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I've Removed The 'No Follow' Tag from My Blog - You Should Too!

April 25, 2007

The "No Follow" tag is an optional attribute you can include in the parameters of a link tag. It tells the search engines: Any link with this tag is not necessarily approved by this page and shouldn't be followed nor contribute weight for ranking.

To combat spamming of comments and trackback in blogs, the creators of blogging software automatically add the "No Follow" tag to links in trackbacks and comments. The "No Follow" tag was supposed to cut down on blog spam. The idea was that if spammers received no benefit from the links that they spammed on your blog, then they would stop spamming. It didn't work. Spam continues to grow at logarithmic rates.

The end result of the "No Follow" tag is to hurt the innocent: the blogger or website trying to gain some traction and get noticed. The legitimate webmaster or blogger who leaves a comment or trackback on your blog really needs the benefit of those links back to their blog or web site. Those links really help with SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

So I say let's all turn off the automatic addition of the "No Follow" tag.

As far as spam goes, see my post on Stopping Spam on Your Blog for information on how to control spam.

How to Turn off "No Follow" tagging.

If you use Movable Type:
1. Go to the System Settings and then to Plugins.
2. Disable the "nofollow/nofollow.pl" plugin by clicking on the "disable" link in the right column. After the page refreshes the plugin should be grayed out and no longer have a green checkmark.
3. Find the template that generates your comments and change the commenter's link tag to have these parameters:
  - <$MTCommentAuthorLink$ new_window="1" no_redirect="1">,
  - remove the spam_protect="1" parameter if it's there,
  - Save your template.
4. Rebuild your site and the "No Follow" tags are now gone.
If you use Word Press:
- Go here: http://www.semiologic.com/software/dofollow to get a plugin to do the job.

Before you post comments and/or leave trackback on blogs, check the links (you'll have to do a "view source") and see if the links in the comments and/or trackbacks sections have this rel=nofollow or rel="external nofollow". If they do, suggest that they turn off the "No Follow" tagging and point them to this post for instructions!

Of the blogs in my blogroll,
Michael Fortin has it turned off and
Erik J. Heels has it turned off.
Terry Dean Turned it off after reading this post (5/1/2007)!

Let's encourage these others to turn it off too:
Web Weaver Productions
Niall Kennedy
Eric Graham
Steve Pavlina
The Kaizen Business

Update: 4/29/2007: I found a great entry about this on Andy Beard's Blog in his post on: Blogging Productivity & Criticizing Goals,

which lead me to this post on Search Engine Journal titled: How Google, Yahoo & Ask.com Treat the No Follow Link Attribute,

which in turn lead me to this site: www.bumpzee.com/no-nofollow all about removing the no follow tag, and where I picked up the new logos you see in my comment area and below.

Update: 5/1/2007: Added the steps in the Movable Type instructions to change the MTCommentAuthorLink tag so that it's not redirected and puts the real link in the html.

Sincerely,
Fred

About the Author

Fred Black is an experienced programmer, web site developer, online business operator, systems integrator, father, husband, musician, and songwriter. Visit his Internet Business Blog at: http://www.pqInternet.com.

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Comments:

Hi Fred,

The nofollow link relationship was introduced in January 2005 as a way for content publishers to indicate a piece of content present on their site is not created by the original author and should therefore not receive the weight of regular page content. If I author an article on my favorite hiking spots I control the content and the links, but other authors may add their own content as a comment supplemental material.

Comment links are not an all-or-nothing maneuver in today's content management systems and blog platforms. My weblog is powered by Movable Type, which allows for three different classes of commenters.
1. User data provided in a form field. Name, e-mail, and URL are common, and on my blog I require at least a name and an e-mail address.
2. Signed-in user with a TypeKey account
3. "Trusted commenter" status granted to a user with a verified identity provider such as TypeKey.
The presence of a weighted link should not influence the dialog and commentary on my site. Removing a weighted link can align these motivations with how I would like my community to participate, meaning it's all about the content. First-time contributors are placed in a moderation queue for my own determination of relevancy, and long-term community members may optionally sign-in using a service such as TypeKey and be granted "Trusted commenter" privileges inside of the comment section of the blog. In the future OpenID may be another option.

Managing a comment queue is tricky enough without worrying about link-building behaviors. You'll receive no weighted citations on my pages by simply filling out and submitting a form.

See also: Google AdSense section targeting.
Posted by Niall Kennedy on April 25, 2007 3:43 PM
From Fred...
Niall;
I agree with most of what you say. However, I still feel we're better off without the no follow tag. Most blogs that receive any amount of traffic at all are spammed so much, and receive so many strange and/or off color comments/trackbacks that moderation of some type is required. If not full moderation, moderation in steps like you are doing on your blog.

