ManiaRavings joins the do-follow movement
I only recently discovered (thanks to BlogBloke), that there was actually a movement in the blogosphere “against” an anti-spam technique !
Google (as always the first), announced on its blog in the January of 2005, that it’s spiders will obey the rel=”nofollow” attribute in the link tag, to fight comment-spam.
That means, Google’s spiders will not follow a link that looks like this:
<a href=”http://example.com” rel=”nofollow”>example.com</a>
Ok, but what’s wrong with that ?
That only helps Google to get better search results. It does not do anything to help the blogger, who will still receive spam-comments, nor would it help the honest commentator, hoping to increase their search-engine ranking.
Today, we have better spam fighting techniques like CAPTCHA and other techniques built into blogging platforms. We also have the power of the delete button on our side - the only catch is that you must use it !
Real links to your site that can be followed by search-engines act as back-links and count towards your site’s popularity. You as a commentator would like that wouldn’t you ?
Unfortunately, platforms like Blogger, Wordpress, Typepad and others add the nofollow attribute by default.
What can we do about it ?
Andy Beard has compiled a list of resources on how to remove the nofollow attribute on different platforms. Most of these solutions are in the form of plugins. ExpressionEngine users need not take any action unless the nofollow attribute is hard-coded into the templates.
Once you’ve managed to do that, stick a badge to show your love for your commentators:
These and many more were made by Randa Clay. I had to make my own badge because Clay’s design’s don’t work well with black backgrounds. Be free to grab my version as well if you like it !
There is even a Do-Follow community on BUMPzee managed by Andy. It’s quite an idle place really, although new blogs are added everyday.
Additional Reading
Reject the NoFollow attribute - by Chuck Brown
U comment I follow - from AboutBlogging.info
Reward Blog commentators with your link love - by Blog Bloke
13 reasons why NoFollow tags suck - by Loren Baker at Search Engine Journal
Agruments made in favour of and against - by Darren Rowse
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There are 2 comments
I believe this movement is very powerful, and very honest and true like you stated; if someone wants to leave a comment after reading a blog they should be rewarded in some way, even in a small way such as a link. Do follow blogs are being read more than no follow and the quality of the writing from Andys community is the best I’ve seen
Thank You for your comment Dan ! Commenting is still the most powerful tool to get yourself out there. And it starts with expressing a very good opinion !