The No More No Follow Movement

Who would have thought that two little words could start such a trend - or as Chris Cree remarked at Gayla’s MomGadget - a movement! That’s right, the removal of “no follow” code from comments is down right contagious.

The “no follow” link code was originally intended to deter spam comments in the sense that if the link was not followed by the search engines then there wouldn’t be any benefit to the spammers, but spam filters, moderation and plugins are doing that job these days.

The trend is now switching to “do follow” or rewarding users for commenting on your blog by giving them a link each time they do. Now that is what I call nice. If only the rest of the world would play so nicely together.

I am using the Semilogic Wordpress plugin to remove “no follow” and I know there are others.

Gayla posted a list of blogs she knows that are promoting “do follow” and sharing the link love:

Are you generous with your links? Have you joined the “do follow” movement? If so, let us know so we can add you to the list!

The Best of Essential Keystrokes

RSS 10. April 2007 (16:01)
Filed under: Web Marketing, Blogging, WordPress

33 Comments»

  1. Doris

    10. April 2007 | 16:41 h

    Hey Char.. how do we know if we are having the ‘do follow’ or no follow’ codes? I obviously like to be part of the ‘do follow’ community!

  2. Gayla McCord

    10. April 2007 | 16:56 h

    Doris ~
    I wanted to play the “safe side” and just assumed that since I was using Wordpress and Blogger for my blogs that the nofollow was just there.

    I’m not sure about Wordpress, but it was there on blogger. I was able to find a link through David’s link that lead me to the blogger fix.

    As far as Wordpress - the plugin is so easy it only took 5 minutes to complete from start to finish. So it’s 5 minutes that were well spent to insure that my readers get what they deserve :)

    Char, I got the list from David and Dawud and added to it too — it’s fun to watch it grow :)

  3. Webomatica

    10. April 2007 | 17:22 h

    *raises hand*

    Nice to be in good company!

  4. Chris Cree

    10. April 2007 | 17:26 h

    The villagers are getting louder with torches and pitchforks in hand. Man the barricades! Down with NoFollow!

  5. Ponn Sabra

    10. April 2007 | 18:33 h

    Hi Char!
    First time to yours and Gayla’s blogs (sorry it took so long)…but, as I shared I ‘do follow’. Don’t know how, my VA did it…techie-I-am-not.
    Please add me to your list, and I will carry the convo. over at EmpowerWomenNow.com too! Sweet movement :-)
    Hugz, Ponn

  6. Robert Hruzek

    10. April 2007 | 19:47 h

    Hi, Char! I’m with you! Um… how do I do it? :-/

  7. Char

    10. April 2007 | 21:15 h

    Wow! I take the crew to the movies and things are hopping here!

    If you have a Wordpress blog - use the Semilogic dofollow plugin. It is easy - download the file, upload the php file to your plugins directory and activate.

    Jason & Ponn - I will add you now.

    Robert - I’m confused - have you already removed no follow?

  8. Marios Alexandrou

    10. April 2007 | 23:30 h

    I joined not to long ago too. I use the LinkLove plugin which lets me determine how many comments are needed before a person’s like has the nofollow removed. In my case I set it to 2.

  9. Char

    10. April 2007 | 23:35 h

    I just added you Marios! Thanks for letting me know.

  10. David Airey :: Creative Design ::

    11. April 2007 | 10:19 h

    Great you’ve joined the movement!

    I hope all’s well with you, Char.

  11. Doris

    11. April 2007 | 14:42 h

    Sorry Char.. I’m so *duh* with these techie stuff.. where can I get the plugin to make sure I’m on the ‘to follow’ list? for blogger and WP.

  12. Char

    11. April 2007 | 14:46 h

    Thanks David - it is a worthy cause!