I agree that getting a link back should not be motivation for commenting or linking back to a blog. However, I'm not going to take away that benefit from someone who has taken action and commented or linked back to my blog.

Thanks for leaving a comment!

Fred

Posted by Fred Black on April 25, 2007 4:41 PM
I don't think its such a bad thing if a link back serves as motivation for comments, as long as the commenter contributes something to the discussion. And as far as spam goes, the Akismet plugin really does the trick. Fred, I think you backtracked a bit in your reply to Niall. As a way of getting traction, comments on good blogs are a fairly effective way of getting new people to check you out.
Posted by Dave on April 26, 2007 2:35 PM
From Fred...
Dave;
If I sounded like I was backtracking, I was not. I don't think someone should leave a comment or trackback, just for the value of the link. That's where moderation comes in and those comments and trackbacks can be deleted.

Akismet works great... however for whatever reason, your comment was flagged as spam! You still need to glance at what it's flagged once in a while to make sure it's not getting things that are valid.

Thanks for leaving a comment!
Fred
Posted by Fred Black on April 26, 2007 3:53 PM
This is a nice initiative you've started. However, the problem wont be dealt with, unless blog software / system providers such as WordPress actually stop making the "nofollow" a default setting in all new blogs.

... most newbies dont know about Nofollow and don't care whether links on their blogs are followed or not.
Posted by London SEO on April 30, 2007 9:32 AM
Fred;
You convinced me...and I turned off the no follow tag in my blog. I definitely agree the Akismet plug-in does a great job of eliminating most of the spam.

I also don't see the incentive of the link as a bad thing for commenters since anything not contributing to the conversation can be removed (I have no problem deleting any comment that isn't on topic).

If this does cause additional problems, I'll make whatever change is needed and let you know.
Posted by Terry Dean on May 1, 2007 9:54 AM
Fred,

I will check it out... it appears though Wordpress doesn't support a simple switch to turn it on or off and I hate to do hack and slash. Perhaps someone can clarify?

-Jim
Posted by Jim on May 2, 2007 1:25 AM
From Fred...
Jim;
If you use Word Press go here: http://www.semiologic.com/software/dofollow
to get a plugin to do the job.

Fred
Posted by Fred Black on May 2, 2007 8:02 AM
That's great software!
The Magician
Posted by Hagerman on May 9, 2007 4:55 AM
this is too kool..fight spam..not blogs..right on
Posted by Make money online on May 12, 2007 5:56 PM
After reading this I'm going to remove the nofollow from my blogs. Thanks
Posted by best bodybuilding supplements on June 5, 2007 8:01 PM
Hey Fred,

Thanks for sharing! Appreciate that alot as I know nothing about it until I read this post.

Thanks!

Erwin Tan
Posted by Erwin Tan on June 6, 2007 10:58 AM
From Fred...
Great! Keep spreading the word!
Fred
Posted by Fred Black on June 6, 2007 1:16 PM
This was a big decision when we started our blog. It came down to you have to pass the link love out to the guys posting. Like you said it isn't helping cut down the spam, why not pass the PR.
Posted by football picks on June 22, 2007 11:19 PM
Hi Fred,

Too me a while to get to it on my "Action List", but I've finaly removed no-follow on my blog too.

Eric Graham
Posted by Eric Graham on June 24, 2007 10:32 PM
From Fred...
Eric;
Glad to hear from you! Thanks for taking the time to comment, and, most of all, for removing those "No Follow" tags.

Fred
Posted by Fred Black on June 27, 2007 12:00 PM
This is great! I really hope this campaign will work! It worked for me!
Posted by SmartKeting on July 14, 2007 6:32 PM
From Fred...
Hey SmartKeting;
Thanks for stopping by and commenting. I hope you make it a regular thing!
Fred
Posted by Fred Black on July 14, 2007 9:01 PM
I agree totally with your post. I use Drupal for my blogs, which does not automatically set the no follow attribute by default, unlike Wordpress. If someone is going to go through the hassle of leaving a comment, and therefore adding value to a blog post, then the least the author can do is allow a bit of link love in return.
Posted by Rubber Duck on September 5, 2007 5:39 AM
i think this blog should be added to bumpzee do follow category
Posted by seo expert on October 8, 2007 6:32 AM
From Fred...
Hello "Seo Expert"... thanks for the prompt, I added it!
Fred
Posted by Fred Black on October 8, 2007 10:49 AM
Hi, I have found your blog via the "how search engines treat nofollow" article you mention. This really changed my thinking about the nofollow attribute and i have removed it from my blogs.
It has been working very well so far (four days), I will have to see if this results in more spam in the future though.
Thanks for the informative post.
Posted by Flat Stomach on October 14, 2007 5:11 PM
i have two blogs i dont know how to do it for blogspot i will find out a way its totally unfair as blogging is a social activity and comments too.
Posted by car leasing comparison on November 28, 2007 2:36 AM
This is always the catch-22 of do follow. With do follow you get more comments = more visitors = hopefully more money. However, you get some spam within the comments, but hopefully not so many that it bogs you down.
Posted by The Ghillie Man on January 11, 2008 6:05 PM
From Fred...
Hey Ghillie Man!
Those are some wild suits you sell on your site!
Yes, I do get some comments that I don't approve, but most spam comments are caught by Akismet. Here's how to use it: http://www.pqinternet.com/39.htm.

