As a followup to a past post on Blogussion about the Google Algorithm change, “Jeet” from GetLinksPro has explained the impact of the change in his own words.
I have always advised bloggers to switch to dofollow comments and moderate the comments with a tight fist. This not only rewards the contributors it also brings a lot of traffic from smaller dofollow search engines and links from dofollow lists and directories.
I personally prefer and recommend using the dofollow plugins that can impose a limit of minimum 3-5 comments before a dofollow link is given.
But I sincerely believe that now is the time for people who are still nofollowing their comment links to switch to dofollow; rather it was an year ago when Google changed their treatment of nofollow links – but we didn’t come to know about it until recently.
An Explanation in my Own Words
I will try to explain the changes in interpretation of nofollow links in my words, though you can use the original reference (Matt Cutt’s post and some excellent comments there).
Earlier, if a page had 5 links and page had a PR5, 20% of the PR juice flowed to these links. It was slightly below 20% because a decay factor was introduced to ensure that all pages don’t end up getting a PR10; but we won’t go into those details.
If you had a contact and a privacy page out of these 5, it was very easy to manipulate the PR flow by nofollowing the links to contact and privacy page. Thus, the PR“>PR juice was distributed among three pages only and these pages got 33% PR juice each.
PageRank sculpting or nofollow was a great method to increase the PR for internal pages by nofollowing links to external pages or to contact / privacy type of pages.
What That All Means
With the new changes, however, the effort of nofollowing is wasted completely and you won’t get the 33% PR juice on remaining three links even if you dofollow the 2 pages. It can still be argued that only 10% juice is leaked for each of these nofollow links (as compared to 20% earlier) and that leaves us with 80/3% ~ 26% PR juice remaining for the remaining 3 links. But that’s not for sure and I wouldn’t be surprised if the remaining links are still getting only 20% juice (with a decay).
So now that we have established that nofollowing links is not going to affect the internal linking much it’s much better to dofollow external links in comments, at least someone is benefiting from these links and that someone is a regular contributor to your blog.
So, rather than throwing away 20% of PR juice, it could be given away to someone who visits your blog regularly and makes it a point to write an informative comment.
How Did I Put That?
I tried to explain this new change in the flow of PageRank to a page using a different kind of example here. Let me know how I did, and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask!
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Great Idea, i think all blog have to be in dofollow with a good moderation !
Good comment made more word for Seo…what a good compromise no ?
I believe we should see a great number of bloggers switching to dofollow comments in near future. You give back something to readers who are contributing. People have monthly top commentator contests nowadays.
I thnk right now I am going to get the do follow plug-in and get started switching it over right away… then maybe Janith and Alex can add me to their dofollow directory!
Do you recommend any plug-in in particular for wordpress?
Seth W @ Blogging Agenda´s last blog ..Diving into the Blogging Pool
I have used lucia’s linky luv, sem dofollow and recently Hobo SEO also launched another one based on Lucia’s. Some like ‘nofollow free’ too.
I’m having some issues with the directory, but all will be up and running again soon!
Alex´s last blog ..Let Me Critique Your Thesis Customization – 30 Days Only
I recently switched my blog to dofollow after reading about this change at some other blogs. It’s also a great way to encourage people to get in and leave some comments. In fact, you can count on me subscribing and following the blog here (actually I already have) because you have just rewarded me for doing so! Thanks!
Nicholas Z. Cardot´s last blog ..5 Things You Need To Know About Trackbacks
@Nicholas: Alex and Janith are doing a great job with this blog and you shouldn’t subscribe just for a dofollow comment, I found them because they were dofollow but I have subscribed because they cover some really good topics and I have often went back and changed things on my blogs after reading their posts.
I actually subscribed here a few days ago, but I wanted to emphasize the point that it really is nice to be rewarded for it as well. I love reading the articles on here. You are right that they very helpful.
Nicholas Z. Cardot´s last blog ..10 Beautiful Hand-Sketched Fonts
Thanks a lot Nicolas! Whatever the reason it is for subscribing, it’s always justifiable here!
Alex´s last blog ..Let Me Critique Your Thesis Customization – 30 Days Only
So I’m convinced dofollow is the way to go. But, similar to Seth’s comment, what’s the best way to make a WordPress blog dofollow? I’d really want to read a post that answers this question…
Nick Tart | JuniorBiz´s last blog ..Learnings from a Lemonade Stand – JJ Entry #20
@Alex: Maybe another post in the making for you? List of dofollow plugins? Michelem’s was really popular earlier.
@Nick: I think let’s see a response for these question in a post from the blog owners
)
Thanks, Jeet! Yeah, Alex and Janith are pretty good at giving their readers what they want.
Nick Tart | JuniorBiz´s last blog ..What it Takes to Be an Entrepreneur
I always used the No Follow Free plugin and now my blogs PR has gone up as well as my site is ranking higher for keywords.
Mohnish – Make Money Online´s last blog ..Make Money Online Without Spending Money Online
Okay, so we should DoFollow comments. But what about feeds, privacy pages, contact pages, etc.? Should we just eliminate nofollow completely?