    Doris - go to: http://www.semiologic.com/software/dofollow/ for the WP plugin. And here for the Blogger instructions:
    http://betabloggerfordummies.blogspot.com/2007/03/remove-nofollow-attribute-on-comments.html

  13. Randa

    11. April 2007 | 15:16 h

    Want to tell everyone that you’ve turned off the nofollow in your comments? Check out my new “ifollow” logos- grab one for your sidebar!
    http://randaclay.com/archives/the-i-follow-movement

  14. Doris

    12. April 2007 | 15:14 h

    OK - all my blogs are in the movement now - Please add them - thanks!!

    http://www.homeofficewomen.com
    http://www.dorischua.com
    http://www.dorisgoshopping.com
    http://www.dorischua.blogspot.com

  15. Dawud Miracle

    12. April 2007 | 16:24 h

    Now we’re getting a little traction. Thanks. Let’s keep thing ball moving.

  16. Lillie Ammann

    15. April 2007 | 07:30 h

    I’ve joined the No More No Follow movement and added the plugin to my blog as well.

  17. Cass

    15. April 2007 | 20:55 h

    I follow on all my blogs :) I also added your Casual Keystrokes to the D List, which is a traveling list of do follow bloggers.

  18. Homemom3

    18. April 2007 | 09:58 h

    I’ll be adding to this list today. BTW- I added this site to a technorati train going around the net. You can read more about it on my site.

  19. Bob

    18. April 2007 | 16:42 h

    I Follow! :)

    http://bobmeetsworld.com/you-comment-we-follow/

  20. Zigire

    19. April 2007 | 11:27 h

    I follow too ;)

    http://www.zigire.net/2007/01/09/wordpress-and-relexternal-nofollow/

  21. Char

    19. April 2007 | 15:16 h

    Cass, Bob and Zigire - I have added you!

    HomeMom3 - I’m not sure what you need to do in your template as I don’t use that platform.

  22. Gayla McCord

    19. April 2007 | 15:21 h

    To remove from blogger:

    http://betabloggerfordummies.blogspot.com/2007/03/remove-nofollow-attribute-on-comments.html

    Feel free to let me know if you have problems locating it.

    G

  23. Lucy

    24. April 2007 | 14:11 h

    I’m a follower too … at least I hope so. WP plug-in installed at:

    http://www.free-from.com/blog

    But how do I know if it’s working?

  24. Char

    24. April 2007 | 14:38 h

    Lucy - I left you a comment - I’ll tell you later if it is working. If I see an inbound link then it is.

  25. Manila Mom

    26. April 2007 | 12:02 h

    Great to hook up here. I have a DoFollow List, too, at http://manila-mom.blogspot.com/2007/04/reward-your-readers-and-do-follow.html . You might want to check out the blogs listed there, too.

  26. Rob O.

    11. May 2007 | 12:01 h

    I’m a little late to the party, but I finally figured out how to strip the “NoFollow” code from our Blogger templates a bit more than a week ago.

  27. Char

    11. May 2007 | 12:09 h

    Rob - You are fashionably late! Thanks for stopping in.

  28. Cade @ Write To Right

    11. June 2007 | 23:03 h

    I have to say that this movement is amazing and will help out so many bloggers. I love how blogging is becoming more possible for the normal Joe and it will allow for many to gain the knowledge they need to so they can become amazing bloggers.

  29. Cafe_Cafe

    25. June 2007 | 00:01 h

    Thanks for the tip.
    Now I do follow comments on my blog.

    Entretenimiento Online

  30. Laura Lohr : My Beautiful Life

    30. August 2007 | 07:09 h

    I do follow! Add me to the list! :)

  31. mlankton

    23. September 2007 | 09:07 h

    I keep asking people with dofollow blogs this question, and so far I’m not getting any responses. I know that with akismet and moderation spam is a non-issue. Since going dofollow, would you say that the increase in traffic and comments you gained is significant? Comment spam, minor nuisance or overwhelming flood of junk comments?
    Thanks

  32. Marios Alexandrou

    23. September 2007 | 09:30 h

    mlankton,

    I’m not seeing much of a change in comment numbers. My blog is fairly new though. I think nofollow is just one factor. If you’re not writing anything of interest to readers it isn’t going to matter what you do with your links. I, for one, will keep trying!

  33. popcorn ninja

    10. October 2007 | 13:00 h

    I follow links now! If you add me to the list I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

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