Not too long ago, when I first started this blog, the whole do-follow, no-follow attribute had me very freakin’ confused. I googled about it and read a bunch of articles on it but still couldn’t fully follow what this was all about.
Just like most other things that take time and experience to fully comprehend; I finally figured out what do follow and nofollow is all about. Now let me see if I can explain this knowledge I have gained as simply as I possibly can. Moreover, I also want to talk about how important they are for blogs and websites.
So, what really is this all about?
Nofollow is nothing but a piece of html code added to a link so that the search engines do not pass the authority/power along; but they still follow the link. In other words, these kinds of links have no impact on the backlinks and PageRank. The PageRank is not transferred to the linked site but search engines still trail the link.
To make a link nofollow all you have to do is add rel=“no follow” inside the html code for that particular link. Here is an example on how this code can be used in a link to a website:
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<a herf=“http://www.yoursite.com” rel=“nofollow”>your site name</a>
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On the other hand, do follow links not only get followed by the search engines but also have influence over backlinks and PageRank. Do follow is the default trait on any links so there is no code for it.
How to figure it out in a link?
If you ever want to find out if a link is do follow or nofollow in a webpage, here are the simple steps you can implement:
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After you find the link, look whether the link has nofollow tag or not. If it doesn’t then you know that the link is automatically a do follow.
Advantages of do follow:
One major benefit of having a do follow blog is that you might get more comments on it. A lot of bloggers and website owners tend to look for the do follow blogs that is going to help them gain some influence regarding backlinks and PageRank. This blog is also a do follow blog so with every comments you make here; you get some authority transferred to your site (O: Another benefit is that your website is likely to be listed by various directories that congregates the do follow sites.
Disadvantages of do follow:
There are some disadvantages of having a do follow blog. Not having nofollow code in the links may attract spams very easily. Another disadvantage is that when you give authority to spammy sites or the sites with low PageRank, your PageRank and authority gets impacted as well.
Benefits of do follow and nofollow:
Now that you know the advantages and disadvantages of do follow links, you need to know that nofollow links are significant to your site as well. Why? Because of the following reasons:
- Mixing the backlinks from both the do follow and nofollow sites makes your link building strategy more natural in the eyes of the search engines.
- Even though nofollow links do not pass the authority; linking to nofollow sites with high PageRank is still going to contribute towards SEO.
You must have noticed that I mentioned do follow and nofollow sites as well as links repeatedly above. I am not trying to confuse you here but only the links can be do follow or nofollow not the site. The sites that contain do follow links are often referred as do follow sites and vice versa with nofollow.
I have never really paid attention to the do follow or nofollow links in my blog till very recently. I know that the latest version of WordPress and some other publishing platforms automatically assigns the nofollow attribute to all the user-submitted links e.g. comment data, commenter URI and so on. Using plugins like Dofollow, Link Love, Keywordluv, Commentluv can help you make your comments and other user submitted links do follow.
If your blog is fairly new, it is okay to make it a do follow blog but later on down the line, once you start picking up on the PageRank, you may need to make it a nofollow blog to protect your site’s authority and PageRank with the search engines particularly Google.
Should you get carried away with all this?
Okay, like I have mentioned above, the combination of both do follow and nofollow links from relevant sites can have an impact on your SEO and even the PageRank. But should you really fret too much looking for do follow blogs so that you can comment on them?
If you are trying to rank your niche sites in search engines, finding a list of related do follow blogs can be helpful. However if you are a blogger, I don’t think being too obsessed with this is much beneficial. You should really be creating unique and useful contents regularly instead of focusing more on finding do follow sites to leave comments on. Maybe at times you need to remind yourself that pleasing your audience is more important than pleasing the search engines!
You may not earn the authority from commenting on nofollow blogs but with powerful commenting strategies; you can still generate awesome traffic to your site. Once you leave great comments on other blogs people will start to come visit your site. Hence, personally I thing fretting too much over commenting on dofollow blogs is simply a waste of your precious time.
What do you think?
Please feel free to comment down below and add to the above conversation. Plus, if you like this article Tweet it, share it in Facebook or your favorite social media outlets.
Here’s to your successful online endeavor!
-Adam Paudyal.
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Before you go...
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I created this blog to chronicle the success and failures of my various online endeavors and to share with you the knowledge I gain along the way... 
Hi Adam
This is an oft debated topic isn’t it. I am happy to give link-luv to my readers. And when I first started my blog I was advised to look for dofollow blogs to comment on.
That was quite time consuming and then I joined commluv where most blogs I visited were dofollow too. I did find out that some commluv sites are not dofollow; they just may not advertise the fact!
