Perhaps you’ve noticed the cute little “U Comment, I Follow” logo at the upper right side column of my blog pages.
This logo was created by my friend Randa Clay as a way to let readers know that any links in their blog comment will be followed by the search engines.
What Does “nofollow” Do?
By default, WordPress and many other blog platforms automatically insert the “nofollow” tag into all links placed in the comment section. This means that some search engines (and Google is one of them) will not follow the link to the referred site. In addition, the link will not count towards the referred site’s popularity score in the search engines.
Why would blogs automatically do this? Well, it was supposed to reduce spam. Of course, there are many plugins available that do a much better job at squashing spam.
Why Should You Care?
One thing the nofollow tag does quite well is to reduce the incentive for people to leave useful comments on your blog. This is the main reason I recommend you allow your comment links to be followed.
Some blogs thrive on reader comments. If a reader makes a comment on your blog and links back to useful and relevant information on their own site, shouldn’t they at least get some link credit – also known as Link Love? I certainly think so.
What You Can Do
You’ll find you get more people involved in your discussions if you advertise the fact that the links on your site are followed by the search engines. Yes, there will be people that abuse the system. If you flag your comments for review before they go live, you’ll need to delete the obvious commentators that are just trying to get an easy link to their sales page.
Your first step is to determine how you can turn off the nofollow attribute on your blog platform. For WordPress, check out this plugin.
Secondly, advertise the fact that you follow links within your blog comments. Use Randa’s icons or come up with your own and post it in a prominent place. Write a quick blog post about and link the icon to the post.
By allowing a little link love, you’ll find more people willing to be involved in your discussions!
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