Stop by often...
Fred

Posted by Fred Black on January 11, 2008 7:47 PM
Fred,

You learn something new everyday. I was not aware that NOFOLLOW was the default for Wordpress comments. I have downloaded and installed the DOFOLLOW plugin.

Thanks for setting me straight!

- Dan Moran
Posted by Internet Business Bench on January 18, 2008 6:13 PM
Hi Fred,

I just discovered your blog via the link from Dan Morans new Internet Business Bench blog and I am impressed with the content you have here.

I certainly had no idea about this 'no-follow' stuff - so thanks for this - it's great information.

I use WordPress for my blog and I've taken your advice and installed the dofollow plug-in.

Regards
Dave Ovenden
Posted by Dave Ovenden on January 21, 2008 3:04 PM
I actually got a plugin for all my blogs as soon as they were placed online. If anyone actually think Google made the nofollow rule to stop spamming they are sadly misguided... is was definitely made so they could monitor flow of PageRank of which they could not do through javascript.
Posted by Chris on February 7, 2008 3:52 AM
I think if you actually moderate your blogs then the No follow is not needed at all. I do not use them.
Posted by Mike D on February 22, 2008 1:01 PM
have always had the no follow removed since i only started wordpress recently, problem is i'm in such a niche that and multilanguage/culture that comments, traffic analysis etc makes for a depressing fact sometimes :)
Posted by Roger on March 7, 2008 7:24 AM
Fred,

I have a wordpress.com free blog site, and Akismet comes pre-installed. It is a SWEET tool.

I have taken all of the spam that Akismet catches and moved them to static pages inside the blog. But I keep the rel="nofollow" attribute on the links.

I had to turn off trackbacks because of blog scrapers. I'm still being scraped, but not nearly as bad as before.

I'm not sure if someone with a free wordpress blog can remove the "nofollow" from legit comments.

Fight the good fight!
Posted by Scott E. Lee on March 10, 2008 5:01 PM
I see a moral part here also .
When you get done laughing read on...
:)

The no follow would stop blog link spam ,sure, and if your into it would stop helping out a compatible site.

I believe helping others,or NOT helping others is what the old addage is saying from the Bible you reap whatsoever you sow.You want to steal from someones elses hard work (blog link spam) then thats what comes back around for you.Also if you want to be tight fisted and un-giving as in helping others out then thats what comes back to you also...
Posted by Chris S. on March 31, 2008 2:30 PM
I'm not an SEO expert or anything but your theory doesn't make 100% sense to me only in that it's kind of like saying, "We can't stop spammers, we shouldn't try and prevent them". I know you say you can catch most spammers, but surely the no-follow tag takes away the incentive. Eventually they would realise that they are getting no benefit don't you think?
Posted by I'm a caterer and a carpenter not an SEO expert on April 5, 2008 6:57 AM
Hi, thanks for the tutorial on removing the nofollow tag. It is true, I have the nofollow tag and I still get robot spam. There are pretty good filters and our moderation skills to help us fight this.

The nofollow still only affects Google though. Yahoo still counts them as a link.

Maybe removing the nofollow could get some promotion to blog couldn't it?
Posted by Quit Smoking Today on April 5, 2008 3:08 PM
Fred, now this is an old post and lots of people have removed and then again added the no-follow tag to their blogs due to spam.

You link to the plugin called dofollow but I believe that I have read somewhere to edit the no-follow tag right out of wordpress.

Unfortunately at this point in time I can't seem to find it. Is there anybody else that knows how to do that? (I'm against to many plugins).

Mikael
Posted by Pet Health Fanatic on April 9, 2008 3:26 PM
I love the concept and the idea. Problem is, I've been on the other side, were I've gotten 100's, if not 1,000's of comment spams. Yes, Akismet does a great job at catching spam, but it also "catches" many of the good comments. I for one don't have the time to moderate to pull out the good ones.

