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It is well known that Google prefers it that we use the no-follow tag on our blogs. The premise is simple, and on the whole I have to agree with it. In principle. If your not familiar with the no-follow tag, it essentially tells Google not to follow a particular link, and by extension, not to share your PR with the other end of the link. The stated purpose is to help prevent irrelevant link juice from diluting the search engine results.
Here’s how it works: let’s say that I mention your blog in one of my posts, and nice guy that I am, provide a link to you. An in post link is fine, as it is (usually) topically related, and will not have the no-follow tag attached to it. Comments, on the other hand, are a whole different story. If I should mosey on over to your blog, read something interesting, and decide to comment on it, any linking from my name to my site in the comments section of your blog will be a no-follow link by default. This varies a bit from one platform to the next, but it is the default for most blogging systems such as WordPress.
This can be a good thing, as it prevents hit and run commenting from people with lovely names like “buy-viagra-here”.
On the other hand, it does not reward bloggers for participating, and this is where it gets a little sticky. Some bloggers took enough exception to this policy and practise that they created plugins for the express purpose of removing the no-follow attribute from all links on a blog. To date, I have used one of these plugins, as I appreciate comments on my blog, and don’t mind giving a little link juice back. To me, it’s the cyber equivalent of buying you a cup of coffee as a thanks for your part in the conversation.
That has changed, at least for the time being.
It started with a little Search Engine Results Pages experiment. You may recall that a few weeks ago I wrote an article titled “I Haz Ginger, and it is Cool”. Well, one day I decided to see where (or even if) that article was ranking for the search phrase “Netvibes Ginger”. Keep in mind here that I didn’t SEO this article for that term, I was just curious. Surprise! It did rank, coming in at #77 in the Google SERPs! That’s when the idea for my little experiment was born.
If you have been following the Internet Marketing trends of late, many of the new teachings are centered around Web 2.0 and Social Marketing. I decided to try out just one of the techniques, and see if I could influence the rankings for that article one way or the other. I won’t go into the gory details here, but the net result was that all my efforts resulted in no attributable change to that article’s rankings. What the heck is going on?
My first thought was that the gurus weren’t telling me the whole story. They might even be flat out lying. Not a pleasant thought, to be sure. Then I came across a post explaining why Wayne Liew decided to set his blog back to a no-follow blog. After reading his article, I embarked upon a research project, to try and determine the truth of his concerns.
While I didn’t find anything definitive from Google, I did run across some rumours that Google was penalizing blogs that use the do-follow plugins. Looking at Google’s TOS, and some statements made at Webmaster Central, I have to say that it is possible, as it is completely in line with their primary concerns: the sanctity of the Google Search Engine Results.
So now I embark on a new experiment. I have disabled the do-follow plugin for techne-eikon for the time being. I’m giving it a month, and then we will see what happens, not just to my Netvibes Ginger article, but to t-e in general. Will I gain near instant PR, as one fellow claimed? Will I rank higher for various keywords, now that I am a no-follow kind of fellow? We will have to see. I will report my conclusions when the experiment is over, and let you know what I think at that time.
But while we’re waiting, what do you think? Leave me a comment, and let me know. Even if I can’t at this time give you a do-follow link, know that I wish I could, and am very grateful to anyone who does comment. This policy of mine may change in a month or so, so you might get the link love anyway 
You never know…
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The images used are derived from a photograph taken by dori, and found at commons.wikimedia.org. You are free to use these images under a creative commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. You are not free to link to them. If you wish to use them, please right-click on the image, and save it to your hard drive.
Wednesday, February 6th, 2008 at 6:00 amand is filed under Link Love, Web 2.0, Wordpress. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I\'m confused. Do you think Google\'s distinction between comments and other blog content is justified or not? I can understand why Google-pressure has a mellowing effect. Nevertheless, in my opinion, this no-follow stuff is completely arbitrary and heavy-handed.
