most often a compliment but it can also be in disagreement to the post. Either way, I am commenting because I have found something interesting in the post and want to talk about it. For me, that’s what blog commenting is all about.
I don’t care whether you give me a backlink or not. Maybe I’m strange that way…
But arriving here on a really interesting blog and feeling restricted from commenting because my blogs are ‘nofollow’ does concern me a little. Seems a little wrong somehow..
July 27th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Hi Zania, I completely understand the point you’re trying to make here. It is ok to keep your blog as a nofollow if it fits your blogging style. Maybe the point I was trying to make with this post about ‘dofollow’ was more to help each other as bloggers. When you say that when you like a blog you write a little something about it then it’s great, you’re getting involved in the community.
Don’t worry, I don’t feel like you’re spamming my blog! I approve every comment so if I see a comment not bringing anything to the discussion, I simply delete it.So, just take the backlink and enjoy!
Thanks again for your great comment!
July 28th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
What I am about to say has been pretty much summed up by the rest but I’ll like to say it again that I do comment when there is an opportunity to add to the conversation irregardless whether it’s dofollow or otherwise.
I certainly agree with you that with Askimet around, spamming has never been an issue unless your blog is super popular and you are getting huge no. of comments where it becomes too time-consuming to moderate. Otherwise, it’s win-win when the dofollow is in place.
Interesting piece of thought, Ben.
Yan
August 1st, 2008 at 11:58 am
Great post … I have added the do-follow plugin to my blog. And I defintely intend on convincing my clients to do the same
As far as the spam goes, I absolutely hate having the captcha option. However, I find that for some reason spammers find any and all forms at my website as soon as I put them up. The popularity of the website/blog has nothing to do with it.
So as much as I hate captcha I have to add it. But I’m thinking of replacing it with the do maths option on my comments form which is slightly less irritating IMO.
I have also discovered the keyword Luv plugin while reading your comments. That sounds like a good addition. There’s another one called Comment Luv which adds a link to your commentor’s latest post.
The three plugins together should work great to act as a motivation and reward for commentors.
August 1st, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Hey good news Erum! I like your blog btw and subscribed to it.
I also prefer a math question than a captcha I can’t read half of the time.
August 2nd, 2008 at 8:16 pm
I have do-follow blog yet!
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August 3rd, 2008 at 1:28 pm
[...] Check out Ben’s blog post about making your blog a do follow blog here: http://www.seohorror.com/make-your-blog-a-do-follow-blog/ [...]
August 6th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
personally i will always be a no follow blog bulder, mostly becuase my website is more of a business blog than a community one and if people decide to comment then they should do it becuase they need to know somthing.
I dont post questioning posts i have a well formatted post that points to every area thats needed. I dont want nor need “nice post” comments lol.
This blog i find is really good you get good comments comming in and it builds a sense of community, when i comment here i feels like a forum in a way.
Dont hate the no followers for not all of them are doing it for nasty reasons. Sometimes its just business
Tyrone create as last blog post..Traffic Tips For 2008 Part 1
August 19th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
I love reading your stuff. I am so not informed and quite the novice but I “feel” like I might be learning from you. Thanks. — jb
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September 10th, 2008 at 7:35 am
I agree 100%.
Our blog on business blogging is also a ‘do follow’ blog.
Great post.
October 12th, 2008 at 1:44 am
There is also a do follow plug in for Firefox that I love using. I can’t remember the name but do a google search and you’ll find it quickly. Basically when it’s active it highlights any do follow links on the page. Very quick and convenient.
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October 12th, 2008 at 1:48 am
First off, great post man! Keep up the good work. I gotta say that as Blogging increases in popularity so do the SEO savvy bloggers. I like do follow blogs because it encourages comments. All my blogs are do follow for that reason.
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