@Ben: Removing dofollow on comments / trackbacks is secondary. I have already removed nofollow from privacy / contact pages but I still keep it for feeds page. Any page on my site that links back to homepage and is crawlable has a dofollow link now. Earlier the juice was going ‘in vacuum’; hopefully now some of it will flow back.
Ok, so basically everything but the feeds page. Cool, thanks for the advice!
Ben´s last blog ..Lawn Estimation Calculator – Figure Out How Much Money to Charge Lawn Customers
Thanks for the info. Your post informed me about the changes I need to make to my blog.
HAVOC MARKETING´s last blog ..Google Cash Sniper – Predator Or Prey?
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head really with this article
As long as you don’t allow links out to dodgy malware sites then there is no downside to “dofollow” links
AndyW @ DoFollow 001´s last blog ..New Quality Directories List – June 2009
AndyW: Most malware distributors are now smart and they now hack genuine sites with good traffic and distribute their malware (I know because some of my sites were hit lke that).
The other problem is bait and switch, both adult and gambling industry webmasters know that they can’t get links from webmasters easily, hence they make sites without their target content, get backlinks and traffic and then switch. I see a lot of free directories turning into adult sites almost everyday.
I’m sorry but I didn’t understand anything.
Enk.´s last blog ..Interview with Kovshenin (Web Developer)
Lol ! Let’s discuss this on email
Yeah, Now a days we can see tag on every blog “U FOLLOW,I COMMENT”, lol…Also
Search engine optimizers have been using this method for a very long time, Individuals who work at home that uses SEO for targeted traffic by now understands to get a blog ranking into the Google, Yahoo, and MSN search engine results pages you need backlinks. Although I recommend anchored backlinks to any kind of appropriate blog I would suggest that you use Do-Follow blogs, but No-Follow blogs are okay too. It’s just these are two different kind of linking structures.
I reasearched http://www.dmoz.com and found that it has over 4 million out going links and only has 2 million incoming links and still has PR 8. Really the only thing you should worry about when placing links to your site is to go over 50 or so for any specific page. Anyway this is one example of a well ranking site that has far more out going than incoming links yet still ranks very well.
Mark Slater´s last blog ..Healthy Living: Gaining Maximum Benefits
@Mark: I never knew that DMOZ has 2 million incoming links. Yes, it’s true that it has many more outgoing links. I believe that will be true for most directories. I comment on a lot of nofollow blogs though I know it’s not going to benefit my site / blog, I am commenting to express opinion and most of the times I am a recognized part of blogger’s community.
Great post here Jeet! This kind of stuff is really not my kind of thing and I have learned a lot from reading both Janith’s and your explanation on this.
I am going to do the best I can to implement these changes here.
Alex´s last blog ..Let Me Critique Your Thesis Customization – 30 Days Only
@Alex: Thanks for the great editing you have done on the post. Apart from the directory you had OIOPublisher to fix too
)
Yeah, some weird stuff happened when we switched hosts.
Thanks for reminding me, and I totally meant to email you about that!
Alex´s last blog ..Young Blogger Interviews #1: Simon Rogers of Teenius.com
I am very glad to know about do follow plugin Actually i have the blog with do follow attribute
Suchmaschinen Marketing´s last blog ..Ludwig Boltzmann Institut – Projekt "LARRGE"
i think i know what you mean. hopefully the message gets around and people lose the nofollow tags.
People do not have that much time to cleaning the spam comments and hence they opted for No Follow to avoid spam comments.
But yes if you have only one blog and you are giving full concentration on that than managing will be easy compare to when you manage more than one blogs.
Squidoo Lens´s last blog ..Looking for a great wordpress designer
Squidoo Lens (or whatever is your name): The automated spam remains at almost the same levels for both dofollow and nofollow blogs, what now remains is that you don’t moderate the comments and keep them nofollow, you will still see some bad comments being shown even though they are nofollow. Each nofollow comment is draining PR from other pages of your site but it’s not helping the commentator either.
I tried the dofollow back in 2007 and the only thing I really noticed was the increase in the amount of moderating needed to keep up with the comments. I didn’t seem to get any more comments that were on target but I certainly did get a lot of spam.
I kept up with it for almost a year I think and then gave up and went back to nofollow.
Now that I see I can install a plugin that will wait until a commentor has about 5 approved comments before making them dofollow I am once again excited about dofollow.
I still have to let what you wrote sink into for a while.
James Mann´s last blog ..How To Make Money Online With Google Adsense
@James: I agree that moderation time may increase with making comments dofollow, and i’t because you start getting more comments that Akismet is not able to scan. I believe giving a dofollow link after 5 approved comment is the best way to make a blog dofollow. You are only rewarding regular contributors, don’t forget that with every comment there is some new content being added to your blog.
This post is more to do with making comments dofollow because PR distribution doesn’t change much regardless of comments being dofollow or nofollow.
Great explanation on PR Juice and how the Google change affects outgoing links.
With the Google change, there is really no reason not to change your blog to dofollow, and reward those who leave quality and relevant comments.