I haven\'t actually made up my mind on that point yet. On the one hand, if the commentor\'s site is related to mine, then all is well and good, but if it\'s not, then from G\'s point of view the PR sharing should not come into effect. This is one area where the compartmentalization of the net works against us, because human beings are naturally interested in more than one thing. I may blog about Web 2.0, et al, but I also have an interest in cooking. If I leave a comment on your blog, it\'s related to mine, but if I do the same on a blog that is about cooking, it isn\'t related to my niche, and sharing PR will dilute the SERPs, at least in theory. Google\'s main purpose is to protect the integrity of its search engine results, so I can see why they might take this attitude, but as you say, it is heavy handed, and completely arbitrary. At this point I\'m reserving my personal judgment, at least until my experiment is over. I\'m trying to look at it in an even-handed manner, just the facts if you will. Thanks for dropping by, Rick
I’m confused. Do you think Google’s distinction between comments and other blog content is justified or not? I can understand why Google-pressure has a mellowing effect. Nevertheless, in my opinion, this no-follow stuff is completely arbitrary and heavy-handed.
I haven’t actually made up my mind on that point yet. On the one hand, if the commentor’s site is related to mine, then all is well and good, but if it’s not, then from G’s point of view the PR sharing should not come into effect. This is one area where the compartmentalization of the net works against us, because human beings are naturally interested in more than one thing. I may blog about Web 2.0, et al, but I also have an interest in cooking. If I leave a comment on your blog, it’s related to mine, but if I do the same on a blog that is about cooking, it isn’t related to my niche, and sharing PR will dilute the SERPs, at least in theory.
Google’s main purpose is to protect the integrity of its search engine results, so I can see why they might take this attitude, but as you say, it is heavy handed, and completely arbitrary. At this point I’m reserving my personal judgment, at least until my experiment is over. I’m trying to look at it in an even-handed manner, just the facts if you will.
Thanks for dropping by, Rick
Nice post friend. It\'s a always nice to experiment. I\'ll wait for your reports.. I believe, this blog is a success in the making…
Nice post friend. It’s a always nice to experiment. I’ll wait for your reports.. I believe, this blog is a success in the making…
I\'m also curious, since I \"upgrated\" my blog to Do Follow myself.
I hope it (and think) that it doesn\'t effect your results much, so you can give my comment a dofollow quickly…(smile)
I’m also curious, since I “upgrated” my blog to Do Follow myself.
I hope it (and think) that it doesn’t effect your results much, so you can give my comment a dofollow quickly…(smile)
Thanks for dropping by, Edwin
At the time of this writing, all comments should be do-follow, and are likely to stay that way.
Thanks for dropping by, Edwin
At the time of this writing, all comments should be do-follow, and are likely to stay that way.
Hey thats great you have made it a do follow blog
But my question is always do u get quality comments ??
By this, will your pagerank increase ??? And if i comment these types of blog, then will my blog pagerank ang technorati rank will increase ??
Hope you will answer my question . Because I\'m thinking to turn my blog into a do-follow blog .
Hey thats great you have made it a do follow blog
But my question is always do u get quality comments ??
By this, will your pagerank increase ??? And if i comment these types of blog, then will my blog pagerank ang technorati rank will increase ??
Hope you will answer my question . Because I’m thinking to turn my blog into a do-follow blog .
>>But my question is always do u get quality comments ?? Not always, but I manually approve or decline each comment, so unless I\'m really tired, the garbage comments get tossed. When you, or anyone else, comments on my blog, it does little for my pagerank either way, but if your pagerank does benefit. Hope that answers your questions
>>But my question is always do u get quality comments ??
Not always, but I manually approve or decline each comment, so unless I’m really tired, the garbage comments get tossed. When you, or anyone else, comments on my blog, it does little for my pagerank either way, but if your pagerank does benefit. Hope that answers your questions
Hey thanks for using my image
Cool blog
Dori
No problem, it’s an awesome image
And thanks for releasing under a Creative Commons license