I’ve Changed The DoFollow Comment Policy
July 2nd, 2008 | 21 commentsNo, I’m not going back to nofollow, but I am tightening the ropes a bit. After my recent post explaining why you shouldn’t nofollow your comments, I actually started to look into it a bit more.
It may be a little hypocritical, but I’ve decided to raise the number of approved comments before dofollow is activated to 9 (previously 3.)
Why I Did It – Although I didn’t previously think the loads of dofollowed links in the comment field of posts were negatively affecting the authority of the blog, I’m starting to think they may actually be. Not so much the pagerank “leakage” because I’m fairly confident that my internal linking structure is maintaining most of it, but more with the linking out of low-quality sites!
So, for those of you who comment regularly you’ll be getting more authority through your comment links on this blog, but those who just drop by, leave a comment just to get a link then leave, yours will be nofollowed 
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2nd July, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Good thinking.
Like eveything else in life, jumping on & off anything is not rewarding. Now being consistent also applies to those who comment here.
Seems perfectly fair to me.
Sami
2nd July, 2008 at 7:47 pm
I’m not keeping track of the number of times I commented, as a matter of fact I don’t think about it much other than to comment on things of interest.
You put a lot of good stuff out Josh and we appreciate it.
Rich
2nd July, 2008 at 8:24 pm
I think its a good idea to set it quite high as it encourages readers to comment and puts of those looking for a quick backlink.
2nd July, 2008 at 9:41 pm
I’ve been wrestling with this issue of nofollow comments for my own blog, too. Thanks for being so open about it.
2nd July, 2008 at 10:57 pm
Interesting. I definitely enjoy your nofollow/follow posts.
I haven’t made the switch to DoFollow yet, but I have been considering it for a few of my sites.
3rd July, 2008 at 12:10 am
Makes sense.
But your lack of use of KeywordLuv does not.
Signed,
Chuck (the no-link commenter)
3rd July, 2008 at 4:08 am
So if I leave 9 comments in this thread?
No, I think this is a rather good idea … I enjoy visiting your blog and commenting, and prefer not to treat it as a “drive-by commenting”.
3rd July, 2008 at 3:22 pm
I’m thinking of switching my plugin to one of those. Which do you use Josh, Lucia’s?
3rd July, 2008 at 3:42 pm
@ Chuck – Well, hopefully people leave comments to add to the conversation and not to just get a link. This is why I raised the # to 9 in the first place
@ Dennis – Yep, I use LLL over at http://tinyurl.com/22q35g
3rd July, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Conversation is the first motivation for me, so this doesn’t impact me at all.
However, I agree it will encourages more active participants.
3rd July, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Thanks Josh. The one thing I don’t think i like is this, “Dofollows will not be added to comments left more than 14 days after you published your most recent post.”
What if legit readers/commenter’s go into your archives…which you do want them to do…and leave comments on older posts…which you also shouldn’t mind having.
4th July, 2008 at 5:09 am
Just subscribed here, looks like lots of good information.
Your do-follow policy is totally reasonable, while I reap the benefits on do-follows I enjoy commenting on helpful content and hopefully contributing something good back. I also comment on several no-follow blogs that give me invaluable information.
Thank you Josh.
4th July, 2008 at 4:18 pm
My only point is on KeywordLuv is…wouldn’t it be nice if Step-by-Step Affiliate Marketing Guides could use his real name (for the sake of community) and his unmolested anchor text (which still only validates if he reaches your target number)?
I’m obviously opposed to spam as well…but I’m sure Karyn would have preferred unmolested anchor text rather than “Cect 168 Phones from Karyn”…yet, she still wants you to know her name because she’s a person, not a phone…and you’d still like to know be able to address her by name as a participant in the conversation .
As I understand it, that’s ALL KeywordLuv does for you. It doesn’t remove no-follow…it doesn’t set the number of posts required…it simply reworks the Name field to break out the name from the anchor text.
Frankly, this seems to me like the way Wordpress should have built the damn thing in the first place…even WITH the no-follow attribute in place, it would be nice to know what I’m clicking on before I click on it (whether its a personal site, or a business site, or whatever).
Seems like a no-brainer to me. Then again, I’ve frequently been accused of having no brain myself…so it could be that I’m missing something obvious.
Chuck
(still the unlinked guy)
8th July, 2008 at 6:05 pm
josh, your policy is very good on the nofollow/dofollow.
i just read the $5formula. thanks for making that free. good information.
9th July, 2008 at 9:18 pm
I think this is a very good idea. Reward the regular readers/commenters and let the drive-by linkers just waste their time! I have been debating whether to dofollow some of my blogs or not and I think I will adopt a similar approach to you.
10th July, 2008 at 1:47 pm
@ Dennis Edell – That’s a good point. I believe Lucia added that thinking people would be digging in looking for posts with high PR to leave spam. I just looked in the plugin settings and didn’t see a way to change that so I’m going to have to have something tweak it for me. Thanks for letting me know about that.
@ Chuck – It does sound very good, but there are a few things I’m concerned with.
1. How will old comments look? They inserted their name or keyword into the comment field and I didn’t have KeywordLuv active, so will old comment name fields look the same or what?
2. I’m not sure if LLL will know what to do with it. If not, I would need to have either KeywordLuv or LLL hacked.
10th July, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Josh – please do some sort of follow-up on that tweak, I’d love to use Lucia’s if that part can be fixed.
Regarding CL & KWL working together…I have seen them work fine on several blogs, I have no idea though on if blog owners tweaked them or not.
If you contact Lucia about that too, please let us know
I’m assuming that actually is her name LOL
22nd July, 2008 at 12:22 pm
@ Dennis – All comments left by those with 9 or more will be followed, no matter when the post was written
16th September, 2008 at 6:06 am
Good call Josh!
One of the reasons blogs have become so cheesy is the garbage comments left simply for back links.
My blog requires about 10 comment post to keep the pro blog linkers at bay.
Paul
5th January, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Dennis Edell and Josh
A clarification (if I understand it on Lucia’s link) The fourteen days thingy shuts off all comments if Josh does not post for 14 days. Not on 14 day old posts.
If Josh deserts his blog it keeps it from becoming a link farm if he does not require moderator approval on comments.
Rick
27th April, 2009 at 3:26 pm
I like your approach. I run a few blogs and have been toying with the idea of making it do-follow. Currently it is set to its default no follow mode. One of the main issues preventing me from making my website do follow, is the potential problem with spam. I spend a lot of my time to ensure my website is professionally designed and content is well researched. However at the same time I feel like I am being a hypocrite by not making my website do-follow especially as I fully support the concept of sharing link juice provided someone has added value by their comment. I think your approach is fair and will help encourage participation as well as maintain quality.