You are correct in stating that you must moderate the comments with a tight fist. As my dofollow blog has gotten more popular, and I have seen more comments, I have had to become more strict in what comments I allow.
Perhaps it’s time to change to the plugin you mention that will allow dofollow after 3-5 good comments.
Mike
Mike of Dofollow Blogs´s last blog ..Hiring Out DoFollow Blog Comments
@Mike: I have been a regular visitor to your site and blog, keep up the good work ! Some people also reward their visitors with monthly roundups of interesting website their readers own, I feel that’s a great way to build a community. Top commentator plug-in looks lame in front of this.
I would love to see more people start using dofollow instead of nofollow. Unfortunately there’s a bit to much spam to convince me take the step. I’m looking forward to read about the impact of this change before changing myself.
Stefan´s last blog ..How to Make Money With Twitter
If your blog is a “dofollow” site, many visitors wants to post their links because they know that they can have a valid backlink from your site but dofollow can attract visitor and spammer. But if we use captcha and/or moderate comment also use akismet I think this can make your blog safe.
Dating advice forum´s last blog ..Cats ‘exploit’ owners by purring
Making a blog dofollow comes with it’s baggage of increased ‘moderation’ time. I recommend that you have a clear commenting policy about what you allow in comments. Bots are not going to read it but hopefully genuine readers will make sure to read comments.
hello guys,
this is a very welcome news for your readers am sure, because a week ago i did the same to my blog and joined the ranks of ‘dofollow’ blogs and as a blogger myself i can understand the amount of comments you must be getting, i received 150+ spam comments within 4 days so its going to be a hard time moderating this, but it surely generates regular readerships and more traffic.
Wish you good luck!
sameer joad´s last blog ..5 killer twitter apps which will save you lots of time
@Sameer: Congrats for making the right choice. I did see that you got 9 responses to your announcement of turning dofollow. Making the blogs dofollow is an excellent way (atleast for webmaster related blogs) to get new visitors. It’s your job to keep them hooked. I came to blogussion via a dofollow finding search engine and have been a regular reader and guest poster. Needless to say that Alex (and earlier Janith) have managed to put up some great posts (some of which I have bookmarked and keep going back again).
Do-Follow Blogs have one advantage! They can get a High Page Rank soon because they get listed in good Page Rank Do-Follow listing directories.
@Tech-Freak-Stuff: I am not sure that’s entirely true, there are barely any dofollow directories. Dofollow blogs lists were really popular in 2007 but I will agree about getting ranked for keywords in a dofollow search engines to get traffic.
Posting comments in dofollow blogs help to make back links. Thanks for the post.
I think do-follow comment is more popular today and it is more effective than other link building because of easy approval.
Do follow comments are widely use by SEO professionals all over the world. Because it is a big help for them and vice versa.
great idea, i’ll do the samething
I have to try this any ways thanks for the very informative posted.
I will try this on my wordpress blog. Lets see what is the difference in blog traffic. i am still confused on PR algorithms. Thanks for your informative post.
Allow dofollow comments on a blog has its own advantage and disadvantage. One advantage is that its helps if your blog is new to get the traffic as more people will visit more because of the link juice shared, however, spammer will probably take over except if you have a good spam filter
Online shop hosting´s last blog ..F.A.Q
I’ve been wrestling with going DoFollow for a while. You provide some excellent insights. It would also be interesting to get some metrics of the effect on visits and pageviews after converting to DoFollow. Do people see any measurable effect in terms of unique visitors or pageviews per visit? Just a thought. Thanks for a very useful post.
Computer Tech Tips´s last blog ..Microsoft Windows 7 Release Insights
Here is what I think… metrics have been studied first… our commenting is higher than when it was nofollow by a considerable amount. The commenting here has increased our readership and boosted our traffic and pageviews. I have seen that the more active a blog’s community the more traffic you get. If your readers leave comments they are invested in your blog and will be more likely to tweet, stumble or digg your posts they comment on.
I like this info,.
I was concern using dofollow, yeah I know it make me flooding with spammer, anyway i love if spammers knowing and getting spam to my blogs because it were increase my traffic and i don’t worried coz I just needed active my akismet and DONE I was secure
Aming´s last blog ..Microsoft Office Labs vision 2019 – Touch Screen Technology Sophistication
Thanks for the post, good info.
I think with dofollow everyone wins. Those who want to increase our PR, we’ll go to post on blogs and possibly final will like it
Hi you all and dear this blog author,
I suggest you all my friend to don’t turn you blog to Do Follow blog. If you are asking why? ok. here is the answer:
Don’t turn your blog to Do Follow blog
Thank you!
Good insight, though you may have to moderate more if you maintain a dofollow blog, but i have to say its promote the blog, after removing the nofollow attribute, my blog gets a lot of traffic.
Having a dofollow blog, its a chance to reward those who take the time to leave constructive comments on your blog.
I love do follow blog. As commenter it encourage me more to leave a comment. I read Anup’s story, but I am not sure about what he say in his blog.
thanks,you have explained the significance of dofollow
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