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I don’t understand No Follow
By Mike | June 5, 2008
Today’s question:
I don’t understand the NoFollow plugin. I know it has to do with comments, but what exactly is it for and how does it affect users who comment?
First the plugin is called Do Follow.
WordPress right out of the box has no follow built in to the script. This tells the search engine robot’s not to follow any links in the comments of the blog.
You can still click the link and go to the site but Google won’t count the link when formulating your Page Rank (or at least not as much as a do follow link as no one knows exactly what Google does 
).
This also does not count as a link off of your site so it does not bleed off your page rank. This came about because of blog spammers that post comments just to create a back link for their site. They don’t take part in the conversation they are takers not participants that add to the value of the blog.
The Do Follow plugin allows the owner of the blog to easily change that and reward those that comment on their blog. If you add to my value here I am more than happy to allow you a link to the site of your choice that the spiders can follow.
Now this only works if you heavily moderate your blog as with a decent PR ranking and a do follow philosophy the spammers will come a knocking. I encourage participation so for me it is worth it to give all my readers an extra incentive to take part in the conversation. Each person has to make their own decision on that as there is no right or wrong answer.
Hope that clears things up for you.
As always your question and comments are welcomed.
Mike Paetzold
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Topics: questions | We do follow trackback
June 7th, 2008 at 6:25 am
Hi Mike,
What is your best recommendation on using Tags?
Should we put the the_tags code on the index.php and the single.php, or just the single.php page?
Is it best to put them at the foot of your post, as you show above, and what code do you use to do that?
Are tag clouds in the sidebar a good idea, and which is better, in the sidebar or in the individual posts?
Thanks,
Charles Burleigh
http://www.StayHomeDads.com
P.S. It was awesome meeting you at JV Alert Live!
June 9th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Thanks for explaining that. I noticed that you actually put ‘We Do Follow’ in your sidebar
I take it that’s a courtesy to other marketers and website owners to let them know whether you follow.
Am I right?
June 10th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Charles
I have been testing various strategies on this and so far the big thing is to use a tag cloud somewhere.
I am getting results in the serps that are just as good from just using the tag cloud in the widgets in the new version of WordPress as I am in the actual posts.
The main thing is that there is a tag cloud for the spiders to follow.
Mike
June 10th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Doug
Yes it is for the people that frequent the blog. Those using software will know that it follows but hopefully this will get more people to comment because there is something in it for them.
I gain from the increased activity and interaction so it becomes a win - win for all.