We know the spammers are smart, who's to say their bots do not crawl looking for blogs that do not have nofollow?

I don't have enough time in the day to get everything done, so I have to draw the line somewhere to make the most of the time I have.

In a perfect world....
Posted by Ron Killian on April 22, 2008 8:30 AM
Thanks for this - I found it from Tim Gross' Blog. I'll be implementing this right away on the blog I manage for a partner. Good stuff!

Shawn
Posted by Shawn on April 22, 2008 12:27 PM
I'm gonna give it a try on my 2 blogs and see how much spam I will get. :)
Posted by Long john on May 6, 2008 7:41 AM
I have a few older blogs I will try to promote by removing the nofollow tags. I never had a real problem with it, as long as you read the comments and make sure you delete the spam. Besides people spam even with nofollow tags.
Posted by Monavie on May 9, 2008 6:21 PM
The no follow would stop blog link spam ,sure, and if your into it would stop helping out a compatible site.

I believe helping others,or NOT helping others is what the old addage is saying from the Bible you reap whatsoever you sow.You want to steal from someones elses hard work (blog link spam) then thats what comes back around for you.Also if you want to be tight fisted and un-giving as in helping others out then thats what comes back to you also...
Posted by plumber plumbing electrician electrics on June 3, 2008 10:59 PM
Hey Fred - I just installed the Semiologic plug-in and activated it.

So I'm assuming both my blogs no longer have the no-follow attribute on links in the comment section.

I just viewed my page source code and everything seems to look good. (It now says rel='external' in the outbound comment links code.)

Thanks for the encouragement to get this done!

Ryan
Posted by Ryan Healy on June 12, 2008 7:34 PM
Thx fred to your nofollow free blog, but i'm just wondering how this nofollo free plugin affecting your PR or even your SERP in google SE?
Posted by hary on June 13, 2008 10:52 PM
From Fred...
Hary;
It's not host blogs PR or SERP placement that's affected, but rather the site of the person leaving the comment. It helps them not you. But, if you approved comments from bad sites (porn, gambling, illegal software, etc.) then it could bring your PR and SERP rankings down.
Posted by Fred Black on June 16, 2008 10:54 AM
Hi Fred,

I followed this from your main blog - just out of curiosity. I hadn't realised that Wordpress automatically adds nofollow to posts - in this case ignorance wasn't bliss because I want people to benefit if they take the time and trouble to stop by, read and comment.

I don't get huge numbers of comments and although Akisment catches some SPAM it's not excessive enough to have become unmanageable as yet (anyway I've delegated that particular job of approving comments ;) ).

Am I right in saying that URLs within the posts themselves are effectively treated as dofollows?

And - am I right in thinking that any comments that were already posted before activating the dofollow plug-in will not be updated, it will only benefit new commenters?

Thanks for the 'heads-up' Fred.

Carol
Posted by Carol Bentley on July 1, 2008 6:28 PM
From Fred...
Hey Carol - thanks for stopping by!
I'm not a Word Press user, but I believe that you are correct, if you put a url in a post, it will not get the nofollow treatment, however if a commenter places a link in a comment it will get the nofollow tag, as will their url that is entered in the comment form.

Word Press is dynamic, so if you install the plugin, it should affect all comments, even those already in the system. Movable Type users, after making the changes, will need to rebuild their blog because Movable Type is static vs. dynamic.

Posted by Fred Black on July 2, 2008 10:39 AM
Hey Man i agree the nofollow sucks!!!!
Posted by Jonahton on July 4, 2008 9:24 AM
I think allowing do folliw is good, but allowing people to comment on your blog with names like "Internet Marketing" and "plumber plumbing electrician electrics" really devalues a blog.
Whenever i get comments from spammy names, i always just remove the link and change their name to Joe smith or somthing.
Posted by Chloe on July 11, 2008 4:25 AM
Fred - thanks for your post on this. I would like the option of turning on the no follow tag - I thought it was arrogant - and still is for WordPress to make it default.

All it would take is a simple explanation and toggle switch in the dashboard to turn it on or turn it off.

Spam has nothing to do with it.
Posted by chicago wedding photographer on July 20, 2008 9:21 PM
Old post, but couldn't help leaving a comment to pat you on the back. This whole 'nofollow' thing has really gotten out of hand as a means of pleasing Google, which is really ironic since they preach building websites for visitors and search engines.
Posted by Website Design Seattle on August 4, 2008 8:09 PM
Again another pat on the back. That's you removed the nofollow tag. Also I like the nofollow fight spam not blogs banner you made.
Posted by Pittsburgh SEO on August 7, 2008 1:00 PM

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