Posted by Fox on August 16, 2007 at 9:50 PM
In a nutshell "NO NOFOLLOW" is a campaign to get rid of the NOFOLLOW attribute used by most blogging platforms. It's called "NO NOFOLLOW" because most, if not all commercial bloggers don't want to use it and they don't want other commercial bloggers to use it.
When someone makes a comment on one of your posts they can include a URL. Perhaps to their own site or blog for example. A search engine crawling your blog would then follow the URL and index that content. Most commercial bloggers are happy for commentators to include a URL in their comments on the understanding that the content at the URL contributes to the subject matter of the original post.
SO, WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?
Spam! Blogs that rank well within the various search engines, often find themselves the target of spammers. Spammers will submit junk comments containing a URL simply to have their junk content crawled by the search engines.
OKAY, BUT WHAT IS "NOFOLLOW"?
"NOFOLLOW" is an attribute that can be added to a URL to stop search engines from crawling the content.
Example of a standard link:
<a href='http://www.ukbloggersguide.com'>ukbloggersguide.com</a>
Here's the same link with the NOFOLLOW attribute:
<a href='http://www.ukbloggersguide.com' rel='external nofollow'>ukbloggersguide.com</a>
SURELY, IT'S SIMPLY A CASE OF NOT USING THE "NOFOLLOW" ATTRIBUTE?
Yes, but in an effort to beat the comment spammers, many blog platforms (including TypePad) have the "NOFOLLOW" attribute automatically included in their templates. Most do NOT provide the ability to disable the "NOFOLLOW" attribute, so you're stuck with it unless you can find a hack or plug-in to override their settings.
WHY ARE COMMERCIAL BLOGGERS UP IN ARMS ABOUT "NOFOLLOW"?
Two reasons. Most commercial bloggers (including me) understand that other peoples comments play a big part in the success of blogs. Use of the "NOFOLLOW" attribute discourages comments from being made on our blogs.
Second, when I contribute to another blog by submitting a comment that contains valid, useful information that enhances the original post, I'll often include a link to a URL on my own site that backs up what I'm saying. I consider it my payback for making the contribution.
You post an article on your blog. I make a contribution to the article/discussion with my comment and the "link love" I get from your post page is the payback. The "NOFOLLOW" attribute stops the link love, so I'm less likely to bother making contributions to your post/blog with my comments.
"NO NOFOLLOW" HACKS AND PLUG-INS
So bottom line, the "NOFOLLOW" attribute is detrimental to a commercial bloggers activities. With this in mind a number of hacks and plug-ins have been made available to overcome the "NOFOLLOW" attribute on most blogging platforms.
At this point it has to be asked, Why the fuck don't the blogging platforms make this an option of choice within a users accounts settings?
Andy Beard runs a NO NOFOLLOW Community and Discussion Group on Bumpzee. It's well worth a look, and contains useful information "NOFOLLOW" hacks and plug-ins.
It's also where I got my "U Comment, I Follow" button for use on this site. Potential commentators know that I DON'T use the "NOFOLLOW" attribute, and that their URLS will be indexed by search engines.
Related (external):
- Andy blogs about "NO NOFOLLOW" here.
- Also from Andy, Ultimate List of DOFOLLOW & NOFOLLOW Plugins
- An excellent post on abusers of the NO NOFOLLOW: Blog Commenters. White Black and Gray
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That's all and well for people who want to moderate comments on their blogs, but for those of us who don't have that time it's not really an option.
I do agree though that it wouldn't be that difficult for the software creators to implement an option to turn it off (though should default it to on), however it only increases the incentive of spammers to ply their trade.
Even if the number of blogs increases from (random figure alert) say 5% to 15% that's a lot more spam that will be successful so a lot more motivation to spam. Furthermore, spammers won't just target sites that don't use nofollow, they will do what they do with email addresses and just blanket every blog they can find because it's easier and cheaper.
It's sad that it's come to this, but I don't really see an alternative.
URL: http://nerd.steveferson.com/