Thanks for showing us how we can check. Now that my blog is known by quite a few other bloggers, maybe it isn’t so important. I believe it did help when I got started. Thanks for sharing Adam. Appreciated.
Patricia Perth Australia
Patricia recently posted..Create Impact- Not Traffic Spikes
Pat; Yes it is indeed an often debated topic. No matter how many times this is being discussed around the blogosphere, I needed to address what I thought on this subject matter – particularly about spending a lot of time looking for do follow blogs to comment on (O:
From my own experience, I have found that commenting on related do follow sites in order to build back-links for mini niche sites can be very helpful. However for regular blogs that are updated on a constant basis, I don’t think being too obsessed with this is much beneficial. Even though it might help a little bit when first starting out just like you said..Just my 2 cents!
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Patricia Millman, Adam Paudyal. Adam Paudyal said: Do-Follow, No-follow: Follow Me If You Don't! – http://endeavor-online.com/?p=10502 [...]
The one drawback as I’m seeing it now, Adam, is that you often get people that want to just leave a comment for the sake of building a link.
Well, it’s always been like this with blogs but it’s even other bloggers which will tell you they hate having low quality comments and then come to your site to do it – never makes sense.
Overall, natural dofollow links are best but any of them count in the long run; build em naturally and you’re good to go
I often experience the same thing Murray – people leaving comments just for the sake of getting authority to their sites. At times I am compelled to disapprove such comments and mark them as spams (O:
Hi Adam:
There are so many plug ins for word press that it is hard to keep track of these. Do you thing do follow or no follow link creates a difference on a business blog, where comments are usually closed ? I think It is not at all needed there.
Thanks for the useful information.
Fran A
Fran Aslam From Onlinewriter recently posted..Most Blog Comments Take A Lot More Than Content Writing
Well Fran; I am not a big fan of turning the comments off regardless of whether the blog is personal or business. I still haven’t fully understood why anyone would turn the comments off in a blog. Well, if it is a niche site or just a static page used for advertising services and skills I can understand.
When there is no interface for user submitted links and comments; there is no point in using any do follow plugins. I agree with you on that one!
Later Fran.
I think that leaving well thought-out comments is more important than the do-follow or no-follow attribute. Because if you are leaving high quality comments on other sites, their visitors may take notice and in turn will visit your blog.
As far as my own blog, I made it do-follow. Blogging is all about conversation and community, and if it gives someone an extra incentive to leave a beneficial comment I don’t see reason not to do it.
Right on Eugene! I totally agree with you here brother!
I believe making your blog a do follow does add an incentive for people to come and participate in the discussion!
Hey Adam,
Well, I’m right there with you where it took me some time to figure this all out. This computer terminology was way over my head and I have to learn things when they are explained to me in simple and easy to understand language. It took some time but it finally all started to sink in.
You’ve done a wonderful job of explaining this to us so I know anyone who visits your post and reads your explanation will be able to finally “get it” too!
Thanks for doing such a wonderful job! Great post!
Adrienne
Adrienne recently posted..My Twitter Revelations
Hey Adrienne;
Funny how things work huh! For me things only start to sink in when I actually use it in my own context and also write about them instead of just reading about them in someone else’s post (O:
Thank you for the awesome comments.
Hope to see ya around!
[...] mentioned that the recent articles which got published here, particularly, tags and categories and do follow nofollow have already been talked about by hundreds of bloggers out there. He went as far as saying that I [...]
Great explanation, Adam. This is a topic that is confusing to many so your post is a “must save” reference to be able to give others as they start their blogs. Thx so much. Aloha. Janet
Janet Callaway recently posted..How to Fish Your Way to More Contacts & Clients by Janet Callaway The Natural Networker
You are welcome Janet. I agree; all this do follow and no follow can be real confusing at times. One reason why it becomes so confusing is that a lot of bloggers go on and on about what it is and never give much take on how fretting over this is not that important.
Thank you for your comments. Hope to see you around.
Later!
Hi Adam,
I think the question of no follow vs do follow has been there for as long as search engines existed. I think as a blogger, you should not be worried much about if the link you are getting is a dofollow one or a nofollow one. The most important part of blogging is writing..writing awesome content and engaging with other bloggers through social media, comments and all. I think the link back you get from doing all this is just a by-product and is not something you should be obsessed with
Shiva
Shiva recently posted..An Insight into Link Cloaking
I am glad I read this, I have been really focusing on do follow. I had heard that everything needs to look natural to Google, so I now understand this more. I guess I need to not focus so hard on do follow and just focus on the customers.
[...] What in the heck is dofollow & nofollow [...]