DoFollow vs NoFollow: Never Ending Debate?

Page Rank means nothing. Being on Page one of Google means something.

Spam comment. Same was left on my blog this morning and I just deleted it.

Sonia or whatever your name is, please try and learn authentic commenting skills.

Justin,

My basic premise is that outflow = inflow. I actually like seeing my visitors making comments on other sites I know they found on my site.

Comment Luv is a great do follow tool. It is the kind of outlinks I want on my site. So I am careful not to leak in other places. Like banner ads that have not worked, blog rolls, and making sure all of my other out links open up in a new window. I also use anchor text in my posts to deep link to my own posts on my site.

It is an interesting game and fun to watch what works and what does not work. And it is fun to weigh what out what is most important.

My blog is no follow and I have always been wondering what are the pros and cons of a do follow blog, most people here suggest it would hurt the pagerank , but this time its do follow all the way. But ill have to make sure the comments ill approve are non spammy ones.

Well, we made the switch last night and decided on using the "dofollow case by case" plugin. So we can still approve comments that might have a questionable link without them all being dofollow.

We'll see how it goes.

I want to add a point. I am upset with these big blogs, like rt.com and the economist that don't allow a link even in signature or in a profile. These blogs seem so selfish to me. I think that Google if it is true to the idea of an Inter Net should penalize these blogs by a couple of pagerank points. That would loosen things up I bet.

I notice that some newbies here have nofollow as I track with the mozilla nofollow add on. Am I correct? The blue/purple is dofollow and the pink is nofollow right?

We're considering making the switch to do-follow on our business site / blog, but a bit apprehensive to pull the trigger. So we've been reading about those that have already made the switch.

For anyone that has switched to do-follow, how bad is the spam that you have to wade through? I don't mind a bit of extra work, but obviously I just don't want to be throwing out do-follow links to sites that are going to impact our pagerank. Just curious how much extra work is involved for those that have made the switch.

Thanks for this post and the video was very nice as well. i have to download this "DoFollow" plugin for my blog fast.
Thanks.

Do follow and no follow is another story. According my knowledge Google sees how much work is done on your site I mean how many back links has increased

Hey most of people go for do follow link i guess because do follow links has more Weight age the no follow. Thank you for keeping us informed with the latest information....

I have a blog that has the nofollow tag but is a PR2. I still get some spam but not more than the akismet plugin can catch.

But I think that I will be using the dofollow tag on my new blog. I want to increase traffic and I believe doing that through comments would be a good way to start.

As a blogger too, I would like to have the comment I make mean some backlink for me, so I should think the folks who comment on my blog should expect to receive the same thing I want from their.

Thanks for that post.

Mike
.-= Mike Helton@list marketing´s last blog ..Building Relationships Through List Marketing =-.

I am betwixt the two. I can see the reasoning from Google behind the NoFollow Tag. Trying to discourage spam in comments. The last thing I want is for some idiot to think that he can build up his clients inbound links by spamming my blog.

However, it is gentlemanly to give linkluv to those who are genuine.

DoFollow within your blog post is a must. In the comments, for me the jury is still out.

But I think we spend too much time on the purpose of links. Surely it's not for the purpose of Googles page rank and building inbound link. It should be for the purpose of the readers. For them, who cares of it is DoFollow or NoFollow. It the link has value, they will follow it.

When we loose focus of that we don't deserver out readers. They are the ones for whom the link should be meant for.

So with that purpose in mind, no one should be so overly concerned about DoFollow or NoFollow.
.-= Robert Bravery´s last blog ..Why I started Blogging - Sardar Mohkim Khan =-.

The whole myth about dofollow hurting your pagerank is total BS. SmartBloggerz is dofollow and has a PR4 while my blog rose from PR1 to PR3 whilst maintaining dofollow. As long as your dofollow links ain't leading to shady sites, you can be rest assured of maintaining or bettering your PR with dofollow activated
;-)
.-= Udegbunam Chukwudi@Make Money Online Nigeria´s last blog ..StrictlyOnlineBiz's Top Blog Posts Of The Week 10 =-.

Just wondering if the plugin just installs by itself or do I have to make any adjustments to the html? I have installed it but I see no difference Or Should I? let me know please email me.

I have dofollow blog, but I think that people use no follow link to preserve their sites quality since they believe the amount of out bound links can harm the site. But i believe outbound links to relevant, quality websites, using anchor text (link text) relevant to your topic or industry, are good for a website.

