Dofollow FAQ

• What is Dofollow?
• Why was “nofollow” invented?
• Does nofollow stop spam?
• Why is dofollow better than nofollow?
• How do I make my blog dofollow?
• How does commenting on a dofollow blog promote my Web site?
• Will making my blog dofollow encourage spammers?
• How can I protect my blog against spam?
• How can I tell if a site is dofollow?
  • Using Windows Internet Explorer
  • Using Firefox on Mac
• How do I find Dofollow sites?
• How do I tell people about my dofollow blog?

What is “Dofollow”?

Dofollow refers to normal links that do not have the “nofollow” tag. Websites that do not use “nofollow” are called “dofollow”. Both types of links look exactly the same when you view a Web page. However, when you look at the HTML for a Web page (by viewing the text of the source file), you can tell the difference.

For example, this is a normal dofollow link:

<a href="http://www.adamloving.com">Adam Loving's Blog</a>

this is a nofollow link:

<a href="http://www.adamloving.com" rel="nofollow">Adam Loving's Blog</a>

Why was “nofollow” invented?

In the beginning, all links were dofollow. Search engines (such as Google) ranked pages based on the number of dofollow links that pointed to them. Spammers soon learned this and targeted any site giving away free links (like blogs with un-moderated comments and bookmark sites) to increase their page’s rank by linking to themselves.

In an effort to discourage spammers, the nofollow tag was invented to indicate an un-approved link. Nofollow tells the search engine not to follow the link, denying the spammer any increase in page rank. As of 2009, nearly all blog software marks all comments (whether moderated or not) as nofollow.

Does nofollow stop spam?

No. Nofollow keeps search engines from rewarding spam, but it doesn’t stop the spammers from trying. As we all know from using email, simply not reading the spam doesn’t stop the spammers from sending it.

“Wikipedia has decided to nofollow all external links to help offset people spamming the service. In theory this should work perfectly, but in practice although all major blogging tools did this two years ago and comment and trackback spam is still 100 times worse now. In hindsight, I don’t think nofollow had much of an effect, though I’m still glad we tried it.”

- Matt Mullenweg, inventor of Wordpress

Why is dofollow better than nofollow?

Not only does nofollow fail to stop spam, it denies honest commenters and site participants a small but important reward. A normal dofollow link is a nice reward to a person who contributed a thoughtful remark on your site. Making your site dofollow, telling others that it is dofollow, and rewarding commenters will motivate more visitors to spend time on your site and provide valuable comments.

How do I make my blog dofollow?

We are working on a dofollow plugin for Wordpress here at PageRush, but in the meantime, try one of these. Also, CommentLuv and Show Top Commenters are a popular way to reward comments.

How does commenting on a dofollow blog promote my Web site?

Most blog software creates a link to your Web site when you comment on a blog post. Links bring people to your site when they click the link, but each link can also count as a “vote” for your site with search engines. These votes increase your page rank and make your site appear closer to the top in search engine result pages. Dofollow blogs create normal links that count as a vote for your site.

Will making my blog dofollow encourage spammers?

Yes, especially if you promote it. Likely spammers will discover your blog as a source of valuable dofollow links. However just like email, you can set up your blog to filter out the spam.

How can I protect my blog against spam?

For Wordpress, we highly recommend the Akismet plugin. In our experience it hides more than 90% of blog comment spam.

We also recommend that you set a minimum content length on your comments. You can use the minimum comment length plugin to require all comments have a certain number of words. This will help with the annoying “Great post!” comments.

Also, we recommend not getting an email for every message, just visit every couple of days and moderate the comments in bulk. Finally, make sure your blog holds comments that hold more than 1 link in the comment body (this is easy to configure in Wordpress).

How can I tell if a site is dofollow?

Basically, just select “view source” from your browser’s menu to look at the HTML. Look for links that have <a rel=”nofollow”>Joe Commenter</a>. If you see that, the blog is nofollow (bad) not dofollow (good). You can also find Firefox plugins and hacks that will highlight nofollow links.

Using Windows Internet explorer

1. Find the comments on the blog

2. Look at an individual comment. Usually, there is a link to the author of the comment.

3. Right click on the page and select “View Source”

4. Type ctrl-f and search on the name of the commenter.

5. Look in the anchor tag for “nofollow”.

Using FireFox on Mac (same instructions for Windows)

If you want to spot links without viewing the HTML source, find an existing comment and right click on the link to the commenter. Again, you want to find links without “nofollow”.

1. Find the comments on the blog

2. Look at an individual comment. Usually, there is a link to the author of the comment.

3. Right click on the link to the commenter, and select “properties”.

4. Firefox will pop open a window that tells you if the link is nofollow. If it doesn’t say nofollow, it is considered dofollow.

How do I find Dofollow sites?

The PageRush guide to dofollow resources is coming soon.

How do I tell people about my dofollow blog?

Add your site to the PageRush dofollow blog list. Once it is accepted, it will be searchable and also published to the world in our dofollow RSS feed.