Arguments For And Against Having A ‘DoFollow’ Blog

NB and SEO will soon return with their next chat about how to make money from blogs. And one of the subjects they will be discussing will be getting backlinks from commenting on ‘dofollow’ blogs. This is one methods for getting backlinks recommended by many in the make money online business. Therefore, I will use it in NB and SEO’s continuing story.

Nevertheless, I personally have very mixed feelings about the whole concept of ‘dofollow’ commenting. I’ll tell you why. (And of course, this applies to self-hosted Wordpress blogs).

Quite a few successful money making bloggers operate a ‘dofollow’ comments policy on their blogs. Some, like JK Stokes, who writes the excellent Internet Marketing With Joe, offer even more. They use the ‘keyword luv’ plugin, which allows the person making the comment to make a backlink with their chosen keywords, while at the same time leaving their name, which is not linked, and thus they get link juice where it is wanted rather than where it is not.

Setting up your blog as ‘dofollow’ seems like a good idea for new bloggers. You can advertise your blog on dofollow lists and sit back and wait for new commenters to appear. Your hope, of course, is that many like what they read and stay around, not simply to get some ‘comment link luv’ but to become a regular member of your blogging community, adding comment content to your posts and perhaps giving you a nice keyword rich link from their own blogs. And if they sign up for your RSS feed, you can display the numbers proudly in your sidebar.

All this not only makes you feel good and recognised as a blogger with quality content, but more importantly, as well as giving out some link luv, you are getting it back and possible with a more effective link attached.

Fair enough, but is following a ‘dofollow’ comments policy worth it? How will it affect your position in the SERPs and, if you are interested in the money aspect, how will it help you make a living online? Furthermore, if you are interested in the PR aspect of all this, how will following a ‘dofollow’ comment policy affect your blog’s ranking, if at all?

Let’s be honest here. No one really knows the answers to all those questions. (I bet even Matt Cutts himself gets a little confused at times…). We can all only make educated guesses, based on our own and others’ experience. We can, if we choose, look at some of the arguments for and against using ‘dofollow’ commenting.

Arguments For Having A Dofollow Comment Policy:

  • On the one hand, you have those who insist that, if you have a good anti-spam plugin in operation, together with an effective comment moderation policy, you will be fine. You can protect your blog from being overtaken by spammers and other undesirables. This may take a little more effort, but it’s worth it when you can enjoy creating a large community of commentators on your blog.

  • Dofollow advocates argue there is no harm in giving away ‘google juice’ to whoever provides a relevant comment on your blog, as long as you keep an eye on where that comment is linking to.

  • Some Dofollow advocates (particularly those who operate a large number of blogs) also argue the win win aspect can be utilised to set up communities of dofollow blogs (both legitimate and non-legitimate) to give each other backlinks, rather than testing Google’s patience by linking too much between your own blogs…

  • Many dofollow advocates argue that if you are reasonably diligent, giving away ‘google juice’ this way will not affect you much at all.

Arguments For Having A Nofollow Comment Policy:

  • At the other extreme, you can find the staunch advocates of ‘nofollow’ commenting. Many of these will also insist that you use your own name, rather than a keyword, in your comment.

  • Many staunch ‘nofollow’ advocates are acutely concerned about not incurring Google’s wrath and want to act according to ‘best practices’ in every possible way and then some. This, they argue, is the only way to try to ensure your blog’s comments do not affect your ranking and your position in the SERPS.

  • Staunch ‘nofollow’ advocates still want to build a community and receive relevant comments, but they are not prepared to deal with the growing stream of spam which, they argue, even the most diligent anti-spam mechanisms can let slip through the net.

  • Staunch ‘nofollow’ advocates will be very concerned about the website you are linking to in your comment. If it isn’t relevant, they will delete that comment. If the comment is relevant, but your website appears ‘dodgy’, they may include your comment (after all, it adds to the relevant words on the page..), but delete your link. In some cases they may even ‘akismet’ you instead.

  • However, those who advocate ‘nofollow’ are also very aware that, as their readership grows, so will their inability to control all those comments by checking and altering links. At some stage, they will be unable to moderate all their comments and will have to apply the ‘if a previous comment and not if 2 or more links’ policy. This will make them even more determined to always have the default, ‘nofollow’, in place.

  • They fear that giving away ‘google juice’ in comments is a very dicey area indeed. Furthermore, they fear that soon or later Google will decide that ‘dofollow’ commenting is being used simply to get backlinks and raise search engine positions (which of course, in many cases it is). If this happens, they argue, those who use dofollow commenting may receive a ‘Google slap’.

So who is right? Those who advocate dofollow’ commenting, or those who advocate ‘nofollow’?

Personally, I think the answer is probably even more complicated than this.

I have seen JFC from Op Tempo Money Saving Guides comment on a number of blogs including his own concerning How Google May Work Out Algorithms. I cannot link directly, because I cannot find the exact posts. But this is the gist of my translation of what he was getting at (and forgive me if I misread you JFC):

Google Algorithms are complicated. Does anyone at Google really have that much control over every SEO nuance which occurs? There are too many to even contemplate a human keeping up with them. So how on earth can Google manage its ‘quality’ criteria? There has to be some form of automatic ‘quality standards’ operation involving checks and balances.

So, if, you imagine a list of boxes to tick, with a site with no boxes ticked being the ‘perfect quality site’ Google is supposed to love: the ‘well-aged’ domain with loads of unique ‘useful’ content, loads of ‘quality’ backlinks, no evidence of interlinking, no monetisation, etc…. And you imagine the ‘worst site’ in Google’s eyes, with all boxes ticked, being the absolute spam site, brand new and full of keywords and adsense and showing evidence of ’strange linking practices’, etc…

What this gives you is a ‘checking system’ that the Algorithms (who can’t see after all…) are programmed to monitor. Quite a basic set up (and open to error and abuse of course…), but one which does seem to fit a little better with what goes on in the not very benevolent eyes of the machine that is Google.

How does this idea of a ‘check list’ fit in with ‘dofollow’ versus ‘nofollow’ commenting?

Well, let’s say that we all make mistakes. We cannot watch our backs the whole time (although many of us try our damndest to). So why take chances?

  • Are you sure that your ‘dofollow’ blog hasn’t anything else on ‘the check list’ to worry about?

  • Have you tried to ‘tweak the rules’ in any way? (And let’s face it, even white hat SEO is tweaking the rules, or else why bother to place so much emphasis on optimisation methods at all?).

  • Are you writing in niches which will immediately attract at least one tick in that check box? (and I’m not talking only about adult or pharmacy stuff here; plenty of health and make money niches fall into this category too).

  • Have you always followed a strict ‘only link to relevant sites’ policy? (Or have you put in a link or two for your other, different niche sites [and worse, were they on the same IP address], or even a link to a friend or relative, ‘because it was nice to do so’?).

  • Are you using your blog (or one of those you link to) deliberately to make money online (or at least you hope it will eventually)?

  • Are you even sure you haven’t made other mistakes which mean little to you, but may tick off those boxes?

  • And have you been doing all, or some of these things on a new domain?

After answering those questions I have decided not to ‘rock the boat’ any more than I may have already.

And that is why I prefer to keep my comments ‘nofollow’.

However, I am sure there are many who will disagree…

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