As you well know by now, i am do follow and have been since the inception of the first plugin.

Where is this badge you're proud of?
.-= Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Do You Have 5 BURNING Questions? =-.

One more thing as well...By getting more comments you are also getting lots more Content on each post. And "Content is King".

Basically you are getting people to write on your posts for "free".
.-= AJ@Top Wordpress Themes´s last blog ..Mighty WP Wordpress Theme =-.

Thanks for the video. Its nice to listen as I read the post. And it was very well done.

There is one thing you did not mention and that people often do not realize and that is that 99% of all sites do not actually allow any comments to be added to the homepage and since page rank flows from each individual page your homepage is not really spreading any of its page rank.

And I would tend to think that most people getting link-backs try and get them to their Homepage. Which ultimately becomes the most important page on your site and will retain its high PR. Consequently flowing this high PR to your post pages..

I hope I wasn't too confusing here. But it makes sense to me :)

By the way, another benefit is that many people have written about dofollow blogs and will tend to link to your site. As well as there are a few dofollow blog directories out there you can submit too.

ps: I'm loving the open Computer Case! Looks like my setup. haha.
.-= AJ@Top Wordpress Themes´s last blog ..Mighty WP Wordpress Theme =-.

I think do follow will no harm our blog rank as long as we only approve the legit comment. The shortage of it is only that It may lead to more spam commenting.
.-= Dana @ Blogging Tips Blog´s last blog ..Lightened Your WordPress Security, Please! =-.

Hi my first time here. An interesting article and subsequent comments, although I personally use the Blogger platform.

Clearly you are a person after my own heart since I use Do follow on my three PR3 sites (that I maintain about Thailand).

Although I am not sure of the value of PR, I do like to reward my commenter's with something i.e. a bit of link juice. Do Follow with strict comment moderation fits the bill for me I also get plenty of quality comments that add value to posts.

Whether it affects Google ranking is an interesting point(raised above), all my Do Follow blogs have risen in PR over time and I have had do follow in place over a period over 18 months. None have gone past PR 3!

That said last year in September one of my blogs suddenly dropped out of Google searches (supplemental index-Google penalty?) and I wondered whether I had inadvertently gained some bad neighbours via Do Follow comments or other do follow links on my pages. The bog maintains PR but is still not showing in searches!

Thanks for the opportunity to comment.
.-= Mike from Wat Thai Temple´s last blog ..Wat Chalong-วัดฉลอง- Phuket =-.

I leave commenting as the default (no follow) but I normally link to sites with dofollow attribute on my posts, no matter what the links are (except when they are sponsored like SocialSpark's)@CravingTech
.com´s last blog ..11 days of winning a free domain name and hosting accounts contest =-.

It's a debate that could go on forever, I have a DoFollow blog, but I think one of the other thing that should be taken in to consideration when blogging is good content, this will certainly help when it comes to visitors and search engines finding a blog, it alls boils down to one thing, is the Google PR really that important these days?
.-= BlazingMinds´s last blog ..How to get traffic to your blog =-.

Good job on the video - adds a nice little touch compared to the usual text-based blog posts you see all over the place :)

Oh, and dofollow blog here too!
.-= Klaus @ TechPatio´s last blog ..iPad Taken Apart By TechRestore, Cool Stop-Motion Video! =-.

My site is a do follow ... I have noticed that there are plenty of good blogs that have improved their PR over the last year and they have "do follow" ... so, if Google prefers the no follow there must be other factors in those blogs that over ride it.

I think that a Do Follow encourages others to leave comments and that leads to a nice community of supporters and people you get to know better with whom you can then form strategic alliances as your blogging business grows.

Love the video ... That is on my list of things I want to do with my blog. From everything that I read, video is big time with search engines.

Keep up the good work!
.-= Valentina´s last blog ..Blog Hopping to Success =-.

I say Do follow because if you give some link juice to others sites, the more people will comment on your blog. It will not make your blog down.
.-= Kishan Bagaria´s last blog ..How To Make Your Windows 7 Taskbar Invisible =-.

You noted that you haven't seen any loss of pagerank, but you also haven't seen any gains, either, have you? Has there been any point when you've seen the PR climb, only to settle back at PR2? What about your traffic? Have you seen any significant effects since going Do-Follow?